Dan Gilbert

[Mack North]

What is your opinion of Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert?

I, for one, call him a rat face POS. The most two-faced of all the two-faced. He is so lucky that Bron is coming back, and to a team that "lucked out" and got 3 of 4 first overall picks when LBJ left 4 years ago. I really believe that Lebron doesn't care who he is playing for, he knows he is going to make that team super dough. He knew that he wants to spend the rest of his life in crusty ass Northern Ohio, so why not do it now while the have all the assets to make themselves viable.

Back to rat-face, he is scum. Quick to dismiss, yet easy to pucker those lips up for some ass kissing.

[enlightenment]

He comes off as immature and incompetent.

[Apollo]

LeBron is back there for himself and his community.

[BobLoblaw]

Of course he's two faced, and it works for him. He's made billions by winning public bids for real estate development. He can tell a tale, and he knows how to look likable to people.

Many NBA owners are two faced. The Nets owner helped Putin win Russia's elections... by being a presidential candidate against Putin and dividing oposition. Now that's two faced.

But you know, in the end two faced is better than Donald Sterling. LeBron knows that Dan Gilbert won't say anything while LeBron's there, and he also knows that Gilbert has a lot of money and he's willing to spend it on the team. That's all that matters to LeBron.

[Bendit]

Dont really know too much about the guy but he is a pretty good businessman...he owns Rock Financial which is the entity owning Quicken Loans the largest online mortagage lending firm I believe. Not sure but if he is in the mortgage business these days (and his base is depressed areas...think Detroit and Cleveland) then I would think his strategy is to take advantage of the decimation of the housing market and make a very large bet on the resuscitation of that market.

There is an angle being peddled that he has an altruistic streak in him re such areas (especially Cleveland and Ohio in general) and felt very strongly that when LBJ left he in effect abandoned the area and put a dent in Gilbert's vision of uplifting the city by winning a championship....hence the acrimonious letter etc. ...the way he did it was secondary apparently. Bringing him back feeds into the narrative that the uplifting project for depressed Cleveland is back on track. And all is well.

Maybe they make a movie of this.

[BobLoblaw]

He's a billionaire and an NBA owner. That means he's a fantastic businessman.

I don't know about the altruistic streak. But I don't know too much about him either. It sounds like a great public image to have in his line of business, though. I know he's building two huge casinos in Ohio, and he has exclusive gambling rights in those two cities (Cleveland and Cincinnati). I heard he's won a recent major redevelopment project in Detroit, but what I understood is that he used legal leverage to win it, there were more lucrative bids there. I never got an impression that these are altruistic projects. But of course all major redevelopment projects get proposed and sold by stressing their value to community. "I want to build a casino. I need exclusive gambling rights. It will be a major boost to Cleveland's urban center. It will also mean that people from Ohio will spend their gambling money in Ohio instead of going to Las Vegas. #ilovecleveland"

I think he's a very smart businessman who knows how to maintain a great image. He might be a nice enough guy too, who knows. It's hard to tell where PR ends and a person starts.

[Apollo]

And to be fair, LeBron didn't handle himself any better. They're a match made in heaven.