Adrian Wojnarowski from Yahoo! Sports is no fan of LeBron James. He has made that clear with some scathing articles on LeBron and his posse over the past several weeks. His criticisms are often legitimate, as LeBron has shown that he’s a spoiled egomaniac who crumbled under the pressure this year in the playoffs.
That said, LeBron is one of the most significant talents in NBA history. Whether he achieves the highest levels of greatness remains to be seen, but we all know the NBA is built around star players, and LeBron still has the potential to grow up and become one of the greats.
With that in mind, here’s Adrian’s take on the Danny Ferry situation.
What’s been lost for the Cavaliers is the strong, steady leadership they had with Ferry and coach Mike Brown. Gilbert was honest with Ferry: He wanted to take back control and involve himself with everything again. Before Ferry was hired as GM, it wasn’t uncommon for Gilbert to pass notes to the bench for substitutions he wanted Paul Silas to make. Ferry had come out of San Antonio, and believed an orderly structure made for successful, winning organizations.
“LeBron never had to come out and say that he wanted Brown and Ferry gone,” one front-office executive familiar with the Cavs’ dynamic said. “But the anti-Brown and anti-Ferry sentiment from LeBron’s crowd was loud and clear to Dan Gilbert. He knew where LeBron stood.”
Ferry convinced Gilbert to step back, let him do his job. But more and more, the owner’s impulsive need to inject himself into everything took over the franchise. Most of all, Gilbert had become the biggest enabler of LeBron James and his inner circle, and that only promises to get worse. Ferry never loved the players’ pregame skits, the hiring of James’ buddies, the associates’ riding on the team plane, but Gilbert seldom said no to anything. He behaved like the permissive parent who believed his kid would love him more if he spoiled him rotten. And it got the Cavs a superstar, James, who never respected anyone and a cast of associates who had the run of the place. Had James wanted Ferry to still be the GM, Gilbert would’ve backed down and Ferry would have a new contract.
“Danny’s been miserable for the past two years,” a friend of his told Yahoo! Sports. “Even if they kept LeBron, do you still lose for winning there anyway?”
Ferry fought to retain Brown, but Gilbert, a staunch Michigan State man, is determined to hire away Tom Izzo. Unless James tells him he wants John Calipari, and then they’ll hire John Calipari. As much as anything, the Cavaliers are giving the franchise completely over to James and his inner circle now. Whatever he wants to stay, he’ll get. Now, Ferry isn’t there to play the wet blanket anymore. He never feared fighting Gilbert on issues because he had stature, money and, truth be told, he didn’t need the job.
I think he’s being too tough on Dan Gilbert. Has Gilbert enabled LeBron, his ego and his posse? Of course he has, but you have little choice in the NBA to do that with a star of LeBron’s caliber. Ferry may not have liked it, but the San Antonio model is tough to replicate entirely – they have a superstar who doesn’t have much of an ego. That’s very rare.
What Adrian doesn’t address is that Mike Brown was LeBron’s biggest enabler. Sure, he turned LeBron into a defensive player, but he had little control over LeBron during the games. He never disciplined LeBron for taking idiotic 3-pointers at critical points in the game without setting up the offense. LeBron ran the show, so the decision to get a new coach is one of the few things Gilbert could do to possibly control LeBron. Also, Brown’s performance in the playoffs was terrible this year. If Ferry was going to side with Brown, I don’t blame Gilbert for moving on.
Also, an owner who invests this much money has to have a team approach to the roster. He is putting up millions to get over the hump, and a GM needs to be on board with that. Ferry’s notion of total control make little sense in a setting where Gilbert is paying huge amounts in luxury tax money.
In the end, Gilbert is doing the right thing in trying to keep LeBron. Brown and Ferry are dispensable.
