Jesse Jackson is a Clown and Needs to Stop Already

[Archie Moses]

Seriously?

CHICAGO -- Jesse Jackson criticized Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert on Sunday, saying Gilbert sees LeBron James as a "runaway slave" and that the owner's comments after the free-agent forward decided to join the Miami Heat put the player in danger.

“

Jackson His feelings of betrayal personify a slave master mentality. He sees LeBron as a runaway slave. This is an owner employee relationship -- between business partners -- and LeBron honored his contract.
” -- Rev. Jesse Jackson on Cavs owner Dan Gilbert's comments about LeBron James

Shortly after James announced his decision last week, Gilbert fired off an incendiary letter to Cleveland's fans, ripping the 25-year-old and promising to deliver a title before James wins one. He called James' decision "cowardly" and later told The Associated Press he believes James quit during a handful of Cavaliers playoff games.

"He has gotten a free pass," Gilbert told the AP in a phone interview late Thursday night. "People have covered up for [James] for way too long. Tonight we saw who he really is."

Jackson said Gilbert's comments were "mean, arrogant and presumptuous."

"He speaks as an owner of LeBron and not the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers," the reverend said in a release from his Chicago-based civil rights group, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. "His feelings of betrayal personify a slave master mentality. He sees LeBron as a runaway slave. This is an owner employee relationship -- between business partners -- and LeBron honored his contract."

Messages were left Sunday night seeking comment from Gilbert, the Cavaliers and James.

Jackson also called Gilbert's comments an attack on all NBA players and said the owner should face a "challenge" from the league and the players' association.

NBA spokesman Tim Frank declined comment.

 

[TroutBum]

LOL, minorities.

 

[sirkickyass]

I think it's pretty clear that Jackson doesn't understand the full situation.

 

[VINYLONE]

Um, please stop guys. Please.

 

[Archie Moses]

Um, please stop guys. Please.

Stop what? Can you please explain, guy?

 

[carolinajazz]

...I'm siding with Jackson on this one. Lebron honored his contract.....and then moved on. What's the problem with that? It's a free country. He didn't try to renegotiate his contract and then skip out....he honored it and left, fair and square!

 

[Stifle Tower]

...I'm siding with Jackson on this one. Lebron honored his contract.....and then moved on. What's the problem with that? It's a free country. He didn't try to renegotiate his contract and then skip out....he honored it and left, fair and square!

True. But Lebron did appear to just give up in some of the playoff games. I think that's what really pissed off Gilbert. Also the circus surrounding LBJ's decision. Lebron could have manned up and told Gilbert last week he was not coming back.
But for Jackson to bring slavery into this...c'mon. Plenty of people leave an employer and go to a competitor. And the ex-employee is often blasted for the decision. We only hear about it if a lawsuit takes place or the company is of general interest to the public. Case in point: look a the hatred that existed between Larry H. and Checketts. Miller felt betrayed when Checketts went to NY and tried to destroy him at every turn when he came back to SLC.

 

[Archie Moses]

Dude, I have no problem if the ludicrous and adulterer Jesse Jackson said that Gilberts comments were tasteless and classless, but the mormon pulls the race card and likens a multi-millionaire to a slave. Seriously? Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton do more hurt than they do good to eliminate racism imo.

 

[richgates]

I agree that LeBron fulfilled his contract and had every right to leave Cleveland. However, Dan Gilbert has some valid complaints and the spectacle that was "The Decision" was a slap in the face for the people of Cleveland. I thought the letter was over the top, but it was from a deeply passionate owner who decided to let the world know exactly how he was feeling. He probably should have taken a little time before releasing that letter. That doesn't excuse Jesse Jackson playing the race card. I am disgusted by the comparison.

 

[TheMulletMutilator]

LeBron made the decisions which was his right. He did it in an unclassy manner but oh well. The point is that these guys like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson will be out there making mountains out of mole hills because they NEED attention.

 

[carolinajazz]

...still seems to me that jackson had a point.....gilbert was looking at Lebron as a piece of property...HIS property! Fact is both players and owners are ridiculously greedy and selfish in many ways.....and I, for one, as you already know, am looking forward to LOCKOUT 2011! Both will suffer and us fans can sit back and criticize for a whole year! Oh, we do that know, don't we?!!!

 

[Hopper]

Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton do more hurt than they do good to eliminate racism imo.

Well, other than negotiate, what can ya do with terrorists?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5ZQXaXmCW4

 

[One Brow]

Jackson may be misinterpreting Gilbert's despair as an attitude of ownership. Cleveland in general seems to get quite emotional whenm free agents leave.

However, I don't see any evidence Jackson is wrong, either.

 

[sirkickyass]

I think phrasing the relationship purely in contractual terms is misguided. For example, it's relatively clear that LeBron's short-term desires were pretty fundamental in shaping the Cavaliers' roster over the last few seasons all in an effort to keep him happy and his team competitive. Those short-term moves ended up harming Cleveland in the medium-to-long term. To be clear, giving Lebron that kind of control wasn't contractually mandated, but Gilbert did it anyway.

Similarly Lebron behaved extremely cavalierly (if you'll pardon the pun) with an organization that had gone out of its way and beyond its contractual duties to keep him happy. It's frankly not unreasonable to feel as if you've been slighted when you go beyond the terms of your contractual relationship and the party that benefitted from your extra efforts feels no need to perform anything beyond the confines of his narrow legal duties. What you saw from Gilbert was, in part, an emotional reaction to the unequal nature with which the parties dealt with one another. Furthermore there does appear to be some evidence that Lebron has known he was probably going to leave for years. If he knew that and allowed Cleveland to go to the ends of the earth on his behalf in order to keep him, then he frankly wasn't being straight with the organization. Add in the one-hour special and you've got a situation where one person really ****ed the other.

So yes, Jesse Jackson's entire framing of the issue has it wrong entirely.

 

[Hopper]

However, I don't see any evidence Jackson is wrong, either.

Care to comment on Whitlock's assessment of Jackson's motivations, tactics, and regard for truth, Eric?

 

[One Brow]

Furthermore there does appear to be some evidence that Lebron has known he was probably going to leave for years. If he knew that and allowed Cleveland to go to the ends of the earth on his behalf in order to keep him, then he frankly wasn't being straight with the organization.

So, when you allow your current empolyer to give their best effort to keep you even though you are dubious at the possibility, but decide that ultimately it still was not good enough, you are being duplicitous? Or, is it that Gilbert was so incompetant that he didn't realize James was probably despite all the press on that through these last years?

 

[One Brow]

Care to comment on Whitlock's assessment of Jackson's motivations, tactics, and regard for truth, Eric?

Does his assessment have any bearing on whether Jackson is right or wrong about this occasion, or is jackson wrong simply because he is Jesse Jackson?

 

[Hopper]

Does his assessment have any bearing on whether Jackson is right or wrong about this occasion, or is jackson wrong simply because he is Jesse Jackson?

Well, I spoze that depends on whether you take his assessment to be accurate, eh, Eric? As I hear it, Whitlock accuses Jackson of bein a "terrorist" who runs around startin fires and tryin to stir up racial discord, without an adequate basis, and then refuses to apologize or acknowledge that he was wrong--all for the purpose of "linin his own pockets."

 

[Hopper]

However, I don't see any evidence Jackson is wrong, either.

Jackson's claim is that "He sees LeBron as a runaway slave." Runaway slave, eh?

How Gilbert "sees" James is, I suppose, ultimately known only to Gilbert.

But the suggestion here from Jackson attempts to portray Gilbert as a racist slave-owner. Does he have any direct evidence of this? Of course not.

I can say any one of millions of provocative and insulting, yet unverifiable, things pertaining to another's unknowable state of mind and there will be no (direct, conclusive) evidence that I'm wrong.

And that would prove......what, exactly?

 

[One Brow]

But the suggestion here from Jackson attempts to portray Gilbert as a racist slave-owner.

I didn't see in the quote within this thread where Jackson brought up race at all. Is every reference to slavery a racial reference? I still don't see any relevance by anything Whitlock may have said to accurate *this* assessment appears to be.

Gilbert seems to have reacted as if James were obligated in some fashion to sign for the Cavaliers. That is certainly some type of ownership mentality.