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Shams Charania: Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and president of basketball operations Koby Altman spoke with Mitchell and Brown once the seven-time NBA All-Star was able to land a new extension, and reached terms quickly. All parties have been in lockstep on the future direction. Mitchell has played a significant part in the Cavaliers’ conversations to improve the roster, and supportive of the front office, and that has continued this summer.
Interviewer: How did two such strong personalities as Dan Gilbert—owner of the Cleveland Cavs, mega-billionaire, business owner, operator—and LeBron James have that kind of falling out and then make it work again? Dan Gilbert: Well, I flew to Miami, where he was with two or three of his advisers, and we had a couple-hour meeting. I think, at the end of the day, it was in both of our interests to do this because he wanted to come back. He wanted to come back home, and we’re the only place he could do that. And we definitely wanted him. We felt that it would work well. So I think if you’re both mutually on the same mission, it can work out.
Did you prep for going into that meeting? Did you have a sense of what you were going to say, or did you just play it? Dan Gilbert: I’m sure I prepped it a little bit. Interviewer: Did you apologize early on, or before the meeting? Dan Gilbert: About the letter? Interviewer: Yeah. Dan Gilbert: Yeah. I mean, I admitted that the letter was a stupid thing. And for me personally, at that time, if you Googled my name—I mean, I think I’ve done some other stuff in my career—and that would be the only thing that came up. That was embarrassing for me.
Dan Gilbert on fellow NBA owners: "I like the majority of them. There really are very few that I would say that I don't like. Most of them are pretty good guys, nice people."
Dan Gilbert: "David Stern was a phenomenal commissioner for 30 years. He built that league. But he too, he used to pick on Mark Cuban, he used to pick on me, he picked on the new guys."
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Interviewer: You wrote a very strongly worded letter. Dan Gilbert: Yes. Interviewer: I’m not going to make you read it. Dan Gilbert: No. Interviewer: But it talked about betrayal. Dan Gilbert: Well, what happened was, remember, he went on national television and did a show about where he was going to go play next. Interviewer: Yeah. Is that where you found out, though? Dan Gilbert: Yes. Interviewer: You found out when he announced it? Dan Gilbert: Yes. They never told us in advance. Interviewer: And so you were pissed. Dan Gilbert: Yeah, we were not happy with it. And I thought it kind of trolled the Cleveland fans, who I loved. My letter wasn’t to him. My letter was to the Cleveland fans. Interviewer: A letter to the fans. Dan Gilbert: Yeah. And it was stupid overall. If I had another shot at doing it, I would have toned it way down.
Interviewer: You gave him some heat. What were you thinking? Was that you doing it? Did some intern draft that letter? Dan Gilbert: I actually—you should have seen the first version. No, I’m kidding. Interviewer: Wait, did you have other people read this letter? Dan Gilbert: Yeah, I had one or two people, but they didn’t tell me what they should have told me. Interviewer: Who were the one or two people? Your brother? Dan Gilbert: No, one of the PR people. And I think maybe my ex-wife read it. Interviewer: Okay. So two people read it. Were you counseled not to put this letter out? Dan Gilbert: They brought it up. Like, “You may want to consider not doing it.” But I was in a state.
Well, the whole conversation around it was also around the font choice of the letter. Dan Gilbert: That was another thing. Interviewer: Comic Sans. Dan Gilbert: What was weird is that somebody on my team, just as a joke, I think the week or two before, changed my font to Comic Sans. Interviewer: What was your original font going to be? Dan Gilbert: Probably Times New Roman or something. So it wasn’t changed just for that letter. It was changed weeks ahead of that. Interviewer: So everything was changed? Dan Gilbert: Yes. Interviewer: Okay. So you’re not a Comic Sans enthusiast. Dan Gilbert: No. I got as much heat for that as I did for the whole letter. Interviewer: I know. Dan Gilbert: Next time I’m calling you.
How’s your relationship now with LeBron? You guys still— Dan Gilbert: I think it’s fine. We don’t see each other that much. He works in California. I work in Detroit and Cleveland. Interviewer: Yeah. Dan Gilbert: He came to a game or two last year. Interviewer: Was it hard for you to watch? In the game before the Eastern Conference Finals, it was— Dan Gilbert: Game seven. Interviewer: It was game seven, and it was the Cleveland Cavaliers— Dan Gilbert: And the Detroit Pistons. Interviewer: And you’re a Detroit guy. Dan Gilbert: That’s right. Interviewer: Was it a hard game for you? Dan Gilbert: It’s like if you had two kids playing each other in a basketball game or something. Interviewer: Yeah. Dan Gilbert: I mean, I would say the Pistons are my second-favorite team.
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Last year, Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert hired Allen & Company to explore selling up to 15% of his NBA franchise. Gilbert will retain his majority stake in the team he bought in 2005 for $375 million, which was a record at the time for a standalone NBA franchise. In December, Sportico valued the Cavs at $4.86 billion in its NBA team valuations, which ranks 16th in the league.
With a market valued at more than $90 billion annually, the sneaker industry has long moved beyond gear worn only by athletes on the court to everyday streetwear that can make — or break — your outfit. NBA games double as a footwear fashion shows. Who is wearing what becomes one of the biggest talking points each night for sneakerheads worldwide. It’s all part of the reason Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert’s foundation chipped in $10 million to help D'Wayne Edwards launch his vision of teaching sneaker design at an HBCU. “The culture around sneakers represents creativity, storytelling and self-expression,” Gilbert, who lives in Detroit, wrote in an email to The Athletic.
Dan Gilbert: We took a step ahead this spring, but we are nowhere near where we need to be. I can’t thank the fans enough for the support this year. We will dig in all summer and do everything we possibly can to take the next step. We will grind until we get there. Congrats to the @nyknicks , and best of luck in the Finals.
There are several titles that Dan Gilbert can go by: entrepreneur, philanthropist, billionaire, NBA team owner. But of all the titles, the one Gilbert’s most proud of is that of father. Gilbert, who is the Chairman of the Board of Rocket Companies and is the majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, has five children. His oldest son, Nick, died in 2023 after a long battle with neurofibromatosis, or NF, a rare disease that causes tumors to grow on nerve tissues. NF is one of the most prevalent rare genetic disorders in the U.S., impacting approximately 1 in every 2,000 births, or roughly 170,000 Americans. The condition can cause tumors to form anywhere on the nerves of patients at any point in their lives. There is no cure. Gilbert said his son Nick developed his first tumor shortly after he was born. “The first one was on his optic nerve, between his eye and his brain,” Gilbert said. “It wasn’t growing for the first five years, until he was close to six years old, and then it started growing.”