Born Here. Raised Here. Played Here. Betrayed Here.

Wait, don’t leave my blog post just yet! Don’t let the title fool you!

I know what you’re thinking: Melissa, I don’t care about Le-you-know-who! I’m so mad about what he did!

I’m not going to talk about someones “talents” going to South Beach. I’m not going to talk about how betrayed I feel as a Cavs fan. I’m not going to talk about how mad I am that someone went on national television just to boost their ego in a one hour “special”. I’m not going to talk about the fact I’m not mad that someone left, I’m mad about how someone went about announcing it. I’m not going to talk about how someone possibly threw the playoffs.

Above, are things I’m not going to talk about 🙂

Chris Grant’s Statement

After a one hour “special” to break Cleveland’s heart, the Cavs responded quickly. General Manager Chris Grant issued a statement on the Cavs website:

“We believe in this team, this organization, this community, and what we will do to compete at the highest level. We believe in the new coach and leader we have in Byron Scott, and the world class basketball organization and positive and strong culture we’ve established. Dan Gilbert and our ownership group are firmly committed to reaching our goals and succeeding on the court and in the community, at the highest level.”

“Our fans stepped up and showed their support, to a degree unlike anywhere else. We are fortunate to have the support of the best fans in the NBA. That passion and dedication will be rewarded. We will work relentlessly to continue to build a team that will contend. A team that will win championships. We are all competitors and our one goal is to win, that and Dan Gilbert and our ownership team’s commitment and investment in this organization and community are constants that will not change.”

This statement was 100% appropriate. It was issued in the correct manner, at the correct time.

Dan Gilbert’s Letter

The statement heard around the world is more like it! Dan Gilbert decided to write a letter to Cleveland.

When I first saw it, I thought it was fake! I had to check the Cavs homepage a couple of times to believe that the letter was real. (I also did a screen shot so I’d have the letter just in case it got taken down) Did I mention that the entire letter was in Comic Sans font? It was like a 13 year old girl was writing it! Lots of bold, capital letters and quotation marks, too.

Here’s a little snippet of what Gilbert said after someones decision:

Gilbert also made a big statement in the letter: “I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVILERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE.”

My PeRspective

I love my Cleveland Cavaliers. I will continue to go to games at The Q. I will continue to wear my Cavs gear and smile. I will watch the Cavs when they are televised.

I thought the statement issued by the GM was very classy. He issued a statement to try and reassure fans that it will be okay. It was the right thing to do. He didn’t say anything in the statement that could come back and hurt the organization.

Now, the statement issued by Gilbert……… You have to love his intensity. I truly believe that he meant well by issuing that letter. I love his passion, it jumps off the page. I think he was trying to channel the anger that fans had into positive energy towards the Cavs team next season. I think he wanted everyone to forget about what just happened and keep in a positive mindset with what the Cavs are capable of. Promising a championship…I’ll let that one go.

I think Gilbert could have toned down certain areas of his letter. Maybe he needed to make a draft, sleep on it, then come back and see what he thought. (I would love to see what the original draft looked like). Many people have been reacting to this letter. I don’t think this letter will have a negative impact on the Cavs. If you’re a Cavs fan, you’re still going to buy tickets after reading this letter.

I do believe some parts of the letter were appropriate. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t pumped after reading it. Dan Gilbert got me excited. He made me start to get excited for the things that are to come. I just hope that people aren’t actually offended after reading this letter. If they are, they need to step back and take a look at the entire situation. I’m sure most of us would act irrationally in Gilbert’s situation. I’m looking forward to all of the details coming out about what else fueled the writing of the letter.

If you take anything away from Gilbert’s letter, make sure it’s this:

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Does March Madness Belong At The Workplace?

It’s that time of year again.  No, I’m not talking about Christmas. It’s NCAA March Madness time! (Which is just as exciting as Christmas).

If you’re like me, you look forward to this time of year. I cheer for my favorite team and always have something to watch. I even won a pool last year! No, I didn’t pick teams because of their pretty colors or cute and fuzzy mascot.

This years games start on Thursday, March 19. Some people have jobs which you would think would get in the way of their basketball viewing. Wrong! Thanks to our friends at CBSSports.com games are streamed live for all to watch.

I know what you’re thinking. “Wow Melissa! Isn’t it unethical to watch games while you’re at work?” Why, yes. I do believe so. It’s very unethical. What do you think?

The Facts

CBS has been streaming games on-line since 2003 when it was a pay-per-view format. They continued to charge viewers until 2005. In 2005, they earned about $250,000 in revenue. That’s a lot of money to watch college hoops!

In 2007 the site became free to watch your favorite college hoop-stars. March Madness On-Demand was estimated to make more than $21 million in total revenue based on its free, ad-supported model.

By the Numbers

It’s amazing how many people watch on-line.

• In 2007, nearly 1.4 million unique viewers watched an average of 1.9 hours of live video.
• In 2008, the number of unique viewers grew 164% to 4.8 million. Views grew 81% to  5 million hours.

For 2009, unique viewers are estimated to grow 50% to 7.2 million. Holy crap! Don’t you think that’s a very high amount of viewers?

The Boss Button

Oh the Boss Button. Now talk about unethical. To be honest, it’s exactly what it sounds like.

Say you’re at work , trying to be sneaky, and you’re watching a March Madness game on your computer. Then, all of a sudden a co-worker or your boss (gasp!) starts walking towards you. Oh, no! What are you going to do?

Don’t worry my basketball loving friend. CBS has got you covered. All you do is click the Boss Button that is provided. Once you click, a spreadsheet pops up on your screen and the game, including the sound, is gone. Hopefully no one looks close because the spreadsheet is the statistics for how much food is consumed during March Madness.

There was a record 2.5 million-plus clicks last year. Want to know what’s worse? This year the button has a sponsor: Comcast. So now it seems like Comcast is okay with you being sneaky and not doing your work while you’re being paid to be at work!

Ethics Lesson

To me, you shouldn’t be sneaking around at work watching basketball. If you are watching the games and have the sound off or hit the Boss Button, that should tell you that you’re doing something wrong! It’s okay to pull up the sports page every once in a while to check a score or two.

An estimated $1.7 to $3.4 billion in lost productivity during this years tournament. That sounds extreme but you never know. Some companies have even blocked CBSSports.com to make sure its employees stay on track.

With 60 million Americans identifying themselves as college basketball fans, it makes me worry. Will all 60 million somehow be deceitful and watch behind their boss’s back? When it comes to ethics you need to ask yourself: Is is really worth getting fired over?

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