Dan Gilbert Put LeBron In A 'Family Guy' Cartoon Making Fun Of Other NBA Teams As Part Of His Pitch To Keep Him In Cleveland
[Source] - For the presentation, Gilbert had commissioned a cartoon in the style of "Family Guy," James' favorite show at the time, that included crude jokes at the expense of other teams delivering pitches. There was a video built around James' connection to the community.
Yeah, there's a lot of Decision content because we're hitting the 10-year anniversary and with minimal sports on we're getting all breakdowns and shit. But this? This is the story I want to hear. Mostly because Dan Gilbert continues to be the most outrageous person in this entire scenario.
Yes, LeBron doing The Decision was insane. Yes, the recruiting pitches he, Bosh and Wade all had were something we really never heard about to that degree. And everything that went along with that. However, there was nothing more insane or fucking funnier than Gilbert dropping the letter in Comic Sans.
Just go Times New Roman my man. But now hearing this, Comic Sans makes more sense. The dude used Family Guy insulting other teams as part of his pitch? No wonder LeBron left Cleveland the first time. I don't even blame LeBron anymore for leaving after that. Especially when you compare what Pat Riley did in his meeting with Chris Bosh:
"Oh, yeah, Pat brought his rings out. It looked just like a Crown Royal bag," Bosh said. "He puts it down, like boom. Big boy talk. When he ended the meeting, Pat gave me a 2006 Heat championship ring."
"Take it. Keep it. Give it back to me when you win one," Riley said to Bosh.
"I still haven't given it back," Bosh said. "I wonder if he even remembers that? I think I mentioned it once, like, 'Yo, do you want that ring back?' And he said, 'What are you talking about?' And I kept it moving."
Who would you rather play for? The guy creating a Family Guy cartoon or the guy dropping rings out of a Crown Royal bag telling you to keep one until you actually win one? Sign me up for the guy that's actually successful at winning in basketball. Seems like that's just the smart thing to do vs the guy probably giggling in the corner at some lame joke making fun of the Bulls.
The biggest shock of this all though is the Knicks didn't do something like that. Granted, we had Donnie Walsh in the front office at the time, he probably made sure to not let James Dolan do stupid shit like this. But I could 100% see James Dolan talking about his band and putting LeBron in the band in a pitch.