Cleveland Cavaliers Owner Dan Gilbert To Investigate LeBron Decision: Why Now?

According to Yahoo! Sports, Cleveland Cavaliers Owner Dan Gilbert has hired a law firm to look into LeBron James' decision to sign with the Miami Heat and play with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh this offseason.

My question to Gilbert is, why ask the question now?

Speculation that the Miami trio had decided to go to Miami up to three years ago started as soon as the decision happened.

People looked at the fact that all three had played with each other in the 2006 FIBA World Championships and then signed extensions that lasted through last season.

There were whispers that Pat Riley had gotten a bit too chummy with LeBron, and that some people in the Miami organization had secretly recruited James.

There has been ample time for Gilbert to look into this legally, he even could have filed a grievance with the league to look into it, as the little evidence that was around was still enough to merit at least a peek into the idea.

But Gilbert looked like he would take the high road, as he decided to "trade" James for a bucket of peanuts and some draft picks, a fine consolation prize that would at least help his team in the long run, rather than take a long and drawn out investigation into the season.

Now, however, it seems that he has brought up the idea yet again, just as everyone, including the people of Cleveland were starting to get over the move.

Clevelanders don't have a huge problem with the fact that he left, they realize that there are greener pastures elsewhere, but they do take offense with people dragging down their city, as LeBron did in the process of "The Decision".

Clevelanders went on to expel all traces of LeBron from their city, and started the process of moving on, a process that would be another step toward over with the confrontation on Thursday night.

But now, Gilbert has reopened old wounds that were just starting to heal, and is forcing the people of Cleveland to look back at what happened in the days leading up to LeBron's show and the years before it.

This investigation that Gilbert is financing with his own money shows that Gilbert is clearly not ready to move on, and has defaming James high on his to-do list.

I defended the guy and his letter to the fans after "The Decision", I defended the guy after people said he was too cheap to get LeBron the players necessary to win in Cleveland, but this is a move that I cannot defend.

If it comes out that James was meeting with Pat Riley in years prior to his free agency, then what?

It doesn't much change the prescription of James in the public, and it won't put him back in a Cleveland uniform.

If anything it gets Riley in more trouble than James, and the people of Cleveland don't care about Riley, if anything they'll look at him as a thrifty business man and a cunning man.

Most importantly, it does nothing toward winning a championship before James, as was stated as his main goal in days following James' departure.

It seems more like a personal vendetta from a man that feels personally burned by a fellow multi-millionaire.

As an owner of an NBA team, it's time to move on, and it's time to focus on winning, not taking James down another notch.