It's not just Gilbert and the Cavs who are upset. The system the players agreed to put in place last time, with the teams that draft and develop players being able to offer those players more money and more years than any other team in order to maintain some sort of competitve balance, has been completely ignored by the players.

Last year, you had Bosh and James spurning their teams to go create their "superteam." On top of that, you had Carmelo holding the Nuggets hostage for half the season with his refusal to re-sign with them or accept a trade to anyone about the Knicks. In Utah, despite the other issues with Sloan, the team felt that they had zero chance at re-signing Williams and traded him for fifty cents on the dollar. Before that, the Lakers were able to grab Pau Gasol for a rusty bag of hammers because Memphis could no longer afford him. Amidst all of this, there are players publicly declaring their plans to create their own Big Three in New York, following the 2010 summer and Boston's creation of one in 2008.

As much as this going to shock homers like Bill Simmons and Dan le ****, there are very few fans whose passion for watching basketball is greater than their passion for following their local team. Fans in Indiana, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Charlotte, Detroit and so on and so forth are not going to pony up cash for season tickets when they know the best their team can do is a first-round playoff loss. And even though most owners own franchises as a vanity thing more so than as a business venture, they're not going to continue to operate at a huge loss so that three or four teams are guaranteed the next ten titles; they want their chance too.

The players are the ones who are hurting the league. Yes, they're entitled to do what they want as far as seeking new contracts and are under no duty to remain loyal, but they also must recognize their actions have consequences. They agreed to the last system and then crapped all over it. It shouldn't be a shock that the owners have a problem with this.