LeBron James Disses Dan Gilbert in GQ Magazine

LeBron James recently did an interview with GQ Magazine, during which he chose to be brutally honest about Dan Gilbert, one of the owners of the Cavaliers who wrote a public letter chastising James for his decision to leave the city.

In the interview, James said "I don't think he ever cared about LeBron...My mother always told me: 'You will see the light of people when they hit adversity. You'll get a good sense of their character.' Me and my family have seen the character of that man."

Gilbert, in his letter, said that James' decision to leave Cleveland was "a shameful display of selfish betrayal." He also accused James of giving up during the playoffs.

LeBron made it clear that he always gave 100 percent to the Cavs. He also said that he doesn't regret his one hour televised show called "The Decision," which was watched by 10 million people. The event raised $2.5 million for Boys & Girls Clubs.

I was personally glad to see LeBron go to GQ to set the record straight. He didn't deserve the reaction he got from Dan Gilbert, and he's nowhere near being anyone's sports villain. In fact, he doesn't deserve any of this.

Dan Gilbert will pay a price for his public attack on James. No solid player with options is going to ever consider coming to Cleveland. Also, I suspect that Gilbert's promise that Cleveland will win a title before LeBron is both reckless and incorrect. LeBron is in this game to win championships, and Dan Gilbert is simply determined to embarrass himself.

On another level, I was surprised to see the criticism of James' decision coming from the likes of Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan. Jordan, Barkley and others seem offended that James would actually work together with Bosh and Wade to achieve his objectives, rather than spend his time fighting with them. But that's the difference between James, Jordan and Barkley. Barkley and Jordan are two men who've both had messy, complex and counter productive personal lives, all driven by an addiction to excessive, narcissistic behavior. Perhaps black men learning to work together rather than apart will allow us to rise in power as oppose to spending our times learning to destroy one another. When Bosh, Wade and James agreed to negotiate as a unit, they obtained power and leverage that allowed them to go head-to-head with team ownership. Jordan found himself consistently disrespected by Chicago's owners during his time as a Bull.

I, for one, applaud LeBron's move to Miami, and I also applaud LeBron James. But it is only by winning a title that he can make the haters sit down and shut up. That's exactly what he's going to do.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.