Dan Gilbert Is Giving Championship Rings To More Than 1,000 Employees Of The Cavs And Quicken Loans Arena
Cleveland.com- From LeBron James down to the guy who sold you a hot dog on a Wednesday night at The Q, the entire Cavaliers’ family is getting a 2016 NBA championship ring. Majority owner Dan Gilbert and his partners decided to present rings to more than 1,000 full and part-time employees throughout the Cavaliers and Quicken Loans Arena organization, employees who’ve been fitted for rings told cleveland.com.
A spokesman for the Cavs confirmed the information but declined to comment. Of course, not every team employee will get the same, diamond crusted ring that’s going to rest on the fingers of James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and other players from last season, but ticket takers, seat ushers, security guards, Cleveland police officers and all who work behind the scenes at home games will be able to say they won a ring. And they’ll have proof.
Employees learned about the rings earlier this month at something called the “Spectaculars,” a company-wide (Cavs, Monsters, Quicken Loans Arena) yearly meeting and employee-recognition event. The gesture extends to workers for Aramark, the contractor that supplies food-service workers for Cavs and Monsters home games. A conservative cost for distributing rings to employees is more than $1 million.
The Cavs declined to say whether or not former coach David Blatt — who was fired in January — or former center Anderson Varejao (traded in February) were getting rings. But Gilbert is obviously in a mood to be inclusive. Varejao, who played for the Warriors against the Cavs in the Finals, told reporters out West the Cavs had offered him a ring. Anderson, who played for Cleveland from 2004-16, said he was unsure if he would accept.
Who would have thought that being a janitor or slinging hot dogs in Cleveland could actually be a lucrative profession? Score one for the common men. But let me just say this. Every single person that receives a championship ring (including LeBron) better take it to a jeweler and make sure that those diamonds aren’t some of the best cubic zirconias on the planet. Because I don’t trust Dan Gilbert as far as I can throw him. Partially because he just seems like a sheisty dude, partially because he used Comic Sans in that spiteful letter to LeBron. Which is partially why I think the over/under for how long it takes for one of these rings to be listed on eBay is 2 milliseconds after they are handed out to everyone. And if David Blatt or Anderson Varejao accept rings, they might as well just chop their balls off at the same time. That is the ultimate example of accepting defeat.
P.S. I scoured that article three times and still no word on if PFT Commenter is getting a ring despite his wallet being the spark that ignited the championship fire in the Cavs. Shameful shit out of the Q.
h/t Rini