LeBron James had trouble forgiving Dan Gilbert for his 2010 letter

The Cleveland Cavaliers have found a way to get LeBron James back and that’s something that has made fans all over Ohio happy about basketball again. But while LeBron is back four years after he left, he nearly decided not to come thanks to that letter owner Dan Gilbert wrote that vomited his hurt feelings all over LeBron James.

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According to USA Today’s Sam Amick, the scathing and at times juvenile letter that Gilbert wrote when LeBron left in 2010 was something that the superstar had a hard time getting over this week before deciding to come back and return home to the Cavaliers.

"He had wrestled with this idea of going back to Cleveland for years now, but even near the end, the prospect of forgiving and forgetting the classless way that Gilbert had said goodbye was something James had trouble reconciling. Yet as James knew better than anyone, it was his heavily-criticized announcement on The Decision show that set this terrible tone. Thus, he was finally ready to make amends."

Obviously, LeBron chose to be a bigger man than Gilbert and forgive him and it’s been clear since he arrived in Cleveland back in 2003 that he was playing for the fans and not the owner. That will continue to be the case as there may be no forgiving Gilbert completely for what he said, but it’s apparent that by-gones are by-gones as LeBron is back in Cleveland despite his hurt feelings over the 2010 letter.