While many of us couldn’t have cared less about LeBron James going to the Miami Heat to play basketball, one person couldn’t help but stir the controversy a little more for Cleveland basketball fans.

Jesse Jackson, in a press release sent from his Rainbow PUSH Coalition, blasted Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert for his tirade about James’ departure from Cleveland.

In the statement released to the Associated Press, Jackson called the owner of the Cavaliers a “slave master,” adding, “He (Gilbert) speaks as an owner of LeBron, and not the Cavaliers ... His feelings of betrayal personify a slave master mentality. He sees LeBron as a runaway slave. This is an owner employee relationship between business partners and LeBron honored his contract.”

There are three things wrong with this statement by Jackson. Number one: Dan Gilbert is far from a slave master.

If anything, the owners of professional sports teams are slaves to their players. When you have a superstar like James, for example, you expect certain things of these players, and the players have expectations of their ownership.

The players hold the owners hostage in a sense by demanding larger contracts, holding out, taking games off, or demanding a trade.

I’m not saying that Dan Gilbert was right in the way that he handled the situation with James, but you have to understand the city of Cleveland is devastated by this announcement.

James had teams fly in to Cleveland, and even said that the Cavs had a leg up in the negotiations.

But he made all of these teams wait and announced his decision on ESPN.

That is what enraged Gilbert so much and caused him to send that e-mail.

He is just trying to rally his troops, so to speak, around their Cavaliers.

The second thing that is wrong with Jackson’s statement is that it brings the race card into play, and it doesn’t have a place in the professional sports world.

LeBron James is a multimillionaire and doesn’t need Jesse Jackson to defend him. Neither does any other professional athlete.

The third problem is that Jackson may have forgotten what his supposed role in a community is: As a civil rights leader.

As I see it, his main role is to help the impoverished people of the nation — not to defend a multimillion-dollar marketing machine.

Jackson has once again shifted the spotlight off the major issue, and put it in a place it doesn’t need to be: On him.

The major issue here is the economy in Cleveland, and how it will be affected by James’ departure.

Jackson should focus on things that will actually help people.

LeBron James is 25. He’s more than old enough to fight his own battles.

Contact sports reporter Travis Anderson at 997-3111 ext. 44 or via e-mail at tanderson@yourdailyjournal.com