Dan Gilbert Sub-Speaks Micky Arison at Cavs Press Conference

Dan Gilbert is holding a press conference this afternoon — as of press time it’s still going on, and streaming here. As brought to light by 92.3 The Fan’s Anthony Lima, the Cavs owner was asked about whether the Cavs’ spending would be affected by the NBA’s luxury tax: “I almost think it’s kinda silly when you invest in so much into a franchise and have such high costs already,” Gilbert said. “[I’m] always a little surprised when owners of franchises stop right there…to me it’s like you’re getting to the 2 yard line and you’re done…it’s not smart business/smart financially.”

As Lima alluded to, the obvious implication here is that Gilbert was tacitly referring to when the Heat amnesty’ed Mike Miller, and purportedly ticked off LeBron. The comments can nonetheless refer to any number of Gilbert’s brethren in the NBA ownership club, so one would expect Gilbert to deny specificity if there’s any later follow-up to this.