Our take on Reghi's Dismissal

We promise this will be the end of the Michael Reghi talk...

This isn't Ohio Media Watch, and we couldn't dream of doing a better job of covering the Cleveland media than our friends at OMW already do. From here on out we'll try to stick to sports...

With that being said, the Cavaliers "firing" of Michael Reghi is absolutely ridiculous and inexcusable.

Reghi is widely considered one of the best play-by-play men in the entire NBA. His work with FSN Ohio and WUAB broadcasting Cavaliers games was held in such high regard that he was frequently asked to contribute to NBA TV.

As we initially reported, Reghi's dismissal was an order that came straight from the office of Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert.

We're not sure what disappoints us more: the knowledge that Reghi will no longer be calling Cavaliers games or the knowledge that Dan Gilbert obviously is not nearly as intelligent and "hands off" as we had initially thought.

When Gilbert took over the reigns of the Cavaliers in the spring of 2005, many compared him to the controversial owner of the Washington Redskins, Daniel Snyder.

Since his tenure as majority owner began, the prevailing concern amongst fans and media alike was the idea that Gilbert couldn't keep himself out of matters that shouldn't involve him. (Such concerns began to surface when Gilbert reportedly ordered then-coach Paul Silas to give forward Anderson Varajao more playing time.)

His firing of Paul Silas did nothing to squash these concerns.

His hot pursuit of Pistons coach Larry Brown scared Cavaliers fans even more.

Through all of this, we supported Gilbert. While hosting the morning show on sportstalkcleveland.com, we were one of the few voices in the Cleveland sports scene pleading with fans to give Gilbert a chance.

We believed his hiring of Mike Brown proved us correct.

We felt even better after he brought in Danny Ferry.

After an entire season of Gilbert sitting on the sidelines letting Brown and Ferry do their jobs, we believed that any prior concerns were rendered unnecessary.

Now, after the dismissal of Michael Reghi, we're not so sure about Dan Gilbert.

This was an instance of Dan Gilbert sticking his fingers where they didn't belong. He saw an opportunity to bring another one of his Detroit boys to Cleveland and continue to build "The Pistons - South."

As we initially reported, Gilbert and McLeod are friends from the days when Gilbert interned under McLeod at a television station in Detroit.

Utterly disgusting.

Dan Gilbert needs to learn how to build a successful franchise on his own. The people in Cleveland want nothing to do with the Pistons, their philosophies, gimmicks, or broadcasters that come from Detroit.

In the meantime, Fred McLeod now takes the reigns as the television voice of the Cavaliers. While we would certainly support any grass-roots effort to pressure the organization into rehiring Reghi, we doubt that any such efforts would be fruitful.

In that event, we all owe McLeod an opportunity to impress and make Cleveland his new home.

But we don't have to be pleased with the actions of Dan Gilbert...

IN RELATED REGHI NEWS:

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that Reghi will be a part of the Cleveland Browns coverage on FSN Ohio that was announced earlier today.

He is expected to host FSN Ohio's new nightly training camp show from Berea.

ALSO, chatter on internet message boards, as well as Kenny Roda's "Happy Hour" show on WKNR, has suggested that FSN Ohio's direct rival, Sportstime Ohio, may make a pitch to Reghi to join the upstart network which carries Indians games.

Although we have no direct source, what we have surmised through backchannels is that STO is not all that interested in bringing in Reghi. Jim Donovan is already the "voice" of the cable sports network and it is unlikely that STO would have enough work to entice Reghi to leave his limited duties at FSN Ohio.

Some of raised the possibility of Reghi "pulling a Fred McLeod" and taking John Sanders position as the lead play-by-play man on Indians broadcasts.

What we hear through backchannels, coupled with the "good ol' boys club" atmosphere that surrounds the Indians organization and their cable network, makes the possibility of Reghi taking Sanders job extremely unlikely.

We also believe STO has other ideas in mind for whatever Cavaliers coverage they may unveil later this fall...

(NOTE: Reghi has released a press release regarding his dismissal. When we get our hands on it we'll publish it here)