Cavs owner gets ‘vile’ voicemails

CLEVELAND — Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert says he received “vile, disgusting” voicemails after LeBron James called President Donald Trump “a bum” on Twitter.

Gilbert says he was flooded with phone messages. The NBA’s most celebrated player criticized Trump for rescinding a White House invitation to Golden State’s Stephen Curry to honor the team’s NBA championship.

Gilbert said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Friday that he had not told James about the voicemails. The owner says he was unnerved by an “element of racism” that he didn’t “realize existed in this country this much.”

Last week, James said he did not regret his comment about Trump. Gilbert says he supports both political parties. Gilbert’s Quicken Loans donated $750,000 to the president’s inauguration party.

defaced, covered up or toppled, some new memorials are being erected by people who insist their only purpose is to honor the soldiers who died for the South.

Supporters of these new Civil War monuments describe a determination to hold onto their understanding of history.

“What I want to get across is how much the South suffered, not only through the war but after the war, during the Reconstruction years,” said David Coggins. His Confederate Veterans Memorial Park in Brantley, Ala., dedicated a memorial to “Unknown Alabama Confederate Soldiers” in September.

Others say race has nothing to do with these new monuments,

unlike those erected in the early 20th century.

“The problem was with some of the other statues that were put up, that were basically intended to intimidate people,” said Danny Francis, commander of a Sons of Confederate Veterans unit in South Carolina. “We’re not trying to oppress anyone — we’re just historians. We welcome everybody.”