CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In hindsight, Dan Gilbert admits, it was a bit hasty. A bit emotional. And he regrets it.

Yep, regret.

"Looking back now, that probably was not the most brilliant thing I've ever done in my life," Gilbert said before the Cavaliers kicked off the 2012-13 season Tuesday against Washington.

That infamous letter the Cavaliers owner wrote to fans after LeBron James left for Miami in 2010, the one in which Gilbert declared in Comic Sans that the Cavaliers would win an NBA title before "the self-titled former 'king' wins one" wasn't his finest moment. Particularly now that James is collecting his first ring for winning the NBA championship in June.

"If you're going to predict something that doesn't happen and you're going to do it publicly, you'd for sure take it back," Gilbert said. "When that happened, when they won, it was the end of the end of the end of that whole thing. Now there's nothing more to talk about.

"In a way, it was like a little bit of a relief. If they didn't win it, it would've been still another thing of who's going to win it [first]?"

In the minutes after James declared in his nationally televised "Decision" that he was "taking my talents to South Beach," Gilbert released the letter in which he declared in all-caps, all Comic Sans, all-bold, "I personally guarantee that the Cleveland Cavaliers will win an NBA championship before the self-titled former 'king' wins one. You can take it to the bank."

The entire experience, in fact, taught Gilbert a valuable -- and pricey -- lesson about how to handle high-profile free agents in the future. NBA teams no longer can wait for another decision from free agents.

"The big lesson was if a player is not willing to extend, no matter who they are, no matter where they are playing, no matter what kind of season you had, you can not risk going into a summer and having them leave in unrestricted free agency and get nothing back for it," Gilbert said. "It's not the player's fault. That's on ownership."

Of course, Gilbert also theorizes that acting first, trading a franchise player such as James -- as Orlando did with Dwight Howard recently -- instead of waiting for a free-agency decision might have backfired, as well.

"Had we done that, the whole thing would have been crafted as, I'm sure the player or whoever would have said, 'Of course I would have stayed. You guys screwed up and ruined the whole franchise,'" Gilbert said. "You're in a no-win situation with that."

Gilbert emphasized that his current focus is on guaranteeing this current group of Cavaliers grows and succeeds.

"We want to win as much as the fans do," Gilbert said. "No matter how long it takes, and no matter what it takes, we're just going to keep going until we get there."