Lebron JamesWhile the rest of the Internet is busy debating how big of a jerk LeBron James is for scheduling an hour-long program to dump the poor people of Cleveland -- as well as whether Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert's biggest faux pas in his open letter to the city was his choice of Comic Sans MS for the font -- we were captivated by a more magical part of the whole debacle: namely, the fact that Gilbert's letter included an actual hex on LeBron and the city of Miami.

"The self-declared former 'King' will be taking the 'curse' with him down south," Gilbert wrote in his letter to fans, referring to the legendarily rotten luck that Cleveland sports fans have endured for decades. "And until he does 'right' by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma."

The art of placing a curse on an opponent is some old-school sports business, dating back to the goat that jinxed the Chicago Cubs and continuing on to spurned Detroit Lions quarterback Bobby Layne's invocation, which saddled the city with football's historically worst pro team.

Curses, however, are not exactly a common occurrence in 2010. But, if you look back to those we know of, one thing's clear: They've been pretty effective at keeping down the Lions and the Cubs. And it took the Red Sox damn near a hundred years to shake off the curse of the Bambino.

To find out if Gilbert's invocation of Cleveland's "dreaded spell" would mean the same doom for LeBron, Miami and any club unfortunate enough to carry the bad-luck charm that is the greatest basketball player of his generation, we consulted with Joshua Gunn, assistant professor of communications at the University of Texas, who specializes in occult studies and the supernatural:

"He's made LeBron into a scapegoat in the classic sense. Historically, when making a sacrifice to Yahweh or whomever, you'd have two goats. The first would be sacrificed to please God, and the second would carry the sins of the community, and be sent out to wander and, presumably starve. What Gilbert is saying, basically, is 'I'm sending you a goat.'"

And, while we can sort of see the resemblance (at least when LeBron's got his beard), we need to know one thing before we place our "futures" bets for the 2010–2011 season: Does the scapegoat work?

"Well, I'm a professor who debunks the supernatural, so of course my answer here is no" Gunn says. "It doesn't actually cast a curse out. But psychologically, yeah, it definitely works. What he's saying with this letter is that the curse is gone."

Which, Gunn agrees, could provide a boost for the team and its fans, if they've been playing under the impression that their losses were supernaturally enforced.

The official oddsmakers, meanwhile, find Gilbert's transfer of the curse via biblical scapegoat even less compelling than Gunn does. "Oddsmakers do not believe in any kind of curses, only statistical data, therefore this would not have any effect on the odds for Cleveland or Miami to win the NBA championship or any game," Bodog.com Sportsbook Manager Richard Gardner told Asylum. "With Miami priced at 7-to-4 favorites and Cleveland at 60-to-1 outsiders, the only curse we might be hearing next June will be from the mouth of Dan Gilbert as LeBron lifts the championship trophy."

And whether the curse actually exists or not, we can certainly agree that invoking it in a letter published in the world's ugliest font certainly shows the gods that he means business.