mcornelio
07-07-2006, 03:53 PM
Michael Rosenberg (http://msn.foxsports.com/writer/archive?authorId=281)/ Special to FOXSports.com
Posted: 23 hours ago
I know, I know. LeBron James says he wants to stay in Cleveland. So he'll probably agree to a five-year contract extension soon.
Except ...
Dwyane Wade quickly agreed to terms with Miami.
And Carmelo Anthony quickly agreed to terms with Denver.
Dwyane Wade has already agreed to re-sign with Miami. Why can't LeBron just do the same thing already? http://msn.foxsports.com/id/5470028_36_4.jpg(Mark Duncan / Associated Press)
And LeBron, offered precisely the same deal — the most a team can offer its own player, and more than anybody else can offer LeBron next year — has done ... nothing.
Not a word. Not a "Yeah, thanks, I'll take it." Not "I'm worth three times that, but this silly collective-bargaining agreement leaves me no choice, so fine." There is no negotiating here. And yet ... nothing.
Again, he'll probably re-sign. He can't even officially do so until July 12, so it's not like he's late or anything. But for the love of Bernie Kosar, can the man please just do it quickly? This is brutal torture for the most brutally tortured sports fans in America.
You think Cubs fans have it bad? In Cleveland, every team is the Cubs. Forty Super Bowls have come and gone without the Browns participating — in that time, the Browns have actually come and gone. The Cavaliers are entering their 37th year in the NBA and have yet to make the Finals.
The Indians played in the World Series in 1995 and 1997, but they have not won a World Series since 1948. And that 1997 loss to the Florida Marlins was one of the most painful in recent sports history. Cleveland had a 2-1 lead in the ninth inning of Game 7.
A Cleveland native recently informed me that the city also had a really bad NHL team in the 1970s, but at least that team had the decency to move to another city before anybody could really care.
LeBron James leaving Cleveland would be the most devastating free-agent loss in sports history. It would be 10 times worse than Shaq leaving Orlando, because Orlando had only had a team for five minutes and most of the city's residents had only been there for 15.
Think about it. Cleveland is the most championship-starved great sports town in America. Since memory begins at age 4 for most of us, you have to be at least 46 years old to remember the last time a Cleveland team won a championship.
And here comes LeBron. A single star means far more in basketball than in any other sport, and LeBron is arguably the best 21-year-old in NBA history. It is impossible for me to imagine the man playing his entire career without winning a title. I mean, Isiah Thomas could build a champion around this guy. He is the walking, jumping, sweet-passing answer to Cleveland's championship dreams.
Not only that, but he's from the area! He grew up in Akron and was hand-delivered to the Cavs, who lost as much as they possibly could in order to get the most ping-pong balls in the LeBron Lottery, and nobody even complained, because Cleveland deserved this.
If he leaves, it would be worse than Jim Thome winning the World Series with the rival White Sox. And (gasp!) that might happen too.
Here is the worst part: If LeBron doesn't re-sign this summer, the Cavs have no choice but to keep sucking up to him and hope he re-signs next year. They can't even consider trading him. He is too good. The only guy who has close to similar value is Dwyane Wade, and he's not going anywhere. Cleveland just has to take the risk that LeBron will come back anyway.
Again: LeBron has plenty of time. Maybe he is just getting the Cavs' attention, though he seemed to have it already, what with the luxurious accommodations and attentive support staff and job for his buddy and 12:01 a.m. offer of a max contract on the first day of free agency.
There is probably no reason to worry. But if you're a Cleveland fan, you have to worry. It is part of your DNA. You have to close your eyes and picture LeBron as a Brooklyn Net, just to make yourself miserable. And you have to hope that somewhere, LeBron James isn't closing his eyes and envisioning the same thing. Detroit Free Press columnist Michael Rosenberg is a contributor to FOXSports.com. An archive of his Free Press columns can be found here (http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=COL22).
Posted: 23 hours ago
I know, I know. LeBron James says he wants to stay in Cleveland. So he'll probably agree to a five-year contract extension soon.
Except ...
Dwyane Wade quickly agreed to terms with Miami.
And Carmelo Anthony quickly agreed to terms with Denver.
Dwyane Wade has already agreed to re-sign with Miami. Why can't LeBron just do the same thing already? http://msn.foxsports.com/id/5470028_36_4.jpg(Mark Duncan / Associated Press)
And LeBron, offered precisely the same deal — the most a team can offer its own player, and more than anybody else can offer LeBron next year — has done ... nothing.
Not a word. Not a "Yeah, thanks, I'll take it." Not "I'm worth three times that, but this silly collective-bargaining agreement leaves me no choice, so fine." There is no negotiating here. And yet ... nothing.
Again, he'll probably re-sign. He can't even officially do so until July 12, so it's not like he's late or anything. But for the love of Bernie Kosar, can the man please just do it quickly? This is brutal torture for the most brutally tortured sports fans in America.
You think Cubs fans have it bad? In Cleveland, every team is the Cubs. Forty Super Bowls have come and gone without the Browns participating — in that time, the Browns have actually come and gone. The Cavaliers are entering their 37th year in the NBA and have yet to make the Finals.
The Indians played in the World Series in 1995 and 1997, but they have not won a World Series since 1948. And that 1997 loss to the Florida Marlins was one of the most painful in recent sports history. Cleveland had a 2-1 lead in the ninth inning of Game 7.
A Cleveland native recently informed me that the city also had a really bad NHL team in the 1970s, but at least that team had the decency to move to another city before anybody could really care.
LeBron James leaving Cleveland would be the most devastating free-agent loss in sports history. It would be 10 times worse than Shaq leaving Orlando, because Orlando had only had a team for five minutes and most of the city's residents had only been there for 15.
Think about it. Cleveland is the most championship-starved great sports town in America. Since memory begins at age 4 for most of us, you have to be at least 46 years old to remember the last time a Cleveland team won a championship.
And here comes LeBron. A single star means far more in basketball than in any other sport, and LeBron is arguably the best 21-year-old in NBA history. It is impossible for me to imagine the man playing his entire career without winning a title. I mean, Isiah Thomas could build a champion around this guy. He is the walking, jumping, sweet-passing answer to Cleveland's championship dreams.
Not only that, but he's from the area! He grew up in Akron and was hand-delivered to the Cavs, who lost as much as they possibly could in order to get the most ping-pong balls in the LeBron Lottery, and nobody even complained, because Cleveland deserved this.
If he leaves, it would be worse than Jim Thome winning the World Series with the rival White Sox. And (gasp!) that might happen too.
Here is the worst part: If LeBron doesn't re-sign this summer, the Cavs have no choice but to keep sucking up to him and hope he re-signs next year. They can't even consider trading him. He is too good. The only guy who has close to similar value is Dwyane Wade, and he's not going anywhere. Cleveland just has to take the risk that LeBron will come back anyway.
Again: LeBron has plenty of time. Maybe he is just getting the Cavs' attention, though he seemed to have it already, what with the luxurious accommodations and attentive support staff and job for his buddy and 12:01 a.m. offer of a max contract on the first day of free agency.
There is probably no reason to worry. But if you're a Cleveland fan, you have to worry. It is part of your DNA. You have to close your eyes and picture LeBron as a Brooklyn Net, just to make yourself miserable. And you have to hope that somewhere, LeBron James isn't closing his eyes and envisioning the same thing. Detroit Free Press columnist Michael Rosenberg is a contributor to FOXSports.com. An archive of his Free Press columns can be found here (http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=COL22).