LeBron signs!

Imagine this scenario:

You have been enduring one of the worst weeks you can remember. Your personal life is a mess, your finances are shaky and it is all capped off by a horrendous day at work in which your boss called you into his office to have a "talk."

So you are driving home from work, mind thoroughly preoccupied with the bleak state of your life, when some moron blows through a red light of an intersection you just happen to be entering. Fortunately, you notice this just in time to slam the brakes, narrowly averting a potentially serious accident.

Now many of us would have different reactions to such an event, but none of which would be throwing the car in park, getting out and joyously celebrating in the middle of the street.

Where am I going with this you ask helplessly?

Well, this scenario represents how I felt when I heard LeBron James has decided to accept the Cavaliers five-year extension keeping him in Cleveland until at least 2013.

Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely happy about this, but it's just more of a "disaster averted"-type thing than a "pop the champaign"-type thing.

For one, as Clevelanders we know NOTHING is for certain. As much as LeBron is compared to Jordan and the "experts" say it is almost inevitable he will bring championships to Cleveland, we know better.

This is the city Bill Belichick couldn't figure out how to win. This is the city that saw a 100-44 baseball team - maybe the best team of the last half-century that didn't win a title- look OVERMATCHED in the 1995 World Series. This is the city that saw it's football team lose in the AFC championship game three out of four years, to the SAME TEAM.

In Cleveland, NOTHING is certain, nothing is for sure. This contract by no means guarantees us a championship, but it does guarantee we will have a basketball team in three years.

I mean, can you imagine the Cavaliers and the city post-LeBron? Imagine attending a game at the Q when the featured attractions are a broken down Ilgauskas and an overmatched Larry Hughes desperately trying to finish his contract? Can you imagine the Cavs returning to 29-53 type seasons while LeBron thrives alongside Kobe in Los Angeles?

Fortunately, the disaster was averted and we won't have to imagine such things, at least until 2013.

Some other thoughts on the goings on in the sports world:

• What is left to say about the Indians at this point? I can remember sitting through some torturous games and seasons back at old Munie in the 80's, yet I simply cannot recall feeling so disillusioned about a Tribe team. Just the other day I had to ask my friend who pitched for the Indians the previous night. Prior to this season, that happened about never. It just feels as though Larry Dolan has sucked the fan right out of me. When you get to the point you don't want certain players to do TOO well because they will undoubtedly receive a better contract elsewhere, you know your team has shitty ownership, plain and simple.
• Not too make any excuses for the Indians this year, but how brutal is the AL Central? Do you realize the Minnesota Twins are sitting in third place, 11 games out of first at 47-38 with possibly the two best starting pitchers in the American League right now? And guess who isn't nearly as bad as people thought? Thats right, the Kansas City Royals. Considering the lack of stars on the roster and how they started the season, for them to be 31-55 while playing the Tigers, White Sox and Twins most of the year is pretty impressive. Put it this way, if you placed the Royals in a division with Tampa Bay, Seattle, Pittsburgh and the Cubs, do you honestly think they finish any worse than second?
• I'm getting increasingly excited about the Browns this year, and mostly for one man - Kellen freaking Winslow. Call me crazy, but when I think about all the Browns and Cavaliers draft picks over the last 20 years (since the MLB draft is about 70 rounds too long for any rational human being to hold any interest), Only three picks REALLY stand out in my memory: Tim Couch because it was the first of the new Browns, LeBron James for obvious reasons and Kellen Winslow Jr. I realize Winslow has struggled with minor details like "getting on the field" in his first two years, but let's not forget how good this guy was at Miami. Neither Tony Gonzalez nor Antonio Gates even approached the level of play at the tight end position that Winslow Jr. did in college. I'm optimistic his raw talent will still translate to the pro game, this year even.
• Finally, am I the only one sick of ESPN trying to dictate what I should be watching? To say they went overboard with the World Cup coverage would be the understatement of the decade. Most people will be shocked to realize the World Cup took place in 2002 as well. Don't remember it? Probably because ESPN wasn't shoving it down our throats back then. Why they decided on "all-out blitz" for WC coverage this year is beyond me. It wasn't even the games that really bothered me, it was having to listen to personalities such as Mike Golic's pathetic feigned excitement about a United States/Ghana matchup. Give me a freaking break.