Some good news for Cleveland...

Allow me to indulge in expressing a bit of "East coast" (even if Ohio isn't east coast) bias here, and pontificate on the joy that exists in a certain area east of the Mississippi.

For those who do not know, I spent much of my life near Cleveland, Ohio, and am a lifelong Cleveland professional sports fan - Indians first and foremost, but Browns and Cavs, too.

While many sports fans suffer (Chicago Blackhawks fans, the Arizona Cardinals fans out there, and even our beloved Mariners fans on this blog), Cleveland seems to have it particularly rough no matter how you look at it. The last time there was ANY title in that city was 48 years ago when the Browns won the NFL title (in the pre-Super Bowl days). The Indians have been title-less since 1948, and the Cavs have never won anything, period, their best years done in by some guy in Chicago named "Jordan." The sports media loves the "poor Philadelphia - 4 major teams, and no title for 23 years," which needless to say, gains little sympathy from me (at least that city has a title in my lifetime) and from the Cleveland fanbase more generally.

For those who don't follow professional sports, this all seems extremely irrational, but for those closely tied to the fabric of the game (whichever game), the close links to those hometown teams, sports is essential. It gives community identity and brings together complete strangers (in an as-yet unexplored aspect of Benedict Anderson's "imagined communities") and can quite literally can make a city more enjoyable (see the numerous rennovation projects that have accompanied the establishment of new professional sports teams or construction of new stadiums).

With all that said, the Lebron James contract extension is huge for people in Northeast Ohio. Anyone my parents' age or younger has had no good news on the sports front. The 2003 Ohio State Buckeye national championship was close, for everybody in Ohio identifies with and roots for the Bucks regardless of your alma mater, but it wasn't the same. There's a new sense of hope in Cleveland now, though, because the best player in professional basketball today (sorry Lakers fans - Kobe's not Lebron; and for you Heat fans, do you think your Heat even make the playoffs if Wade doesn't have Shaq?) is staying in Cleveland. This has revitalized that "imagined" sports community in Northeast Ohio in ways that nothing short of a title could. Lebron is from Akron. He's a hometown hero. Had he not agreed to that extension, and had bolted at the end of the 2006-2007 season, professional basketball in Cleveland would be dead in 10 years. Cleveland fans have endured a lot of heartbreak (the first time i ever had my hopes smashed in sports was in 1986, with the Browns and "The Drive", followed the next year by "The Fumble" - still haunting me and millions of Browns fans to this day), but had Lebron bolted, it would have been intolerable. Cleveland fans have something to hope for (besides the eternal "just wait until next year" with the Indians), and that means more than those not interested in sports can understand.