NBA Free Agents 2010: Cleveland Cavaliers Fans, I Know How You Feel

Everyday over the last two weeks, I have spent hours online tracking the progress of this year’s big free agents.

"So what," you say, "So have I."

The thing is, I am a 22-year-old Scotsman, living in England, with no previous love of basketball at all. In fact, only three weeks ago, my basketball knowledge extended to five players: LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson—all based solely on video games.

Now, in such a short space of time, I love Oklahoma City Thunder (mainly because of the white shirts their fans wore in the playoffs), Hasheem Thabeet is my new cult hero and I care that Amar'e Stoudemire has joined the New York Knicks.

I am currently frantically searching for a way to watch LeBron James’ "Decision Time," or whatever he chooses to call it, on this side of the Atlantic, as well as working out what 9 p.m. ET will mean for my sleep pattern.

Waiting with no real vested interest, I suddenly realised that I have been here before. If you’re a Cleveland Cavaliers fan, I know exactly how you feel.

See if you can spot the similarities.

I support Liverpool, an EPL team, and our icon, hero and legend is Steven Gerrard. You may know him as "the guy who almost stopped our World Cup before it started," but I’m hoping that after a successful run, you have forgiven him for scoring against you... especially since our goalkeeper more than made up for any pain we inflicted on you.

Gerrard is the local boy. Brought up in Liverpool, he quickly rose to stardom at the centre of the team, and was hailed as the next big thing. He took the captaincy, became the team’s go-to-guy, and was the only world class talent on the roster.

Admittedly, he got himself a few medals: One FA Cup, one UEFA Cup, and one League Cup (the closest comparison would be Division and Conference wins), but the big one—the Championship—remained elusive.

After getting a new coach and some backup in the team, Liverpool reached the European Cup final after Gerrard dragged them through, round after round.

This point is where things start to differ between the two situations, but bear with me.

Liverpool has been a successful club. They have 18 Championships, now joint best in the country, and had already won the European Cup (a competition where teams from all over the continent fight it out to be crowned the best in Europe) four times.

The last Championship was 1991, and the last European Cup, 1984.

Again, Gerrard resurrected the team when they were down 3-0 down at half time, scoring the first in the greatest comeback in football history, eventually winning on penalties and consolidating his reputation at the top of the world game.

That’s where it started to go wrong. In 2005, aged 25, he had won everything in club football, except the championship.

That year's champions, Chelsea, decided that they would lure him to London on the basis that he could fulfill his final ambition with them, and not with Liverpool. They had the resources (courtesy of a billionaire owner) the location by being in the capital, and the teammates to get him.

The saga stretched from the moment his season ended to the 8th of July—the same date as James' decision will be announced.

Gerrard swayed this way and that, at one point issuing a statement that he was leaving his boyhood club. All the indicators were that he would be at another team the next season.

Thankfully—for me—he signed a new contract with Liverpool on July 8, 2005.

He has been named in the top 12 of FIFA’s Wold Player of the Year ever since, won another FA Cup, two English Player of the Year Awards, third place in the European Player of the Year, captained his country, scored more goals than ever before, and even received an MBE from the Queen.

But guess what? Still no championship.

Despite being a "great," he may leave the game without winning that which he covets most.

He is now 30 and the whole circus has started again. Rumours abound that he will leave for Chelsea or even Real Madrid, who are coached by ex-Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho, the Portuguese who tried to get him five years ago.

Talk about vicious circles.

Admittedly the club is in a terrible state. The team was bolstered by other world class players to support him (we currently have four of the world best players by all accounts), but all are considering leaving due to a board, sadly of Americans, who have run up massive debt despite promising not to.

Broken promises are commonplace, and our coach left last month.

So trust me, I know what you are going through.

I admit, Gerrard has actually won more than James, and isn’t quite on the same level of his sport as James is his, but the one thing that they both want—a championship—has remained a dream.

I hope, for all our sakes, that both decide to stay at home and work it out for their teams. Forget about money, fame, fortune and legacy, and focus on loyalty while striving to win for Liverpool and the Cavs. It’d be much sweeter that way.

After all, both LeBron James and Steven Gerrard are born winners.

But they haven’t won... just yet.