I was having a difficult time getting to sleep recently. I was tired and wanted nothing more than to drift away into unconsciousness, but I couldn't turn my brain off. I felt as if there was some lingering unanswered question of great importance and I would only find peace when it had been resolved. But how was I supposed to find an answer if I didn't know the question?

The restless nights continued as I racked my brain for clues, for ideas...for hope.

Then one sleepless night the question came to me. It was a question that not only weighed heavily on my mind, but was no doubt affecting the lives of millions of others, as well. It was simple, yet tremendously profound:

WILL LEBRON JAMES THROW CHALK INTO THE AIR WHEN HE WALKS ONTO THE COURT IN NBA LIVE 10? WHAT ABOUT IN NBA 2K10?

Ahh, sweet relief! I now knew the question, but I had to determine the answer to complete this life-changing journey. I searched the games' message boards and I scoured the press releases. Each time I came away empty handed. Exhausted from my search, I sat down in my recliner in hopes of grabbing a quick nap.

As I lay there, I had a vision -- or maybe it was a dream -- I don't know. In this vision LeBron James appeared and said to me, "Aaron, you must not lose hope. Think of something you hate. Not those terrible Kobe and LeBron puppet commercials that were on every six minutes during the playoffs -- something different. Something about videogames." Just as soon as he appeared, LeBron was gone.

Now, I hate lots of things so I knew it was important for me to narrow down what I despised into something that related to my current situation. It had to have something to do with videogames and probably sports games, too. But what about them? Then I remembered that I had just written an article about how EA Sports never shows consumers anything important in their screenshots.

Was I to find salvation in a screenshot?

I ran to my computer and Googled just as fast as my fingers would let me. There was, in fact, a screenshot available for NBA Live 10. It was only a single screen, but it was my only hope. I clicked the link and crossed my fingers as the page loaded. This is what I saw:

LEBRON JAMES THROWING CHALK INTO THE AIR!

Who the hell cares about seeing gameplay improvements, new game modes, additional online features, or even new moves and animations when you know that every time you play with or against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland, you'll be able to see LEBRON JAMES THROW CHALK INTO THE AIR BEFORE THE GAME?!

Full of excitement, I headed right back to Google to find some NBA 2K10 screens. My mood fell when the search returned no results. I was foolish to think that 2K Sports would rush out a screenshot just to steal a little bit of EA's thunder, and I knew that it if they did it would just be some stupid screen with their cover athlete, Kobe Bryant.

Dejected and despondent, I spent the rest of the day wasting time on Facebook and Twitter. Then a Tweet from GameSpot's Brian Ekberg caught my eye: "First NBA 2K10 screen released: http://bit.ly/352jm A clear reaction to NBA Live's debut screen." Was I to finally have the answer I so greatly desired? I couldn't click the link fast enough.

I was crestfallen. The game's lone screenshot was all about Shaq. He had just been traded to the Cavaliers and the developers wanted to show him during pregame warmups in his new uniform and number. Feeling utterly defeated, I moved the cursor to close the page when I noticed something behind Shaq Diesel's left shoulder, off in the background. There, in the distance, I saw:

LEBRON JAMES THROWING CHALK INTO THE AIR!!!

Relief washed over me. I didn't care that this would have no effect on my enjoyment of the game. I didn't care one bit that LeBron basically stole this pregame ritual from Michael Jordan. I didn't care...about this at all?

I sure didn't.

I guess it was all just a test to see whether or not I truly believed what I wrote about prerelease screenshots just days earlier. Content with knowing that I still hated pointless and often misleading screenshots, I went to bed. I was asleep by the time my head hit the pillow.

In case you're wondering, the story as to how I came to find them is mostly fiction, but the screenshots are 100-percent real.