Looks like Christmas came a little early for Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Danny Ferry. And he can thank the Charlotte Bobcats for playing the part of Santa Claus. The Bobcats signed restricted free agent Anderson Varejao, the Cavs disgruntled big man who had been holding out, to an offer sheet worth $17.4 million over three years. Today, Ferry matched that offer, ending the stalemate between the two sides.

Varejao, who’s agent Dan Fegan had been reportedly demanding a six-year, $52 million dollar deal, had turned down previous Cleveland offers. He rejected a one-year, $1.2 million qualifying offer that would have made him an unrestricted free agent after this season. He also shot down a three-year, $20 million deal

Although he will be making less money than the Cavs initially offered, Varejao, 25, can opt out of the third year and become an unrestricted, where he will likely find once again that no one is willing to pay him the nearly $10 million a year that he covets.

The Grizzlies were briefly interested in Varejao this summer, but opted to go with the Darko Milicic. Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace said the Grizzlies were not interested in making a second run at Varejao, citing the team must save money in order to re-sign Juan Carlos Navarro this summer, and Rudy Gay and Kyle Lowry the following year.

Ferry was trying to do the same, which is why he refused to cave in to Fegan’s demands. The Cavs were unwilling to pay Varejao, an reserve player, more than starting forward Drew Gooden. Once he gets into playing shape, Varejao will undoubtedly help the Cavaliers. But with no offensive game to speak of, it is unlikely that in the next year and a half he will show he is worth such a ridiculous contract.

It will be interested to see how well Varejao is received by his teammates and the fans after saying last week he no longer wanted to play in Cleveland. He also told ESPN.com that he was more productive than many of his teammates who were making more money than him.

We’ll see.