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Scott Raab is no LeBron James fan. When you pen a book and title it The Whore of Akron, that much seems true. Raab, a writer for Esquire as well, has videos of him dropping off a signed book that LeBron’s house and other acts of hilarity that you can see here. It would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall as Raab sat through LeBron winning his first championship ring last week. He says he didn’t put himself through the agony of watching the post-game celebration, but looked on as the Heat won and says “it ain’t that big a deal.” Scott Raab joined 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland with the Talking Heads to discuss LeBron winning a ring, how he took it, the pressure it puts on Cleveland to win a championship, Cavs GM Chris Grant, if Raab would change his tune if LeBron came back to Cleveland and if the city will ever see another saga like this.
Are you over the fact that LeBron won a championship?:
“Isn’t that funny? Am I over anything? It’s amazing to me. I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that our lives as Cleveland fans have prepared us for many moments like this. It ain’t that big a deal, frankly.”
How did you take it initially?:
“It’s not like I kept the TV on to watch the post-game celebrating — I’m not a masochist — but when I think back, and let’s not minimize how hard I rooted against the guy, but look this comes with the territory, especially with a Cleveland fan. … To see this guy, really this jerk, finally get it done, I give them, as a team, and certainly give him the credit any champion is due for climbing that mountain. It is not easy.”
Does this put more pressure on the Cavaliers organization to win a title?:
“Well I think the pressure on that franchise, in particular, is huge. And not particularly because King James now has a crown. It is, I think, certainly true that Dan Gilbert, as far as Cleveland is concerned, is one of the best owners in all of sports. Talk about getting over something, the fact that this guy used comic sans font to write what I thought was probably the greatest letter ever written by an owner … that’s their problem if they can’t get over that. But they’ve got to come up bigtime with this number four pick or if they trade with the Bobcats or whatever.”
Do you have more faith in Chris Grant as the GM than you did Danny Ferry?:
“I couldn’t have less faith in Chris Grant than I had in Danny Ferry, but a lot of that was based on my own residual feelings from the Ron Harper deal. … I do have some faith in Chris Grant if only because he got Kyrie for Mo. That was an amazing deal. You’d like to think, given the depth of this year’s draft, that it’s not going to be threading the needle to find someone who can step in and lift that team into serious playoff contention.”
If LeBron came back to Cleveland, would you change your tune?:
“Nah. When the Heat were at the Q in February I was there and had great seats and was surrounded by people: ‘Come back, Lebron!’ because he had just said that day, when someone stuck a mic in his face and asked him, that he could see that scenario play out. I could see that play out, too. Dan Gilbert’s a businessman and ultimately LeBron is no more than a brand name at this point in his career. It could happen. Am I going to change my tune? Very unlikely.”
Do you think this is the last time we’ll ever see something like this LeBron saga in Cleveland?:
“It always comes back around. It’s one of the beautiful things about sports and it’s one of the thing that binds us, generation to generation. … Just knowing the Cleveland fans that I’ve gotten to know, especially over the last two years, everything will come around. There might never be a hometown hero … that grows up in northeastern Ohio and becomes the best in the world. That was a beautiful fairy tale. That was the book I wanted to write.”
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