Dear Humps- Must Read- Buff w/Scott Raab

[peeker643]

At 2pm I'm posting to TCF Steve Buffum's interview with Esquire Magazine's (and noted Lebron...um...critic) Scott Raab.

I'm teasing it now because it's that good.

Read it and comment as you see fit.

I'll link it here when it's up.

[peeker643]

Link

http://bit.ly/fxNfxd

[motherscratcher]

can't wait to get home and read that. I don't want to start until I'm home from work. I want to savior it.

[Ziner]

I want to savior it.

Keep Jesus out of this.

[Jumbo]

If Cleveland's teams were as good as it's non-Plain Dealer sportswriters, they'd have won a dozen titles in the last decade.

[Larvell Blanks]

can't wait to get home and read that. I don't want to start until I'm home from work. I want to savior it.

Translation: I'm printing it out at work and plan to read it on the can when I get home.

[aclayman]

If Raab embraces being an extremist, that's all well and good, but it kinda seems like he and Dan Gilbert both jumped on an opportunity to turn anti-LeBron hate speech into a marketing campaign for their own interests (be it selling tickets or selling a book).

There are a million reasons to dislike LBJ. Everyone knows them. They are obvious. So it's a popular stance to take. But Raab sounds disconnected from reality when he talks about LeBron's supposed obligations to the Cleveland sports fan base. Things like the Yankee cap incident only proved that geographic allegiances are essentially a myth in the TV/internet era. Loyalty to a local team has A LOT more to do with how you're raised than where you're from. Odds are, 9 out of 10 TCF readers were passed down their Cleveland sports fandom in their youth, most likely from a parent or sibling. LeBron's mom didn't give a shit about Mark Price and Larry Nance, let alone Charles Nagy and Sandy Alomar. So why should there be any expectation that LBJ would really understand the Cleveland sports fans' mindset? Half the drunks tailgating outside CBS every Sunday don't even understand it. They're just there for an excuse to be assholes. Let's face it, the real, honest-to-goodness, live-and-die, day-to-day, long-suffering Cleveland sports fan only exists in a pretty small niche. Otherwise, this message board would include more than the same diehard dozen or so guys every week.

LeBron deserves all the vitriol in the world for classlessly embarrassing his hometown. But suggesting that he "had to stay" is just childish and stupid. If anything, we were all stupid for thinking it'd even be that tough of a decision for the guy. He never cheered for Craig Ehlo. He liked Mike. He didn't belong here anyway.

[jb]

LeBron's mom didn't give a shit about Mark Price and Larry Nance, let alone Charles Nagy and Sandy Alomar.

So Bron whould have bought a crack baseball cap?

[peeker643]

I've seen immunologists and patent attorneys losing their minds next to me in the Bleachers at CBS. Profession has nothing to do with fanaticism for your sports teams.

Likewise, a writer as gifted as Raab can lay down the prose and still be as ape shit crazy and fanatic about LBJ as any of us and he can put it out there in a beautiful manner. The Immunologist and attorney typically won't be gracing the pages of Esquire the following week.

Not saying he's right. I see a lot of shit of his I disagree with. And I'm not saying he's one of my favorites because he's unbiased. He's CLEARLY not. And yes, he's clearly trying to sell books and he's unashamedly unapologetic and open about that on every show he's on.

But he's most likely one of my favorites because he hates LeBron James and rationalizes it in words I can't but with feelings I feel.

And he also makes that asshole as uncomfortable as a detached, selfish piece of shit can possibly feel.

No one can tell me LBJ is completely immune. He may be detached and entitled and selfish but that's exactly why he's also keenly aware of what's being said about him in the world.

Fuck yes I'm buying Raab's book. Even if I don't read it I'm contributing to it's success and to prompting a book tour that will shine the light once again on a human stool sample.

And while I understand Gloria didn't tell Lil LeBron about Nagy and Alomar I feel very secure that she didn't have male genitalia out of her mouth long enough to tell him about Chambliss & Nettles either. So why the Yankee love? Exactly, it was easy and even then the douchebag needed to attach himself with something that didn't blow, literally and figuratively.

I thought the point about Bird wearing a Yankee hat to Fenway was a good one as well. Maybe a bit LCD and simplistic but same ballpark. It's true on two levels; Boston fans and media WOULD have killed him and Bird, while a red-ass, wasn't fucking stupid or selfish/arrogant enough to ever do it or, in all likelihood, ever consider it.

LBJ is simply a POS IMO. If he was burning alive in my driveway I wouldn't piss on him to put him out. Anything and anyone that advance that opinion of LBJ I'm simply a fan of.

Might make me as shitty a human being as he is but I really don't care.

I get that mileage may vary on that. I don't feel the way about Thome that Raab and many others here do so I understand my thoughts on James may be hard for others to understand much less agree with.

[leadpipe]

I understand the hate for Lebron - his, yours, mine & everyone else's.

But I'm not sure how many articles from one guy I need to see concerning it.

He's far too talented a writer to be looked upon as a one trick pony, but I get the feeling, especially outside of Cleveland, that that's what he's starting to look like.

I've heard three interviews, and read about the same number of articles since this went down, and I'm not sure I could tell you the difference.

Concerning this article, I thought Buff asked some good questions, and I think covering "the aftermath" is an excellent idea, cause one guy leaving causing an epic collapse to the franchise, city finances and all the rest is pretty unprecedented. Not too many fresh sports stories around. I think a documentary released in about 4 years could be excellent. And depressing.

[hermanfontenot]

Odds are, 9 out of 10 TCF readers were passed down their Cleveland sports fandom in their youth, most likely from a father or older brother.

That's more like it.

As for LeBron, I hate to be one of those people saying we should get over it, but... we should get over it. He's gone. He isn't coming back. It isn't doing anybody any good to keep harping on the guy.

And if things don't get better for this basketball team fairly soon, people are going to stop harping on LeBron and start looking askance at the people who are still here... namely, the owner.

[aclayman]

I've seen immunologists and patent attorneys losing their minds next to me in the Bleachers at CBS. Profession has nothing to do with fanaticism for your sports teams.

Yeah, I definitely wasn't implying that he can't be a fanatic because he's a writer (if thats what you're saying?). Quite the contrary. Writers are usually the most obsessive, sick fucks there are. I'm just saying that Raab is probably an opportunist as much as he is a fan, and that's fine. It's just the "traitorous local boy" angle that feels played out to me now. This was never really the Shakespearean drama we imagined it to be.

The Yankee cap was actually fair warning. He was basically saying, "I am not a Cleveland sports fan. I don't particular understand or care about your championship drought. I feel no real affinity with the people who cheer for me. I am more of a Yankees/Cowboys kinda guy." Does that make him a douchebag? Of course. On sight. But since it's clear he was never really "one of us," why hold him up to the standard we would if he was? Why say his only choice was to stay in Cleveland? It's like the folkies freakin' out when Bob Dylan went electric at Newport. That scene had adopted him as their god, but he didn't actually give a shit about the folk scene himself. He wanted to make noise and get high with his cooler friends. So he was a selfish asshole. But he was also just being himself, which is better than wearing an Indians cap and pretending to give a shit. Maybe. (I still hope both his ACLs explode and they have to peel him off the court like a fruit roll-up).

[jb]

And while I understand Gloria didn't tell Lil LeBron about Nagy and Alomar I feel very secure that she didn't have male genitalia out of her mouth long enough to tell him about Chambliss & Nettles either. So why the Yankee love?

Every now & again, Peeker. Wow.

Can I just add the reason for the cap could have been dismissed as urban fashion at the time ( Jay Z when he was good ) , but the donning of it in public at a Tribe playoff game?

Self-explanatory.

Can I add that AFAIC Raab should be interviewing Buff? Anyone can pillar Judas, but try beat writing for the 2009 and 2010 Tribe in a non-mail-it-in quality manner.

[swerb]

And while I understand Gloria didn't tell Lil LeBron about Nagy and Alomar I feel very secure that she didn't have male genitalia out of her mouth long enough to tell him about Chambliss & Nettles either. So why the Yankee love?

Every now & again, Peeker. Wow.

Can I just add the reason for the cap could have been dismissed as urban fashion at the time ( Jay Z when he was good ) , but the donning of it in public at a Tribe playoff game?

Self-explanatory.

Can I add that AFAIC Raab should be interviewing Buff? Anyone can pillar Judas, but try beat writing for the 2009 and 2010 Tribe in a non-mail-it-in quality manner.

Exactly.

Two of my favorite writers trading haymakers in that piece. Reread it like 3x. Outstanding.

Like watching Karpov and Kasparov play chess.

[Triple-S]

I really enjoyed the piece.

In regards to the Yankee hat, he was right. We all chose to look the other way, and with good reason, because the douche kept threatening to leave and we all know how things would collapse, and we'd be stuck with non-competitors in all three pro teams. If the Browns were even...a .500 team, would people really be allowing him to pull of that crap?

And I agree with Herm and AClaymen that the "older brother/father" thing does play in effect. Most of the front runners I've actually met in my life came divorced/single parent homes of all things.

[hermanfontenot]

I'm just saying that Raab is probably an opportunist as much as he is a fan, and that's fine. It's just the "traitorous local boy" angle that feels played out to me now. This was never really the Shakespearean drama we imagined it to be.

No. No it isn't.

LeBron at bottom is a mercenary, a hired gun. He was never one of us. He's from here but he isn't of here.

It's nothing more than what it is on the surface: a highly paid professional going to a different city to do his thing. The way he went out makes it singular, but only that. The fact that Akron happened to be the place where LeBron made his egress from Gloria's well-used funkhole is purely incidental. It might as well have been Amarillo or Anchorage.

People projected their own dreams and fantasies onto him. He never for a moment gave the impression that the local angle meant a thing. In that sense he was every bit as honest as Albert Belle.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

LeBron made his egress from Gloria's well-used funkhole.

I would pay to buy a shirt with that on it.... Funkhole.... holy shit.

[peeker643]

LeBron made his egress from Gloria's well-used funkhole.

I would pay to buy a shirt with that on it.... Funkhole.... holy shit.

You'd have to pay a few extra bucks Gigantor.

[e0y2e3]

We've emailed on this shit - more than once - but Peeks can you and Buff get me in touch with Raab re: Windy.

My face exploded when I read that explanation.

Twice.

[peeker643]

We've emailed on this shit - more than once - but Peeks can you and Buff get me in touch with Raab re: Windy.

My face exploded when I read that explanation.

Twice.

Let's go to email on this one. I'd have to imagine that Buff has Raab's contact info. I do not.

That was weird, no doubt. Raab kills the ESPN guys, the Heat Index and everything else. He had an exchange last night with someone down there (may have been the Herald) so to read that he exonerates Windy was very strange to me.

[Madre Hill, Superstar]

People projected their own dreams and fantasies onto him. He never for a moment gave the impression that the local angle meant a thing. In that sense he was every bit as honest as Albert Belle.

There was the one moment where he proclaimed he'd be the guy who'd finally bring us a sausage. At least, I'm pretty sure it was LeQuit and not Jim Paxson or Dan Gilbert. Outside of that, though, spot on.

[e0y2e3]

I'm just saying that Raab is probably an opportunist as much as he is a fan, and that's fine. It's just the "traitorous local boy" angle that feels played out to me now. This was never really the Shakespearean drama we imagined it to be.

No. No it isn't.

LeBron at bottom is a mercenary, a hired gun. He was never one of us. He's from here but he isn't of here.

It's nothing more than what it is on the surface: a highly paid professional going to a different city to do his thing. The way he went out makes it singular, but only that. The fact that Akron happened to be the place where LeBron made his egress from Gloria's well-used funkhole is purely incidental. It might as well have been Amarillo or Anchorage.

People projected their own dreams and fantasies onto him. He never for a moment gave the impression that the local angle meant a thing. In that sense he was every bit as honest as Albert Belle.

This is why I come at you when u suck.

Perfect.

[hermanfontenot]

There was the one moment where he proclaimed he'd be the guy who'd finally bring us a sausage. At least, I'm pretty sure it was LeQuit and not Jim Paxson or Dan Gilbert. Outside of that, though, spot on.

Eh. I'm not going to kill him over that. The profession in which he plays isn't one in which anything can be guaranteed. It's not something he can be held to.

I wouldn't have expected him to say, "Hey look, I'll try and all, but it might not work out that way."

I'm actually surprised at this point by how little rancor I have toward LeBron. Maybe things are so bad with the Cavaliers that I don't have the energy to hate on him. And hating on him doesn't help us.

[peeker643]

I'm actually surprised at this point by how little rancor I have toward LeBron. Maybe things are so bad with the Cavaliers that I don't have the energy to hate on him. And hating on him doesn't help us.

Yeah, well, it doesn't hurt.
To each his own I guess. Not like the "I don't blame LBJ/it ain't his fault" crowd has helped create what he is today

Ha! The shitstorm fueled by the haters is the first dose of reality the cocksucker has experienced in his life.

I'm helping him.

I'll say I agree with the masses that the Raab thing is getting boring for me. And I don't burn with the same consuming hatred for James I did 7 months ago.

But when I see him, hear him or catch a quote of his it comes roaring back.

Dude's a basketball player. Has no education, never worked a day in his life and he never served a single second defending this country. And he wouldn't piss on anyone here that did any of the above things unless it served his purpose.

One day when the crowds die down, James will be pitied and mocked for the same things that allow him to get through a day right now. You can be a self absorbed dick hole while you're in your prime and when people need you on the floor. But there will be that day when it's not like that.

Sadly I'll probably be dead or senile and unable to enjoy it, but it makes me smile now thinking about it.