scottraab Page index.xml - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Heaven Is A Down-And-Out Hockey Town
This piece originally appeared in the April, 1995 issue of GQ. It is reprinted here with the author’s permission....
When LeBron James Left Cleveland, Rage Was The Only Option
The following is excerpted from You’re Welcome, Cleveland: How I Helped LeBron James Win a Championship and Save a City, by Scott Raab. The book is available now on Amazon....
The Moment A D-I Basketball Coach Stumbled Out Of A Crackhouse
In 1986, Kevin Mackey led the Cleveland State men's basketball team to a stunning upset victory over Bob Knight's Indiana Hoosiers in the NCAA tournament. Four years later, he came wobbling out of a Cleveland crackhouse into the waiting arms of the police. The local news station was also there, capt...
The Art Of The Insult: How To Win A Swearing Contest With Dignity
A few years ago, Joe Posnanski—formerly a Kansas City sportswriter, and today famous as a JoePa apologist—interviewed me about one of my books and posted my answers on his blog. He asked me whether, if I'd become a major league pitcher, I still would have become a writer. I emailed, "No. I would hav...
The Hit King: Pete Rose In Purgatory
Originally published in the July 1997 issue of GQ. Reprinted here with permission of the author, whose annotations (as told to Alex Belth) appear throughout the story. Illustration by Sam Woolley....
The Whore of Akron
Last year I interviewed Scott Raab about his entertaining book The Whore of Akron. Dig:...
Hey Ma, What's For Dinner?
Esquire recently published an e-book collection of sports stories. (It's also available at Byliner.) One of the stories is available on-line and it's a good one—Scott Raab's 2001 piece on Don Zimmer: ...
If You're In NYC Tomorrow Night, Come Listen To Some Esteemed Basketball Authors Talk
Time for another installment of Gelf's splendid Varsity Letters reading series, and this time it's particularly timely: Harvey Araton, Henry Abbott, and our man Scott Raab, will be reading and waxing about the NBA's return. 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Le Poisson Rouge, Bleecker St. between Sullivan and Th...
Why Philip Roth Declined To Blurb Scott Raab's <em>The Whore Of Akron</em>
Philip Roth, American literary titan. He's prolific, evocative, and controversial. LeBron James, American basketball titan. He's prolific, evocative, and controversial. Scott Raab, occasional Deadspin contributor. He hates LeBron James and loves Philip Roth....
How Delonte West's Mental Illness Affected LeBron's Final Year In Cleveland, And Why You Never Heard About It
I started working on The Whore of Akron in June 2009, before LeBron's walk year began. No one at that time saw much evidence that he was actually going to walk, not until after the Cavs lost to the Celtics in the second round of the playoffs and he started talking about "my team" in reference to the...
My Peach-Cobbler Hallucination About LeBron James, PCP, Outlaw Bikers, Cocks, Abortion, And Suicide
When LeBron James stood up the Cavs live on ESPN last season, Esquire writer Scott Raab took his 50-plus years of sad-sack Cleveland sports fandom and became a one-man hate machine. For those of you annoyed by Raab's anti-King James Twitter rantings last year, you'll be happy to know his new book is...
In Case You Were Interested In A Book That Calls LeBron James A Whore
Esquire has the first excerpt from Scott Raab's The Whore of Akron, on sale Nov. 15. We'll have more later in the week. For now: "Lord. This is where LeBron James wants to play basketball, in front of sun-dried cretins who must be bribed to act as if they care about the game and the team. ... For as...
Why Yes, One Cleveland Writer Did Offer Up A Nazi Death-Camp Gas For Use As Dirk Nowitzki's Nickname
And it was Scott Raab (yesterday). Oh, don't get all "How dare you belittle millions of deaths for a joke the morally depraved community doesn't even so much as giggle at?" He apologized 13 hours later, while nobly driving page views to a story he wrote last year about retired U.S. autoworker/convi...
Scott Raab Shaved "QUITNESS" Into His Head For LeBron's Return
Esquire's Scott Raab, whose LeBron Watch here chronicled Cleveland's inevitable doom last summer, still is not quite cool with LeBron James, the Whore of Akron....
Telestrator Dong And Balls Run The Triangle Offense
Because no one reads the newspaper, and SportsCenter's anchors are too perky for this early in the morning, Deadspin combs the best of the broadsheets and internets to bring you everything you need to know to start your day....
Greg Oden's Shirt Is Far More Accurate Than He Realizes
Because no one reads the newspaper, and SportsCenter's anchors are too perky for this early in the morning, Deadspin combs the best of the broadsheets and internets to bring you everything you need to know to start your day....
LeBron Watch, Day 55: Dan Gilbert's Top Secret Second Letter To Cleveland
The Cavs owner has already racked up a $100,000 penalty for ripping LeBron James, and now, in the wake of Zydrunas Ilgauskas's departure for Miami, he appears to be gunning for a second fine. Dear Cleveland, all of Northeast Ohio, Cleveland Cavaliers supporters wherever you may be tonight, and res...
LeBron Watch, Day 50: What ESPN Should Have Asked LeBron James
On a night when LeBron James became the most hated man in basketball, only one network had a chance to ask him tough questions about a decision that will shape the future the NBA. And, of course, they didn't do that....
LeBron Watch, Day 49: The Day We All Became Witnesses
At 9 p.m., the long-running soap opera over LeBron James's free agency will end, cementing the fact that the King's ego — not the things he does on the court — has become his defining characteristic....