The Whore of Akron

On July 8, 2010, LeBron James announced that he was leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to join the Miami Heat. By that time, Scott Raab had spent a year embedded with the Cavs, hoping to write the fairy tale of how Northeast Ohio’s Moses led America’s longest-suffering fans to the Promised Land.

Raab is one of those fans. He still has his ticket stub from December 27, 1964, when the Cleveland Browns shellacked the Baltimore Colts to win the NFL Championship — the last time Cleveland fans experienced ultimate joy. Raab also has Chief Wahoo tattooed on his left arm, a souvenir of his first profile of Dennis Rodman, in 1994.

While awaiting another Cleveland championship, Raab has profiled Rodman (twice), Troy Aikman, Alex Rodgriguez (the notorious Jeter-dissing), Don Zimmer, Don KIng, David Cone, Paul Assenmacher, Drew Carey, Pete Rose, Yogi Berra, Ted Williams, Kevin Mackey, George Karl, Shaquille O’Neal, Larry David, Dan Patrick, Ann Coulter, Ryan Seacrest, Phil Spector, Rod Blagojevich, and an AIDS-stricken pedophile who preyed on two generations of high-schoolers. But Raab never met a human as purely loathesome as LeBron James. (Sheryl Crow came close, but she never pledged to bring an NBA title to Cleveland.)

So Raab’s spending the 2010-2011 NBA season following the Heat and the Cavs, seeking the essence of fanhood and loyalty, love and hate, Cleveland and Miami, triumph and defeat, hope and despair and joy and sorrow.