At Long Last: The Cavaliers, the Warriors and the Cubs
You spend a lifetime as the long-suffering fan of a losing team. It shapes who you are. And then: They win it all! Authors Scott Raab (“The Whore of Akron,” “You’re Welcome, Cleveland”) on the Cleveland Cavaliers and Barry Gifford (“In the Neighborhood of Baseball,” “Wild at Heart”) on the Chicago Cubs.
You spend a lifetime as the long-suffering fan of a losing team. It shapes who you are. And then: They win it all! Authors Scott Raab (The Whore of Akron, You’re Welcome Cleveland) on the Cleveland Cavaliers and Barry Gifford (The Neighborhood of Baseball, Wild at Heart) on the Chicago Cubs. Plus: Host King Kaufman visits yet another championship parade for his once-hapless Golden State Warriors.
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I interviewed Barry Gifford at his writing studio in Berkeley, Calif., the in-law apartment of a house he owns there, and Scott Raab in the attic of his house in Glen Ridge, N.J. In both cases, I made the rookie podcaster mistake of forgetting to ask if I could take a photo. I had a quick selfie Raab had texted me so I would recognize him when he picked me up at the train station. I told him I realized that probably wasn’t for public consumption and asked if he wanted to send me a different photo. So he sent me a different quick selfie. The Gifford photo is by Tabercil (Creative Commons CC BY 2.0).
Read and watch more
- Believeland — Scott Raab appears in and is a producer of this ESPN 30-for-30 documentary.
- LeBron James, the Whore of Akron by Scott Raab, Bleacher Report (mentioned in the story)
- “One of the Best Nights of My Life” by Josh Levin, Slate (Raab interview)
- Barry Gifford Is America’s Offbeat Dostoevsky by J.W. McCormack, Vice
- Still Weird on Top by Michael Bible, Paris Review (Gifford profile)
- Betaball: How Silicon Valley and Science Built One of the Greatest Basketball Teams in History by Erik Malinowski (new book on how the Warriors were built)
Warriors Championship Parade
Music
Opening Theme: “Big Swing Band” by Audionautix. (CC by 3.0)
Closing Theme: “Can’t Win For Losing” by Johnny Rawls, courtesy of Deep South Soul Records. Visit Johnny Rawls’ website and Facebook page.
His latest album is called Waiting For the Train.
Other songs used
Cavaliers
“On My Life” by Letter Box
“Walking the Dog” by Silent Partner
“Bluebird” by E’s Jammy Jams
“Down n’ Dirty” and “Right to Be” by Jingle Punks
Cubs
“Sing Swing Bada Bing” by Doug Maxwell, Media Right Productions
“Bar Crawl” by JR Tundra
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