About the book

In the new book "Joe Tait: It's Been a Real Ball" (softcover / $15.95 / 264 pages), Terry Pluto teams up with legendary broadcaster Joe Tait to tell the story of Tait's four-decade career as "the Voice of the Cleveland Cavaliers" and as a play-by-play announcer for the Cleveland Indians and other local teams. The book also includes personal recollections from dozens of Tait's fans and colleagues.

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When LeBron James was playing for Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, Joe hated the hype. He hated the team playing a national schedule, traveling all over the country for tournaments. He hated how some of those high school games were televised on ESPN, the first high school team to be featured on the national sports network. He hated how James was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and other national magazines. He hated how James' team was covered nearly as well as the Cavaliers when James was a senior. He hated how James was called "The Chosen One" and "King James."

But he never hated LeBron James.

"I don't blame him for all that," said Joe. "It's just the professional sports mentality permeating all the way down into the high schools. Some of the summer teams are just cesspools."

Joe loves small-time high school sports, which is why he'd broadcast a few high school games each winter -- usually from small towns with teams where most kids won't play after high school. It reminds him of the high school games he called as a young broadcaster at small stations in the Midwest.

For Joe, it's like taking a professional shower after all the noise and glitz he endured nightly in the NBA for decades. Because Joe started his career in the Cavs' first season, his best memories are when the team was fighting for its survival. In 1970, there were two basketball leagues -- the NBA and the American Basketball Association (ABA). Part of the reason Cleveland, Portland and Buffalo were granted NBA expansion teams in 1970 was so the upstart ABA would not put teams in those cities. Joe and everyone associated with the NBA in the early 1970s knew two pro leagues would never survive. They knew some franchises would fold or move. They knew the last thing pro basketball needed was an overblown sense of entitlement.

So it's hard for Joe and most others from that basketball generation to comprehend the star system that transformed James and some other high school players into instant celebrities and ordained superstars at the age of 16. While some players could go straight from high school to pro ball in the 1970s, very few did. The three most notable were Moses Malone, Bill Willoughby and Darryl Dawkins. Most players waited at least three years before leaving college for the pro draft.

But starting in 2001-02 -- James' junior season -- pro scouts were drooling over a 16-year-old from Akron.

Like any sane adult, Joe knew this was not a healthy situation for any young player.

As Joe said, "So much of it was embarrassing."

And as he stressed when talking about James -- he doesn't blame LeBron.

"Somewhere, there was a report that LeBron never talked to me," Joe said. "That's just not true. I never had a problem with him. He'd say hello to me, I'd say hi to him. We never carried on any long conversations, but we were always cordial and professional."

Joe was 66 years old when an 18-year-old LeBron James was the Cavs' No. 1 pick in the 2003 draft. They didn't have much in common. In Joe's final decade with the team, he didn't have much connection with the players. They were generations apart in age and interests. You could say that an NBA lifer such as Joe could have been helpful to a young LeBron James . . . or any other young player . . . but most young millionaires don't think they need much advice.

Joe realized James was unlike any Cavs player -- ever. Not one was as physically gifted. Not one was marketed so aggressively. Certainly, no Cavalier ever had more media attention, commercial endorsements and demands on his time.

"I asked simply that LeBron do one postgame interview a year with me," said Joe. "So many of our games were on national TV, and they always wanted him. He usually did his one interview a year. One time, I remember him coming over to the press table, sitting down in front of me. I said, 'Well, look who is here!' LeBron said, 'I told you that I'd come.' "

And they did a nice interview.

* * *

LeBron was not Joe's favorite member of the James family.

"He was fine, but his mom [Gloria James] was always super-friendly to me," said Joe. "Whenever she saw me, she'd run up and give me a big hug. I enjoyed her."

Then Joe smiled, laughed and told this story . . .

"At halftime of my 3,000th Cavs broadcast, my family was up in a loge that the Cavs had provided," he said. "My son Joe looked down at the broadcast area and saw a woman sitting in my lap. He asked my wife [Jeannie], 'Who is that woman sitting in Dad's lap?' Jeannie looked down and said, 'Oh, that just Gloria.' She knew that Gloria liked to run over and give me a hug. Gloria loved listening to the games on the radio."

* * *

In his final decade doing the Cavs, Joe noticed how players suddenly had "guys." They were personal assistants. Or posse members. Or hangers-on. Or whatever you want to call certain people who were always around the players.

LeBron James had a guy -- Randy Mims.

He was allowed on the team plane and stayed at the team hotel. As Joe said, "LeBron would tell Randy to get something -- and Randy would get it. Or he'd tell Randy to call someone -- and Randy would make the call. You could say he was LeBron's 'Bobo' or whatever, but he was a nice guy and never really got in the way -- at least as far as I know."

For decades, the team had one bus from the hotel to the arena for players, coaches and media members who regularly traveled to the games. But not long after James arrived, they added a special bus for the media.

"I guess they didn't want us with the players and coaches," said Joe. "For a while, they had a full-sized bus, and the only ones on the second bus were Randy Mims and me. Then they went to a 24-seater, and it was still the two of us. We got a laugh out of that. Then LeBron wanted Randy on the first bus, so I rode alone. Then the TV guys starting using the media bus, and sometimes they had some corporate types and contest-winning fans on that bus."

While Mims was with James from the start of his pro career in 2003 -- even sitting right behind the bench during games -- he never had an official position with the team until 2006. Then he was named "team liaison" by Cavs owner Dan Gilbert's front office.

"Dan overdid it trying to placate LeBron," said Joe. "There were times when we had one travel schedule, but LeBron would want to stay an extra day in a certain city because he had a commitment or whatever, and we'd change it to suit LeBron. I'm sure Dan felt that he had to do about anything he could to keep LeBron happy . . . he sure was packing the arena with fans. LeBron could have run naked down Euclid Avenue, and everyone would say how great it was that he was working out to stay in shape. People just loved him, and everything he did was great."

It's fair to say James added about $100 million to the value of the franchise.

"But it's like raising a child," said Joe. "If you give him everything he wants, anytime he wants it . . . that kid is going to come back one day and steal your car."

* * *

In James' final season with the Cavs, Joe had a sense something was wrong.

"I had no idea about him going to Miami, but I just sensed he was not coming back to Cleveland," he said. "I look back now, and I'm convinced that LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh all knew what they were going to do even before LeBron's last Cavs season. I have no cold, hard facts; I just sensed it."

Joe said that while James and former Cavs coach Mike Brown usually got along, "Mike was never LeBron's kind of coach. He was a defensive coach . . . and LeBron would probably rather play for someone like [his former high school coach] Dru Joyce II. I heard there were some problems with LeBron in the dressing room that last season, but I never went in there after the game. So I really don't know, and I didn't make it my business to find out. I just had a feeling that LeBron was like a guy who knew he was going to be somewhere else next season."

Joe said watching the Cavs lose to Boston in the 2010 NBA semifinals, James' lack of leadership was on display for everyone to see.

"He never was a real leader," Joe said. "When we got into the playoffs with Boston and it was clear they were playing their best basketball -- and the Cavs just weren't good enough -- it had a real detrimental effect on his game. I don't know how much his elbow was hurting. I do know that he just didn't play as hard or shoot as much as he should have. He looked defeated, almost as if he just wanted the playoffs to be over and done with. He never has been, never will be a leader. And down deep, he knows it. That's why he left to go with Wade. He'd rather let Wade be the leader."

* * *

Joe did watch the entire Decision show on ESPN, a marketing ploy by James and his associates. They sold the 60-minute special to the all-sports network on which James would talk to sportscaster Jim Gray (who was hired by James, not ESPN) to announce his decision about what team he had picked.

"He knew what he was doing, and he didn't feel right about it," said Joe. "He barely looked at the camera. He seemed very uncomfortable. He never dreamed how this would come off-the negative effect. He still can't believe how it turned the fans against him in every city where he plays on the road. He just didn't get it."

James clearly had ventured out of the safety zone of his hometown team and adoring fans. He went from one of the most likable athletes in the world to one of the most despised, according to several marketing surveys.

"In Cleveland, if he had a bad game or made a mistake -- people would just say that was OK, he'll play better next time," said Joe. "He could do no wrong. No wrong at all. Everyone loved LeBron. That's why he was so surprised by the negative reaction to the ESPN show. . . . He thought everyone would like it because everyone always seemed to like about everything he did."

When Gilbert wrote an email ripping James and calling him a quitter, Joe said the first thing that crossed his mind was, "Dan, you created the monster, now you have to live with it."

But Joe also said he appreciated how Gilbert stood up for the fans and reflected what most of them were feeling about The Decision.

"Dan Gilbert did everything, I mean everything, he could to make LeBron happy," said Joe. "And then LeBron turned right around and took a hike to Miami."

* * *

While Joe didn't watch the 2011 NBA Finals, he was very pleased that Dallas upset James and the Miami Heat.

"The fact that LeBron and Wade and the rest could decide to get together and make their own team, it was great that they lost," said Joe. "I don't care what these guys get paid. But I don't want the inmates running the asylum. I don't want the players acting like this is some summer league all-star team that they put together themselves -- it makes the fans feel something is really wrong with the league. You could end up with all the good players in a few cities, and the league will die a miserable death. The fans will know something rotten is going on."

Joe knows the TV ratings for the Finals were high, "because about everyone outside of Miami wanted to see the Heat lose." Joe said he often was turned off by Dallas owner Mark Cuban, who "can be an insufferable ass." But he found himself laughing at and with Cuban when the Mavericks' owner stood next to the championship trophy and puffed on a victory cigar.

"It was a very good thing that Miami took gas in that series," said Joe.

Joe did watch some of the postgame press conferences and saw how "LeBron suddenly looks like and feels very old."

He said James "still has a hard time with the idea that fans can't stand him. He is having a terrible time dealing with defeat. Then when he said that the people who were against him were still going to have the same problems in their lives when they wake up the next day . . . of all the stupid things to say. I wonder if he'll ever win a championship. I don't know if he has the guts to do it. All the stuff is piling up on him now, and for this, he has only himself to blame."

* * *

Zydrunas Ilgauskas is the last Cavs player who had a close relationship with Joe.

"He went to Miami to try and get a championship ring before he retired," said Joe. "He wasn't even in uniform for some of those games in The Finals. He wanted to be a contributor, playing 15, 20 minutes a game and helping a team win a title. He loved, absolutely loved Cleveland. But when LeBron left, he knew they couldn't win here -- and the team wanted to rebuild and get younger. So he went to Miami. I'm telling you, the culture shock was hard on him."

Joe said one of Ilgauskas' friends visited the veteran center and his wife in Miami.

"I was told they were never happy, and the longer they were there, it got progressively worse," he said. "Mrs. Z is from Cleveland. That was a zoo down there. I feel bad for him, because I'm sure it's not anything close to what he expected."

Reader stories

At age 11, I heard one of the most endearing radio calls known to Clevelanders: Joe Tait's Miracle in Richfield. It hit me harder than I realized. I ended up with a copy of that album from the series and had it signed by every player on the team-including Joe. Foots Walker is the only signature still missing. I showed the album to Joe at a game one night. He got quite the laugh, while I was falling in love with basketball.

Since that initial meeting, I was at games with Joe that defined him. The four-overtime thriller versus the Lakers in 1980 was declared by Joe as his favorite game. I was unfortunate to watch "The Shot" live. I went to Joe's last game when Ted Stepien was in charge.

The 1985 series versus Boston, the Mark Price-Brad Daugherty years, the LeBron James domination-all spent with Joe. Being there, though, did not create the memories. Those came from listening to Joe in the basement of my parents' house where I grew up. One light on . . . Joe on the radio . . . hanging on his every word. I can proudly say that I literally went years without missing a game.

TV games were rare when I grew up, so Joe (thankfully) is what we had. I was so nervous during one of the Jordan-led Bulls games that I took the radio into my closet and listened to Joe in the dark. I figured I could handle it if it was just him and me.

I graduated from college in 1988 and received a degree in -- you guessed it -- radio and TV broadcasting. That didn't pan out, but Joe's influence did. I stayed with basketball, began coaching at the ninth-grade level and earned my teaching degree. I would eventually, and proudly, serve as the head boys' basketball coach at Copley High School. I was there, in total, for 15 seasons.

Basketball led me to many of the greatest relationships in my life, and I can't help but feel that Joe's voice was the trigger that began a fabulous journey. That journey also includes thousands of kids who have created immeasurable influence upon my life. I feel indebted to a man I've only met once, but whose voice I have felt for nearly 35 years.

-- Dana Addis, Wadsworth, Ohio

One of the greatest nights of my life was sharing the Cavs' first-ever trip to the NBA Finals with Joe in 2007. Saturday night, June 2nd, at The Q. I was working for the opposition, the Pistons, as their radio pregame and postgame host. I got the chance to sit in "The Perch," just two seats away from Joe.

As a native Clevelander and longtime Cavs fan, I had to admit I was torn. The Pistons are my employer, and the more they win, the more I get to work and enjoy a run to the NBA Finals again. But I wanted to see history, and I wanted to see Joe finally get to the biggest stage.

Fast forward to the fourth quarter and the Cavs clinging to a one-point lead. Daniel "Boobie" Gibson hit back-to-back 3-pointers, and the crowd at The Q went crazy!

The Cavs were ahead by six points, and the Pistons called a timeout. I leaned back in my chair, and I looked at Joe. He looked at me.

I said, "Joe, this is it, brother! Are you going nuts?"

In classic Joe Tait fashion, he takes off his headset and answers back, "Matthew, win or lose, I get to go home in 10 minutes and 45 seconds, and this is just another ballgame."

He then resumed his spot at his table next to his mini lamp and continued to call the action. The Cavs were not going to be denied. Gibson hit another triple, and then the Cavs were up, 83-71. The dagger 3-pointer had the crowd in a frenzy.

Timeout, Pistons.

I could not help myself. I leaned back in my seat again, looked to the right and made eye contact with my idol. We smiled at each other, and I said, "Come on, man, admit it-this is awesome! You are going to the Finals, Joe!"

I didn't know what Joe would say. Would he acknowledge the moment? He looked to his right and then his left, almost to make sure that nobody was creeping in on our conversation. I waited for a response.

Joe then nodded his head in approval and says, "OK, you got me. This is pretty neat!"

That was all I needed to hear. It was so special. I was so happy for him, and I felt so lucky and honored to be able to share that moment with him. The Cavs won, and after the game, Joe even donned an Eastern Conference Champions hat.

-- Matt Dery, Royal Oak, Michigan