National Basketball Association

Heat ban writer after vulgar posts

Published Nov. 18, 2010 10:37 p.m. ET

foxsports

If you want to get close to LeBron James, you'd better watch what you say about him.

The Miami Heat banned an Esquire writer from the team's facilities after the writer blasted James in a series of obscene Twitter posts earlier this week.

The writer, Scott Raab, is from Cleveland and is writing a book about James. The NBA MVP's departure in free agency to Miami has yielded plenty of choice words from Raab.

The insults posted Sunday were laced with expletives and included calling James a "loser" and a "gutless punk," the New York Times reported. Raab also frequently refers to James as the "Whore of Akron" on his Twitter feed.

The Times reported that the Heat’s head of media relations sent Raab an e-mail on Monday that read, “You are no longer welcome at our building and will not be credentialed moving on.”

Though the Heat did not give a specific reason for the ban in the e-mail, a spokesman confirmed to the Times when reached on Wednesday that the Twitter posts were the cause.

The ban hasn't stopped Raab from keeping an eye on LeBron. He tweeted Wednesday night about attending the Heat's game against the Phoenix Suns.

"Nice time at Heat game," the tweet read. "Sat across from Heat bench, five rows off floor. Stared hard at #WhoreOfAkron, to no avail. Need work on my mojo."

Raab has written for Esquire since 1997.