bill simmons IS bill simmons IN the book of BASKETBALL

On whether the deal with Simmons broke over money. “It did not come down to money. Look, we're a big company. If it was just dollars and cents, we would have figured something out. "It is about ultimately about what he wants to do, what value that creates, what we want to do together in deciding whether there is going to be a match, and we decided that ultimately there wouldn't be."

On his level of interest for retaining Colin Cowherd and Skip Bayless, whose contracts are coming up: “Very high.”

smdh

I was listening to the Hollywood Prospectus podcast this week, and for the umpteenth time, Ryan and Greenwald were joking about forgetting scenes and characters from the shows they are paid to review. Thought that was particularly tone deaf in light of the questions being asked about Grantland's value in light Simmons' canning.

Not that remembering Walda Frey is a matter of life or death, but jesus, have a little bit of professionalism.

they shd take notes

tbf that's a running joke for a lot of people who watch game of thrones casually and ryan isn't an actual critic, but, yeah.

(he runs the triangle blog and does that pod with greenwald bc the two of them are irl friends iirc)

Ahh that explains some of it. Also explains why Ryan admitted to not having seen any of the oscar movies during one of their year-end podcasts.

from a goodbye e-mail to his staff:

Wanted to tell you that it looks like I am done being involved with Grantland. Can’t say much here for obvious reasons, at least for now—I know you understand. In the short-term—don’t let this bullshit affect you. Just keep doing what you’re doing. It’s a job. We tried to make it feel like it was more than a job these last four years, but right now, it’s still a job and Grantland is still being consumed and judged by the general public (with unusually high standards, too). So keep the quality of your work as high as it’s always been. Work situations are rarely going to be perfect and you can’t allow it to affect what you’re doing. The best way to “respond” right now is to keep putting out a great site. If you didn’t know, April was our best month—we passed 10 million uniques without chasing traffic and without any leading-the-site promotion whatsoever from ESPN.com (just one Mets piece for like 90 minutes, that’s it). We built an audience because of quality and quality only. You guys should feel good about that.

It’s a job. We tried to make it feel like it was more than a job these last four years, but right now, it’s still a job

:(

fuck jobs

it would be sweet if a bunch of the staff left with him but i'm not sure if that'll happen

seems like after putting all the time and effort into building that thing most ppl wldnt want to immediately repeat the process somewhere else but who knows

the ESPN affiliation is a big deal and some of the smaller names i'm not sure can take the risk of leaving that behind

seems like if he tries another grantland, maybe an independent venture, might want to make it more podcast heavy less writing

obv just hiring a million ppl cause u like them is not really the look

i know u (kev) luuuuv him, but why on earth would they? espn has a certain interest in making grantland succeed without him, they are decent writers getting paid to work for the wwl, and i doubt that bs himself is much of an editor. unless espn brings in alec baldwin, they would seem to be in a pretty good spot right now

espn prob dismantles/wildly rethinks grantland pretty fast one wld think, it doesnt seem to have much point other than making simmons happy

without any leading-the-site promotion whatsoever from ESPN.com (just one Mets piece for like 90 minutes, that’s it)

/declines the to say what % of traffic came from other espn properties, just like there was only one piece that was leading the home page/

just about everyone on that site is pretty replaceable except for zach lowe, tho

it's possible they liked simmons as a boss and are not going to like the new direction (probably SEO) the site goes in. i agree that for the majority of the staff the ESPN brand is probably more important to their careers and starting something new with BS is probably a big risk

xxp

we passed 10 million uniques without chasing traffic

/publishes game of thrones precaps and recaps because they are good and the world needs them/

(probably SEO)

― k3vin k., Friday, May 15, 2015 10:33 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

eh hem we are living in the social era

how many mad men pieces are on the grantland front page right now, the friday before the airing of the finale? this is probably a fun guessing game u can play at parties w/ friends this weekend.

w/o checking i would guess 4

p much guaranteed anyone focused on quality, doing great work, etc is on some extremely middlebrow shit

wow the answer is only 1, and that's just as part of some culture podcast thing. but i guess grantland isn't quite vulture or hitfix or whatever.

lol yeah i was just about to post that it isn't the a.v. club

hey its only friday theres still time!

they don't post stuff on the weekend!

lol vulture's front page has 12 hits for "mad men" including

TV
How the Media Forced Mad Men Down the World’s Throat
All the Horrible Ways People Think Mad Men Is Going to End
7 Motifs to Watch for in the Mad Men Finale

idk man! they cld!

that's when middlebrow ppl go out and have brunch of whatever

someone summarize where mad men is at for me i havent seen it in ~3 seasons

also tell me how it will end

brunch is good i support brunch brunch is the good kind of middle brow

tbf we don't read the same things there at all

ben lindbergh and, perhaps to a lesser extent, jonah keri are not easily replaceable for baseball

katie bakes and mcindoe are basically the only decent hockey stuff espn does

charlie pierce (and you can't tell me he was all 'i will only be edited by bill simmons')

the av club stuff, tho, sure

xp to av club!

summary: don is slowly receding as the rest of society moves forward

that is a pretty adept summary

wow dons life is dark is he still extremely handsome at least

he is v handsome yes but roger has a mustache

oh what the hell roger

i like keri a lot

pierce, i enjoy his political stuff for esquire but i don't think writing about sports is really his thing

i cannot comment on hockey

yeah, i can't really comment on nba, though i don't doubt lowe is great

i guess mainly what i dislike(d) about simmons was that he wasn't a sports guy, he was an nba guy plus some nfl and maybe other stuff if boston was involved. i distinctly remember a column he wrote during the last nba lockout about taking his kid (who loved it) to a kings hockey game and the whole piece was holy shit this is fun but larry/michael/magic/fredo etc.

much like when wilbon, while at the wapo, would write his annual hockey column comparing ovechkin to jordan. (tbf, wilbon can't do anything without referencing jordan)

interim editor-in-chief:

http://espnmediazone.com/us/files/2009/10/Connelly_Chris_bio.jpg

LOL

-----A POST ONLY FOR PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THE L.A. AREA------

We need 2-3 more quality players for my daughter's under-11 club soccer team. In February, we made the Final 4 of the State Cup (Flight 2) thanks to our phenomenal coach (Jacob Tudela). I was more excited about this than the Pats winning the Super Bowl. Fine, it was a tie. But if you live in the L.A. area and have a 10 year-old female soccer fiend living in your house - or, if you want to rent someone else's 10 year-old female soccer fiend (just kidding) -- email our manager at la✧✧✧.g✧✧@gm✧✧✧.c✧✧ to swing by for a tryout. And feel free to pass this post along to someone else with a 10 year-old daughter in L.A. who loves soccer.

PS: I'm only doing this for one reason - because my daughter made me. Nobody is scarier than a moody 10 year old-girl. Not even serial killers. Anyway, here's the e-mail that our manager sent out earlier this week.

*

I’m reaching out to let you know about the club soccer team that my 10-year-old daughter plays on, which is currently holding tryouts. (Yes, we’re at that point in our lives.) I have just taken over as manager, so I guess technically I’m supposed to be sending out this email, but here’s the thing: I would do it anyway, because of the fantastic experience my daughter has had playing for this club over the last two years.

The team is part of the LA United Futbol Academy, or LAUFA, though many of the girls played together as Downtown SC until this past January, when, as an Under-10 team, they came in third at the Southern California State Cup for Tier 2. Third place, out of 100 teams, for what was a small, independent club. It was a great run that was a credit to the girls and to the work of our coach, Jacob Tudela — the son of a legendary club coach, brother of an ex-LA Galaxy player, and a talented player and passionate teacher of the game (in English and Spanish) in his own right. When I was in college (an increasingly dim memory) I played for Bob Bradley, who would go on to coach the US national team; he helped nurture a love for the game of soccer and a deep respect for how it should be played, so I had a high standard for whoever I would trust to train my daughter. Jacob has exceeded that standard — he’s great with the girls, and they love playing for him. Seriously. Come see for yourself.

As the team has moved up to the U11 age bracket, the games have moved up to 11 v. 11 on full-sized fields, and though we brought on some new players in the spring, we’ve had a couple of families move away, so we still have roster spots available. We practice from 6-8pm, two days a week: on grass on Mondays and on turf on Wednesdays in the middle of L.A. If you’re looking for a club for your under-11-year-old daughter, you’re welcome to get in touch with me through la✧✧✧.g✧✧@gm✧✧✧.c✧✧ and I’d be happy to invite you and your child to a practice. She can have a training session with Jacob and meet our girls, who may remind you of your girl — super-competitive on the field and super-goofy off it. They go to a lot of different schools and have formed friendships through the team that have become as important as the soccer. And we have a pretty okay bunch of parents, too, which helps when you’re all stuck together in a Radisson outside of San Diego for a tournament weekend.

Ours is the first girls’ team LAUFA has had, so we’re still a bit under the radar. And we don’t mind that — the girls have enjoyed going to tournaments and surprising the bigger, better-known clubs. But as we prepare for the fall season the team needs to grow a bit, so I’m getting on a small, virtual soapbox to let people know that the best girls’ soccer club in LA may be one they’ve never heard of.

I’d be happy to answer any questions anyone might have about LA United (including scholarships and financial aid, which are available) or to arrange a practice session for your daughter.

Cheers,
Kirk Rudell

jeez wow

i don't get it

how is simmdog involved

did he write the first half of that or what