bill simmons IS bill simmons IN the book of BASKETBALL

burns me up how pods r where all the good gossip is

he doesn't have dgaf money as much as i would love for him to just destroy espn

kimmel could prob float him some safety net cash on the d/l if he wants to go on an anti-ESPN blitzkrieg

wld be a reasonable enough calculation that its not worth it for espn to sue him, tho obvs itd hurt his future employment prospects

how much is dgaf money he def has way more than it wld take for me to not gaf lol

rather than a huge hit piece hell prob just be taking weird passive agressive shots at them til the end of time

idk $3m/year for the past five years doesn't seem like "i could definitely survive getting sued by the walt disney corp" money

pass/agg shots much more his style

the no way sna of sports personalities

i have a theory that grantland will be much better now simmons has gone, sorta like when the knicks lost patrick ewing

http://www.si.com/more-sports/2015/05/08/bill-simmons-espn-part-ways

i have a theory that grantland will be much better now simmons has gone, sorta like when the knicks lost patrick ewing

noiiiiice

the majority of the Grantland staff swear by Simmons and hold him responsible for the creative freedom and large salaries that have.

well yea, i mean something tells me disney/espn suits were not the impetus behind wesley morris earning 6 figures to write about movies

(which, knowing a handful of paid movie critics, i can say is pretty high for someone w/o ebertesque syndication!)

yeah if i had to guess grantland is prob fd

then again, the SI piece makes a good point saying that they'll prob run it as long as absolutely possible just to prove that they don't need simmons's #name and #brand

or close it/ruin it out of spite/disinterest

feel like if its true they want a more buzzfeedy site than thats prob what theyll do

countdown to zach lowe getting rolled into insider

yeah the speculation i've seen (and the skipper quote seems to confirm) is that in the short term at least they'll continue it out of spite to 'prove' that bill simmons had nothing to do w/ grantland's success

is grantland successful tho

i mean its successful enough, it prob gets slightly more/about the same viewers as deadspin

if i had to guess id say deadspin is much bigger

and they dont have espn.com feeding them traffic either

blatant kinja partisanship, smh

yeah if i had to guess grantland is prob fd

I will weep for lambert and netw3rk and that's about it

lowe tho? morris?

i like andy greenwald's tv reviewing, when he gets into This Is What TV Means In Culture stuff that gets annoying though

rembert is a clown who while not an /entirely/ untalented writer steers into literally every cliche about people my age who write for the internet and seems to really enjoy doing so

i think most if not all of the grantland writers will bolt over the course of the next few months unless they are under contract

I've complained abt Lowe a lot actually. I like him as a talker much more than I do a writer. He's just not graceful as a stylist.

i respect that zach will debate himself and conclude with "i'm not sure what i think" but sometimes he hems and haws a bit much

can't believe i got a nytimes notification on my phone about bill simmons this morning btw like since when is this boston basketball blogger that big a deal, congrats to thebostonsportsguy on his impeccable brand

i mean of boston sports people better it happen to him than shaughnessy or literally anyone from fucking WEEI

hes the biggest sportswriter in the country, also espn gave nytimes the exclusive xp

apparently they docked his pay for getting suspended last year, but they waited until 6 days before christmas to do it. classy!

i dont think lowe is a good writer or anything but i have learned a lot having him explain basketball plays to me

shdve done it on christmas imo

lag∞n
Posted: May 8, 2015 at 1:48:45 PM
hes the biggest sportswriter in the country, also espn gave nytimes the exclusive xp

didn't know abt the latter. But idk Simmons is such a goof and to me he's eternally the gasbag making up insane trades next to Loaded Weapon metaphors on Page 2. Seems weird for him to occupy notification space usually reserved for election results or terrorism updates.

i mostly skim lowe these days, i hate the structure of his columns

Guys are you ready

Since they didn't fire him they're just not renewing him...

What is Bill Simmons's expiring contract worth?

lol

Seems weird for him to occupy notification space usually reserved for election results or terrorism updates.

― Clay, Friday, May 8, 2015 4:52 PM (26 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ya tbh felt the same when i saw the alert way up at the top of the site

He's one of those so overrated he's underrated guys, like in rocky 4 where Stallone is so wait what am I doing kill me xps

at this point he has to be inserting those refs in there to provoke those exact reactions

i have a theory that grantland will be much better now simmons has gone, sorta like when the knicks lost patrick ewing

― Roberto Spiralli, Friday, May 8, 2015 3:10 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a+

talking out of my ass, but i'm gonna guess fox

this sucks tbh

yeah pretty rough for nba/sox/pats/godfather fans, too bad they'll no longer get the inside scoop

simmons will be fine, he'll find his way obv. But it's probably super dumb of espn to ditch the cult of simmons, there's no other figures like him out there and what like 95% of their on-air talent is either toxic or inoffensive to the point of insult. I mostly feel for the grantland writers who must feel like their career is very much in flux because bill simmons rightly is unafraid of saying roger goodell is a monster.

by all accounts simmons had vision and treated his staff well. when grantland goes the way of idolator it'll be sad

Can't for the life of me see what ESPN has to gain by doing this.