bill simmons IS bill simmons IN the book of BASKETBALL

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.

the amount of money simmons brings ESPN is probably a drop in their overall bucket. from that standpoint, and given how he openly flouts the company line, it's an understandable business decision

i think it's clear they had no intention of paying simmons after this contract was up but the decision to announce it now is impulsive and dumb. i really don't see simmons being the good soldier type for the next 4 months.

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

― k3vin k., Friday, May 8, 2015 9:23 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, i didn't read that much grantland stuff but it did a good job of being a general purpose site where you could go putter around without being offended or irritated which is a bigger compliment than it sounds.

yeah i mean i didn't fuck with their pop culture stuff, i was strictly simmons/lowe/keri

espn can afford to keep grantland and its writers well-paid no matter its hits; it offers a modicum of journalistic integrity to an organization that otherwise has none. bless simmons for assembling (and being able to assemble) the talent, but i'm skeptical that his editorial prowess is what made it work. and i would hope espn would be very much at pains to demonstrate that

nor was simmons wrong about goodell, etc., but there's a difference between truth-telling and very deliberately being a dick to your employer

simmons has been a pretty firm proponent of 'just hire talented ppl, leave them alone, and let them do what they do' w/ 30 for 30 and grantland and it's worked to their benefit w/ both. 30 for 30 is probably the real money making thing he's come up w/ them (esp now that they're going into stuff that doesn't even feel like the original spirit of 30 for 30 ie another documentary about the willis reed knicks)(which i enjoyed mind you and they did dig up that awesome footage of reed taking on an entire team but it wasn't exactly a story that hadn't been told before).

i think he wanted to stay at espn and was even being a good soldier in his way - he's been on espn radio alot more than he was in the past (though not mike and mike lol)(and some of that is just him and russillo becoming bros i guess) and he had this weird long monologue about his history w/ espn on a podcast a little while back. from what i've read today fox seems like a good bet, they're thirsty as hell and it would put them on the map, he's apparently got friends over there already and he's a big katie nolan fan. they don't have nba but it's not like he was going back to working pregames at espn anyway.

and he's a big katie nolan fan.

lool

idk who that is

didn't want to do it; felt i owed it to him