bill simmons IS bill simmons IN the book of BASKETBALL

lolol

bill mad halftime wasnt longer my lord

He also seemed frustrated by what he considered the inadequate amount of time devoted to halftime, and other ancillary shows, and objected to slotting pre- and post-game coverage directly opposite big playoff games on other networks.

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/05/inside-shocking-abrupt-divorce-bill-simmons-and-espn

my dvr says there is a new episode of the grantland basketball hour on tuesday but i'm guessing that is not going to happen. it would be great tho if they replaced him as host w/ someone and made jalen and lowe sit through it all like nothing happened.

that piece says the BS report might continue with a new host, which...

ya u know theyre gonna cant just let all those subscribers go

big steendriver report

The author of that story in Vanity fair seems to think that Simmons' criticism of Roger Goodell had a whole lot to do with his firing.

bill is sad
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--WUGsExgy--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/1246882598124803732.jpg

:(

one thing thats weird abt this is the universal acclaim for the 30 for 30 series, like theyre alright prob better than ur average basic cable doc but nothing on level of what say pbs regularly produces and nowhere near a theatrical release, some of them ive seen have been down right bad like the loyola marymount one showing hank gathers collapsing in slow mo 100 times and only showing 5 seconds of game footage while spending a good chunk of the piece talking about their crazy exciting style of play

do tons of ppl watch them are they a huge ratings winner why do they merit such high praise

winning time, benji, bad boys, price of gold all really good imo

bad boys /is/ marred by its kid rock narration though :l

is it cause there has to be a non writing simmons endeavor writers can point and and be like this was successful otherwise ur just left with a money losing website and a flameout as a tv guy

or was espn paying him $5m a year to write infrequently and dispassionately

the podcast is v popular i guess but its hard to srsly argue for a pod even in our post serial reality

yeah there were some good ones and some bad ones, speaks to lowering standards for tv and sports coverage as much as anything. i wonder if some of the acclaim they got in the media was due to the fact that espn was funding the directors to pursue an idea and presentation of their choosing, seems like no particular style was dictated and espn was fairly hands-off.

i thought broke was really bad, jesus was that a missed opportunity.

mostly they kinda came off as boring ponderous behind the sports music

wait what are these awesome sports docs pbs regularly produces that i've been missing

that wld be cool, just meant docs generally

http://i.imgur.com/aUFn3yd.jpg

daddys nap time

yeah i think what alot of ppl liked about 30 for 30 was it wasn't ye olde ken burns baseball reverence/stories told a million times. different strokes for different folx though.

due to the fact that espn was funding the directors to pursue an idea and presentation of their choosing, seems like no particular style was dictated and espn was fairly hands-off.

thats definitely a huge part of why they were well-regarded, far as i can tell

the nelson george doc about magic johnson is pretty good, that and the others i named and four days in october (which is objectively a mediocre doc but, yknow, red sox #feelings) are all i've seen

i wasnt suggesting a ken bunrs style fwiw just pointing out that on a weekly basis frontline / nova / american experience do much high quality work than 30/30 which is much closer to a history channel/vh1 just standard not that great slapped together tv doc, they just seem totally unremarkable quality wise as well as style and subject matter

it wasn't ye olde ken burns baseball reverence/stories told a million times

― balls, Monday, May 11, 2015 12:05 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

none of them were exactly obscure subjects lol

did u guys know chris webber called a timeout

miami hurricanes were good in the 80s

some of them were! the usfl one was fun.

though it's gotten away from that. initially it was let talented ppl (ok or 'talented' ppl) tell stories that haven't been told a million times before, w/ the appeal being that you had different styles plus fresh stories as opposed to hbo uniform sports docs about the brooklyn dodgers. it was hit or miss even then (and not in predictable ways ie the barbara kopple one being one of the worst ones) but it was entertaining as hell at its best (the oj one, the u, the reggie/knicks one). it is funny though cuz that first wave was a big ratings and critical hit and then espn just shelved it until simmons publicly bitched and moaned enough that they brought it back. they've figured out 'o right, easy cash cow' and the distinctiveness is gone (can't remember the last time they bragged about the director of one of these) plus they're doing hbo type stories (again w/ the willis reed knicks) but even those are usually entertaining and occasionally they still produce one that seems unique and specific to the 30 for 30 idea - the big east one, i hate christian laetnner. i mean a pbs one would spend half the time w/ frank deford explaining who christian laetnner was and what basketball is, then wonder why anyone could hate duke it's one of our finest universities and coach k is an inspiring figure to the young men he's been a father figure to, and then expose its viewers to the shocking reality that college sports is corrupt and exploitive.

yeah i mean some of them r cool just wondering why the universal praise when they are quite obviously totally ordinary

also frontline wld make a million times better christian laetnner one, american experience maybe not

spoken like a man who's never heard npr's sports coverage

initially it was let talented ppl (ok or 'talented' ppl) tell stories that haven't been told a million times before, w/ the appeal being that you had different styles plus fresh stories as opposed to hbo uniform sports docs about the brooklyn dodgers.

― balls, Monday, May 11, 2015 12:16 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i mean i understand that this is the marketing pitch but i dont think its actually is what happened, prob partially cuase simmons was involved and his idea of doing something different is still gonna be very conventional

also frontline wld make a million times better christian laetnner one

i think the point is that frontline's not going to bother.

i mean i can guarantee you in the frontline laetnner one unlv and michigan are the bad guys

although i'm sure all things being equal that statement is true xp to self

i mean i can guarantee you in the frontline laetnner one unlv and michigan are the bad guys

― balls, Monday, May 11, 2015 12:21 PM (12 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

omg u clearly are clearly not a regular frontline viewer

that first wave each one was pretty different than the others and lol at the guy repping for ken burns baseball as what 30 for 30 should aspire to calling june 17th, 1994 conventional

frontlines wld be abt how college basketball is all bad, they have prob already made that one tbh, anyway my point abt pbs was just that they produce higher quality work not that the 30/30 series shdve been actually done by them

lol at the guy repping for ken burns baseball as what 30 for 30

― balls, Monday, May 11, 2015 12:22 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol have constantly zero reading comprehension

i'll take albert maysles over ken burns any day

daddys nap time

― lag∞n, Monday, May 11, 2015 12:04 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hmm what cld this mean

like theyre alright prob better than ur average basic cable doc but nothing on level of what say pbs regularly produces and nowhere near a theatrical releasey

― lag∞n, Monday, May 11, 2015 11:51 AM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

its weird u didnt start being all THEATRICAL DOCUMENTARY RELEASES ARE LIKE THIS

hey if there's other pbs sports docs you want to rep for feel free. maybe the expose that omg brace yrself concussions are bad and you can get them from playing football.

what theatrical releasey sports docs are you talking about (million dollar arm not actually a documentary)

u realize i was just saying they are not very well produced documentaries right like i suspect u realize that

idk is there some sort of side door for sports movies are they graded on a curve shd i be all this bad movie is good because it is about sports

i have never seen ken burns baseball btw lol no thank u

i mean if you're just saying 'eh, the u was alright but you know what was really awesome - SHOAH' then yeah sure

theyre just not that good as movies this is not that hard to understand