bill simmons IS bill simmons IN the book of BASKETBALL

podcasting really gave him a second life god bless, wonder how spotify is feeling right now lol

simmons definitely had some very powerful friends at espn, and also the culture at espn is extremely competitive and fucked up. i don't think any dysfunction at espn was unique to or really had anything to do with simmons, he was just a big planet in that orbit.

abbott's truehoop newsletter writing is insanely smug and self-satisfied

― call all destroyer, Thursday, June 25, 2020 8:24 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah i never really liked him generally just a really boring conventional writer, havent read him in many years, i do like mean gossipy hit pieces against people i dislike tho lol

true, that's an evergreen genre

As others have already pointed out, Simmons gave his daughter a podcast, hired his nephew (who subsequently recorded a diss track complaining about The Ringer's employees daring to unionize)

https://www.sfgate.com/sports/slideshow/Drew-Magary-Bill-Simmons-The-Ringer-Open-Mic-Night-204312.php

xp def nothing better than weaponized slime against a dude I can’t stand, solidarity with all those who agree with me about who sucks

amen

Didn't he try to bury Free Darko for some reason

i don't know pageviews or whatever, but page 2-era simmons seemed like a big draw, it's not like a complete mystery how he got leverage at espn. they gave him a lot, and it probably ended up being a bad deal for them, but the reasoning behind it wasn't that weird.

Didn't he try to bury Free Darko for some reason

i think there was some point when he was complaining about "bloggers" generally, that they didn't have his high standards, etc. being kind of resentful of people who come after you when you were slightly ahead of the curve is very simmons-y.

he used to complain abt deadspin a lot

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EbKFAtBXQAAhod0?format=jpg&name=medium

wow lol that is a nightmare image

had no idea he dresses like an LA guy

the perfect west coast 'fit for jogging, brunch, guesting on a pod, or even ducking the paparazzi

wearing a knit cap where the climate never demands it, also youre indoors

need an evolution of man graphic except it's boston man turning into LA man

haha

lol

Lmao

Sometimes I think back to how bad his hbo show was

man, that abbott piece is hot trash. starts off with what seems like will be an essay on diversity issues and shady practices and ends up being 5000 words on his own professional grievances. really pathetic

I feel like if I were to write a long essay where every other paragraph was me marveling at how this talentless hack kept pulling off these professional feats and getting big names to co-sign him, I might at some point ask myself, am I the one without the talent?

this is also a guy who published entire pieces on the jeffrey epstein thing that basically concluded "is there a link to the nba? i don't know, but probably!"

he used to complain abt deadspin a lot

― lag∞n, Friday, June 26, 2020 1:41 AM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is probably because Deadspin hated his fucking guts and were always posting the stupidest pettiest hit pieces on him all the time.

That Abbott article is garbage.

the bill simmons defender has logged on

he's an easy target and I'm sure has done all sorts of bad stuff but that article is the fluffiest of sour grapes. absolutely nothing of substance there

...disagree

what did you learn from that article other than he’s an overambitious cutthroat brown noser?

thats good enough for me

also a tantrum throwing lil bitch, i dont think any of those things are insubstantial, its a particular type of behavior that makes life shitty for people who have to be around people like him

sure but these stories have been around forever, it's also a trait that is pretty much universal among people with his kind of clout. and again the article started off like it was going to be some sort of takedown of him as a racist (which may still be true) but ended up just being abbott airing his own personal grievances. it was petty and embarrassing given the moment

idk it's one of those things where if you come at someone like simmons you better really come correct and it was mostly just a bunch of workplace gossip

the article started off like it was going to be some sort of takedown of him as a racist (which may still be true) but ended up just being abbott airing his own personal grievances. it was petty and embarrassing given the moment

this is otm

sure but these stories have been around forever, it's also a trait that is pretty much universal among people with his kind of clout.

― k3vin k., Friday, June 26, 2020 2:17 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

untrue and frankly pretty toxic

still a fun read!

At both his sites, he has collected writers like they’re trophies he can display in his mancave. He hasn’t learned a thing from any of them.

this rings true for Dave Chang, as well. Bill remains committed to chicken parm.

tbf chang likes ch parm too

Bill goes to fancy restaurants and orders the steak

the henry abbott piece is great gossip but it also makes abbott look like a fucking insane person... as none of us are personally involved we can just enjoy it for bringing drama

yeah i came out of it liking both of them less. here for the dramz tho of course

i got more out of the tweets abbott collected than anything he said in his piece

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29375906/espn-show-confirms-decision-was-fan-idea-not-lebron-james

lol

as an editor, i surprisingly often have to nix the 'taking talents to' formulation

you certainly don't want things of that nature slipping into the pieces you edit

talents, crab rangoon, things of that nature

lol someones gotta dig into what simmons said over the years about the decision

ahaha, he literally pitched it to maverick carter or whoever?

yeap

that’s wiiiiild

the beauty of podcasts is it’s hard to find actual records of takes but I know for sure he has repeatedly said stuff about how the decision was a failure of having the wrong people around him or whatever back then. this is hilarious