bill simmons IS bill simmons IN the book of BASKETBALL

yah i usually just jump all over that 15 second skip button until the sports talk comes back

everyone deep down just wants to riff, and be loved for it

used to listen to his nfl odds pod pretty regularly. one of the reasons i stopped: he started doing that andrew luck "impression" every week.

also, i realized that i was mainly listening to him so i could get angry at him and who needs that?

i fuckin hate this guy who ive listened to for hundreds of hours thereby enriching him lol

Is his daughter's podcast any good? I bet it's better than Dave Chang's podcast, yikes.

I really enjoy listening to his podcast, and Bill in general, but I'm hardly a hardcore sports fan.

the dave chang one is bad but i tried the joe house golf one and that was maybe the worst podcast id ever heard.

i fuckin hate this guy who ive listened to for hundreds of hours thereby enriching him lol

― lag∞n, Tuesday, June 23, 2020 4:28 PM (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

ha, im a ny sports fan so even when i liked him there was a decent amount of anger involved

boston simultaneously becoming a sport villain and location for white gangster movies really leveled the whole city up in pop culture visibility

even when i liked him there was a decent amount of anger involved

most sports columnists and commentators have figured out that the road to fame and fortune is to have challops people react strongly to. they are allowed to mix these in with staid opinions almost everyone would agree with or a bit of maudlin sentimental nostalgia, but the challops are what get people to pay attention to you.

i don't listen to podcasts and haven't read anything by him in years, but . . . back long ago on espn page 2 i didn't think he was that challopy?

he was simply willing to endlessly write 4000-word columns and lard them with obvious pop-culture references for a man his age (which is roughly mine). he was unabashed about being a boston fan, which was annoying but relatable. obviously knew a ton about the NBA; probably knew about as much NFL as a *really* obsessed fantasy player; don't think he knew much about anything else outside of the bruins and red sox (and yankees, by transmission)

anyway i certainly don't remember him deliberately taking absurd positions like a skip bayless (okay there was that dream of boogie column but that was just stupid, i don't think he was trying to fire anyone up to fight him)

yeah his early persona was more the every man fans point of view which was novel in the pre blog ecosystem, over time he became a more conventional tv talking head type except who was still obsessed with forcing pop culture references into everything, kind of like when dennis miller hosted monday night football (not sure if im making that up)

well but instead of obscure world war 1 references it was, like, rocky and back to the future

bad run for these type of guys

The CEO of Bleacher Report has stepped down in the wake of employee concerns about racial diversity https://t.co/Y83Ey8fP12

— Bloomberg (@business) June 23, 2020

take sides: kornheiser vs. dennis miller on monday night football

booger mobile over both imo

for real tho, i think miller, since at least he committed to the bit.

ill take kornheiser hes more normal plus has an old school east coast ethnic white quality that is better than nothing, mostly tho its miller is just such a flagrant attention whore i cant stand to listen to him for a second

Is his daughter's podcast any good? I bet it's better than Dave Chang's podcast, yikes.

― reggae mike love (polyphonic), Tuesday, June 23, 2020 5:31 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's a little much to say she has a full podcast--she gets to use one of their pop culture feeds once a month, if that.

but she's pretty good, they basically just get her to talk about whatever she's into but she's prepared, intelligent, and a decent speaker. i think the first time i heard her she did a third-chair thing when bill interviewed the director of that movie eighth grade. she was really good in that one and the director engaged with her questions and thoughts in a cool way.

gotta be better than "jack-o's republican minute"

has she weighed in on her dad 'pulling the goalie'

oh maybe jack-o is the republican guy. sorry, cousin sal.

so many doomed fly nicknames stuck in the web of bill's nepotism

Dave Chang's netflix shows are good. For some reason, he can't stop talking about how hard he works on the pod. Or interrogating the head chefs at his restaurants in a way that makes me uncomfortable. I love him for the great cookbooks and food things he's done, though. I wonder if fancy japanese chefs see him as guy fierri, though.

oh maybe jack-o is the republican guy. sorry, cousin sal.

― the warm seafood salad that exists (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, June 23, 2020 10:16 PM (sixteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

pretty sure they're both republicans but only jack-o is on the record as a simpleton who longs for the reagan years and thought that marco rubio was a great candidate.

https://www.truehoop.com/p/do-i-get-to-speak-now-its-been-like

this is damning

https://i.imgur.com/Q1RKqb3.png

that's a fun read

henry abbott has been pulling this whiny sour grapes shit since he got laid off. everything he writes could be true, or could not be true. but only child syndrome? fuck off w/that.

good hit piece imo its def petty but does makes its case, the only child stuff is obvs dumb but kinda works in context

yeah the only child stuff is lame and stupid, and also puts him on a team with jason whitlock

i suspect bills influence at espn had more to do with the fact that he did numbers than abbott is saying tho no doubt hes prob a good politicker too, then once grantland had failed for long enough bills power at espn dried up

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

oh maybe jack-o is the republican guy. sorry, cousin sal.

Cousin Sal does a show with Clay Travis

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