bill simmons IS bill simmons IN the book of BASKETBALL

carolla thread is for true g's only, u scrubs wouldnt be welcome anyway

dont want to alarm u all but simmons has a column up comparing brady/manning to biggie/tupac

the comparison is basically pointless but the football content of the column is good

lol whats up w/him making up fake nicknames for pats/colts games

I really liked it, especially the Mo Cheeks coda at the end, and all of the stuff where Brady is unconcerned about where things match up on the mythical lists of greatness. Like the whole point of the article other than Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are good at quarterbacking is that the amount of column inches and sports talk radio/TV hours spent engaged in the discussion are basically just unnecessary entertainments unrelated to the actual games and those involved. He spends all this time discussing EPIC RIVALRY and then Brady is like "Yeah Peyty's a good dude, I'm just tryna do me"

simmons comes this close to owning up to being a fabulist then backs off w/thats what its all abt vegas baby!

typical

whats a fabulist

like, the best list ever, obviously! Duh.

http://grab.by/8fJO

check out this sweet chrome plugin i have

nice to see he hasn't lost his touch for absurd statistical prediction allowing manning to smash every cumulative record including favre's game streak

cf. his utterly ridiculous prediction of durant's stats from before last year where his reasoning was basically "he improved every stat 30%, that should continue indefinitely with no leveling off"

u couldnt have just said 'liar'?

tbh at first i thought u were implying he was a homo

haha

I liked that article but homie needs an editor.

lol tamtam

actually a good summary of most of his brady articles would be 'mancrush but no homo lol'

http://deadspin.com/5733157/police-called-to-bill-simmonss-home-for-burglary-only-to-find-mighty-mighty-bosstone-in-socks

sports guy bros down w/dickie barrett in l.a. *boston explodes*

inventor of ska breaks into sports writers house

yeah, i still get really excited about the trade value column

its a great feature 4 sure

lol "empty calories all-star team"

37. Serge Ibaka
Think how much better he's gotten just in the past 12 months … then think about the fact that he's only 21 … then remember that, by the time he turned 20, he had already survived a violent civil war in the Congo, been separated from his 18 siblings, survived on his own in Spain and Oklahoma City, learned his third and fourth languages and morphed into a playoff contender's key shot-blocker/rebounder despite the fact that he started playing organized basketball only five years ago. I'm not betting against Sergeballu LaMu Sayonga Loom Walahas Jonas Hugo Ibaka.

i like this argument

4. Derrick Rose
I still have him as the MVP. If you disagree, go look at the standings, try to find me 10 games in which Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah played together, then watch Keith Bogans play for 10 minutes. Derrick Rose did more for that team through the first 50 games than anyone else did for their team; doesn't make him the best player, just the most valuable. At least so far. Of course, we can't sleep on this scenario, courtesy of Tim in Troy:

"I think we could have a Hakeem Olajuwon/David Robinson situation brewing with the 2011 MVP: What if Rose gets presented with the trophy in front of LeBron before a Bulls-Heat Round 2 playoff game? I picture a standard LeBron Eff You game (40, 10 and 10, five mean dunks, sits for the fourth quarter) making Hakeem's shakedown of The Admiral look like a birthday present."

Great call. Yet here's the difference between Rose and Robinson: Rose would get ticked off by the Eff You performance, try to match it … and then it would be on like Donkey Kong. Have I mentioned how excited I am for the 2011 playoffs? I've mentioned that, right? We're definitely getting Boston-Chicago, Boston-Miami or Chicago-Miami in Round 2. Round 2!!!! Any one of those three matchups will be old-school, '80s-style, no-handshaking bloodbaths. I can't wait for the refs to get overprotective and screw it up.

ok this enrages me for a number of reasons a. the mvp is not necessarily the best nba player inane self serving media fallacy b. the bulls are winning w/defense (1st in defensive efficiency, 17th in O) and rose is not a good defender c. if rose gets exposed in the playoffs its not going to be by someone who plays a dif position scoring a lot of points its gonna be by a team baiting him into taking bad shots making turnovers and exposing his defense d. the ever present kobe bryant memorial spectacularness premium, rose is not playing nearly as good as the same old real mvp candidate guys, but he looks really good doing it

rose is not playing nearly as good as the same old real mvp candidate guys, but he looks really good doing it

interesting point

i still think mvp = dirk, if not bron bron

bron is so much better than everyone, its boring, w/e i kind of feel like all the nba awards are so constantly unjustly distributed they should just do away w/them

true for every sport?

yeah prob i dont follow the other sports closely enough to make an accurate comparison tho

well it feels like there's far less inconsistency year-to-year for individual bball players than like baseball or football. once you hit your peak production, you can spend several years there as long as you put in the work.

tru

i'm too lazy to link to the article showing how Rose has developed into an above avg defender this year.

damn man, he can develop into and above avg defender and you can't link to a gd article?

they really should just rename it the Most Outstanding Player award. I don't think Rose has been that.

Bill Simmons’ new site will be entertaining, well-written, funny and provocative. Its development is driven by Bill’s vision to provide fans a place to spend time, read, and think.

* The graphic style of the site, designed by renowned magazine designer Walter Bernard, will be simple and elegant, in order to set it apart from the daily rush of sports news.
* The site will host Bill’s columns and podcasts, but unlike Page 2, it will not be based on the sports events of the day or the current sports calendar.
* In addition to Bill’s works, the site will include columns and essays about sports and pop culture from leading journalists.
* Bill is building a team of lesser-known, talented young writers and editors to capture new voices and commentary on sports and pop culture.
* We anticipate some edgy topics and writing, but such content will remain the exception.
* About 70 percent sports, 30 percent pop culture, with less video than other ESPN sites.
* Bill sees the site functioning with limited fan interaction, including a selection of about 300 fans with exclusive access to comment on the site and interact with contributors.

'exclusive commenters' is kinda an interesting idea, its another tier of writers for people to get to know

* The site will host Bill’s columns and podcasts, but unlike Page 2, it will not be based on the sports events of the day or the current sports calendar.

this seems p unrealistic

i assumed that was referring to the rest of the content more than bill's stuff.

and i'm v. glad the site will not be commenter free for all

the two confirmed hires are klosterman and katie baker btw

and this guy

williamfleitch Will Leitch
Two great great hires in a week. RT @LaneBrown Exclusive! Today is my last day at Vulture. I'm joining Bill Simmons' new site
56 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

huh--he is just some blogger i guess?

http://nymag.com/author/lane%20brown/

"deputy entertainment editor"--i guess he will be the main pop-culture person or something

the pop culture part of this site is going to be painful as will the aspiration toward a literary sports writing ideal, predictions

klosterman's sports essays are usually p. good, really liked the football one in his new book, basically in favor of anything that lets him do some more sportswriting

not in favor of anything that lets simmons write more pop culture stuff, his dedication to survivor and road rules is mind-boggling

another writer for his new site http://thisrecording.com/today/2011/3/4/in-which-we-sound-the-airhorn-for-mollys-very-last-this-reco.html

interesting considering how strange he can be abt women in his writing that he hired a woman who is often overtly feminist in hers, good on him http://thisrecording.com/today/2011/2/22/in-which-we-teach-you-how-to-be-a-woman-in-any-boys-club.html

let's hope they don't have to be in the same office, let alone the same fantasy football league

yeah, guessing she'll be in "culture" section, not simmons' man-cave

the new site is called "grantland" and a couple of preview pieces has been posted via his twitter

named after Grantland Rice, "a legend in the sports journalism world"

Anyone read anything by Grantland Rice? I'm not familiar.