bill simmons IS bill simmons IN the book of BASKETBALL

poor brian grant has Parkinson's :(

!!!! whaaaaa

damn guy is only like 40

yeah he lives in Portland now and does some work with the team. There's a big Parkinson's dinner at the RG every year that he hosts (my gf worked it and served Michael J Fox last year!) but every time he speaks during halftime during a fundraiser or whatever it's super heartbreaking :(

he at least used to be v readable now its just like v sludgy

yeah there are some people who could keep cranking out good columns while also doing hours of podcasts and managing a new website and having a family and whatever else, but he is not one of those people.

kinda doubt family takes up much of his time tbh

ill probably drop in on this site just to see what a few of the writers (and klosterman- he's a great sports almost-troll) are doing but yeah...even the name seems off.

and agreed that wire/playoffs column was just so much overworked gimmick. like a four hour epic film based on a mad lib.

"Grantland" is such a stupid name.

is he feuding with olbermann just because olbermann thought a jfk joke was offensive?

yep.

christ olbermann

Not the first time they've been mad at each other.

http://www.mrdestructo.com/2011/05/bill-simmons-and-grantland.html

Bill Simmons is to Grantland Rice what Tucker Max is to Hunter Thompson.

that was... very hardbody

pretty sure that blog post was longer than the entire output of grantland to date

his opinions about music are really cool and original tho: http://www.mrdestructo.com/2009/11/av-clubs-50-best-albums-of-decade-are_9501.html

take it to ilm pal

I feel like Barkley's walking back his comments re: gay players on this Simmons/Klosterman podcast.

my friend started reading big book of basketball and describes it like this: "it was like what a homosexual blowjob to a straight guy who passed out reads like"

wait. does the straight guy pass out before he gets the blow job or after?

probably a better thread for this but.. gonna be away from the computer for a few weeks and also lookin to step down from the post-season without going cold turkey. anyone got any rec's for a good hoops read? not sure what kind of thing i'm lookin for here, maybe not a memoir? something sort of broad-ish? some good play analysis ish in there maybe? last decade would be a plus. dunno, thinking out loud i guess but wld be psyched for a suggestion or two. thx ilh bros

breaks of the game (1979) and seven seconds or less are both pretty great and entertaining. the last shot, about high school players in coney island featuring a cameo from a super-douchey sophomore stephon marbury, also gets pretty epic.

awesome, thanks dude. was figuring on just grabbing a handful, so if I can find em in town, I'm in. McCallum one looks great.

yeah, it's really fun. eddie house and alvin gentry each have tons of hilarious quotes iirc

was going to recommend seven seconds or less myself, curious how it would read with some hindsight on the dantoni suns. also I thoroughly recommend The Last Shot which is a great investigation into coney island basketball culture in the 90s and how inner city kids are manipulated by recruiters. sounds a bit grimmer than it is, though it's pretty grim. main profile is of a 15 year old stephon marbury's high school squad!

oh lol didn't see symsym also recommends last shot! sorta skipped over it after seeing 7 secs or less.

yeah def gonna shoot for both of those

the breaks of the game is fascinating too, especially if you enjoy david halberstam's patented way way too much detail style...there's twenty pages devoted to every benchwarmer's life story, but he still somehow makes it both compelling and relates each life to the path of the blazers and the state of the nba as a whole. ilh's numerous blazers fans can rep for it, right?

the 2nd best nba book ever (after the book of basketball obv)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51K0G4Q4JEL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Ds0Jf00SL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/417vJWhKwIL._SS500_.jpg

http://books.google.com/books?id=4kLJkLerSaAC&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&l=220

feat. "fuck you, bill."

It was a sultry afternoon, and midway through the game, we went inside to the Dugout Club to cool off and talk. Simmons sounded as if he was having some regrets about Grantland. “It hasn’t been as much as fun as I had thought,” he told me. “I’m not sure I would do it again.” Too much of his time was being spent in the office, dealing with administrative tasks, which was encroaching on his column.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/magazine/can-bill-simmons-win-the-big-one.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

“Come on, you’ve won two titles in a row!” Simmons said. He went on to compare Kay to a guy who picks up women at a bar for two weeks straight, “and then strikes out once and complains about it.”

we really need to start a rolling thread of eye rolling bill simmons analogies

no we dont

“I printed out those 6,000-word columns and took them to the bathroom just like everybody else,” says A. J. Daulerio, the 37-year-old editor in chief of Deadspin, Gawker’s sports blog.

jeez I didn't know you felt so strongly about this!

i hope grantland is good, but we'll see

A version of this article appeared in print on June 5, 2011, on page MM41 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline: CAN BILL SIMMONS BIG ONE?.

wow that article is the most effective argument i've ever read for simmons being a legit douchebag

"40 year old fratboy" is generally nagl as a way to live your life

yeah i feel like bill usually demonstrates one redeeming quality or another but nope not in that piece

gawker

ESPN regular-guy superstar sports blogger writer blah etc. Bill Simmons is starting his own boutique sports site, Grantland, in the very near future. Is he excited? "It hasn't been as much as fun as I had thought," he tells the NYT magazine. "I'm not sure I would do it again." Pretty encouraging words, from the boss! Your staff is prepared to follow you to the ends of the earth and beyond, Bill Simmons!

lol

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/06/05/magazine/05simmons1/mag-05Simmons-t_CA1-articleInline.jpg

smh

Simmons is a funny, intelligent and original writer. He comes up with surprising angles and conceits — in a column last month, he applied quotes from “The Wire” to moments in the N.B.A. playoffs — that may not always work but certainly prevent him from becoming predictable.

loll waht writing a wire themed nba column is prob the most predictable thing he couldve done

i guess it's novel if youve never read him--author claims he's a fan so it's one of those nyt things where they take the reader's hand and lead them around

yo bill: less tweeting and website starting and podcasting; more column writing. thx

Reeling at the idea of Hipster Runoff, Humblebrag, and Bill Simmons in business together.

You guys need to listen to his podcast from today. Simmons talks to the guy who wrote the ESPN oral history book and he goes into a tangent about how he shouldn't have talked to him because he comes across like an asshole.

I turned it off after five minutes because it was so awkward.