bill simmons IS bill simmons IN the book of BASKETBALL

i get what you're saying there but i think mostly it's like the last thing i want from simmons et al is a reason for them to take themselves really seriously, and this site seems to indulge in that and oh man, no thanks on that.

just write about the nba, bill! i'll take a thousand terrible gm summits to whatever this endeavor is.

it def has the potential to be horribly awful!

i mean there is no way in hell im reading dave eggers on wrigley field or two separate articles on some defunct sports newspaper

i will however agree check out the piece on baldwins twitter :/

oh christ of course eggers is writing for them i mean duh of course

theyre puttying out a quarterly journal w/mcsweeneys lmao

i mean there is no way in hell im reading dave eggers on wrigley field

oh man i thought this was a joke but no

hahahaha they punctuated carles hahahahaha

why did anyone think this was a good idea whyyyyyyy

― J0rdan S., Friday, June 10, 2011 3:42 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

have you looked at HRO lately? he's punctuating himself

Thought Pierce's article on the National was pretty interesting, maybe only because I have vague memories of reading my dad's copy every day when it was out.

heh, i think deadspin is just gonna make scocca their full-time grantland assassin

http://deadspin.com/5811438/

grantland's footnotes are killing me. i don't know how these articles look on a regular computer, but on my iPhone and iPad you can't hit the "back" button and go to the original spot in the article you were just at. nope, it takes you all the way to the top of the page and you have to scroll all the way down to where you were reading. and you have to do that over and over again. what a piece of shit website.

Rock VORP
By Chuck Klosterman
How important is Albert Hammond Jr. to the Strokes? Grantland does the math.

the day we all feared

lolll

baaaaaarf

shit that looks like an Onion article but isn't

it really is awful

omg

By Chuck Klosterman

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lmhb7goxVB1qa9bmvo1_400.png

a ronald thomas clontle reference!

god that is just the worst article written by the worst person with the worst taste

http://nymag.com/images/2/daily/intel/08/03/07_chuckklosterman_lgl.jpg

"I give props to my ninjas and kudos to my serfs."

i can't stand klosterman but actually sort of enjoyed his first couple grantland things....was giving me hope...that hope has been cruelly snatched away.

people who listen strictly to rock music should not write about music

it's the vh1-ification of music

unless you're writing about metal

i've never knowingly read him before thank god...he is an astonishingly bad writer - maybe it's my age and i've read way too much writing like this from my peers, this terrible semi-ironic style where every other word is some sort of terrible in-joke or reference, like they're trying desperately, pathetically hard for a laugh - simmons obviously is on this spectrum but at his best he's smart enough and funny enough to the point where the signal drowns out the noise

i mean it's a difficult balance to pull off - for every chuck klosterman there's a peak-era bill simmons, or a gabe from videogum (i don't check this site anymore unless my little brother makes me read something but even he grates on me now a little too)

this is such a shit idea for an article & he's not even remotely close to being an interesting enough writer for it not to be one of the most boring things i've tried to read in a long ass time

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6625899/three-man-weave

this was cool tho. maybe he should stick to reporting because the one thing he is not is witty, tho he really thinks he is.

well he can certainly tell a story better than he can just be a dude writing a funny piece

yeah the name is v familiar (i dont read much non-nerdy sports stuff lol) and i'm sure he's a decent writer when he just like, tries to write instead of being all cute or whatever, sorry that style i was referring to just in all seriousness infuriates me, like it might as well be in the fucking style manual that all under-30s refer to for their informal writings

I didn't read the piece but I feel like I've heard that story before in other klosterman books

anyway it's pretty funny that b simmons invites the one writer in america who's capable of making more ham-fisted analogies with pop culture than himself

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6648606/absurdity-nba-half-court-rule

this was the other one i liked--argues that the rule where u can advance the ball to the frontcourt after a timeout in the last two minutes is unique in shortcutting the rules for the sole purpose of creating more excitement.

it's deliberately slight but idk it was something i had never thought about.

anyway it's pretty funny that b simmons invites the one writer in america who's capable of making more ham-fisted analogies with pop culture than himself

― dayo, Tuesday, June 21, 2011 10:47 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

well why do you think simmons reveres him so much!

lol i didn't read that piece but he is otm & it's something i've thought about before

yeah that's a solid piece - nba has a bunch of rules like that one that are meant to facilitate scoring/offense - defensive 3 seconds, no hand checks, no turnover if guarded for 5 seconds like in college, etc

one of the better things simmons has dug up is that this is basically the (awesome) story of the invention of the shot clock! i like that the nba is basically ok changing rules and explaining "this will make it more fun to watch"

yeah soccer could take a note eliminate offsides hint hint

baseball too give every player a gun hint hint

hint hint

wow what is this column http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6693430/painting-nba-trade-picture

i scanned through that, noted that it was certainly written under the influence of cocaine, and moved on with my life.

i think fake trade talk is frivolous fun most of the time, but this is one of the most strained & absurd columns i've ever read

So the Nets turned $1.50 of coins into a $1 bill; they felt like they had to overpay because it was their one chance to acquire paper.

...

exactly.

like i'm sure this all seemed like a good idea in the process of writing it or whatever but don't you step back and look at your insanity now and then and just hit delete

So the Nets turned a roast beef sandwich into a tuna sandwich; they felt like they had to overpay because they were tired of eating roast beef for lunch.

You also have to feel for the Trade Machine, which will spend the summer hanging out on ESPN.com like a bored housewife who never gets hit on, looking sad, wearing tight clothes, and flirting with the pool boy in a desperate attempt to get noticed.

wait is this the O_o 2 thread?

yeah, there's not much to say about that kinda stuff at this point