The Bill Simmons Thread

johnmd20

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No, sorry he loses points. 1) McShane's role in 1 was smaller, but it was > 2 minutes, and certainly memorable 2) Simmons didn't forget the role/character; he remembered the character, and thought it had been played by someone else. And McShane is nothing if not a very distinctive actor. And again, Simmons claims to be a big Deadwood fan. Unforgivable. So sorry, I'm afraid I am going to have to deduct 3.5 Pop Culture Cred points from Bill's permanent record. The judge's ruling is final.
Aight, he loses the points.
 

Gorton Fisherman

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Reddick's credited role is quite literally "Hotel Manager/Charon". So I deduct 1.5 popular culture credit points from your record. Judge's ruling is final.
Semantics. The point is, Winston is the ultimate authority, the guy who is in charge of the Continental. The Head Honcho. The Top Dog. The Big Cheese. Whatever you want to call it. Charon is clearly his subordinate.

I'm keeping the points. Don't make me go all John Wick on your ass.
 
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Jeff Van GULLY

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Anyone else think the Isaiah Thomas interview was garbage? I put it on Thomas as he wasn't willing to open up but just brutal all around.
 

Marceline

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Yeah, I was pretty excited when I saw he had IT on.

I ended up not even being able to finish the podcast, and I was listening at high speed. It was really bad.
 

kanga12

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That IT interview sounded even worse in contrast to the KD interview several weeks back.
 

Kliq

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Bill just uploaded a new podcast with Zach Lowe; I've been waiting for this for a while.
 

ifmanis5

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Bill just uploaded a new podcast with Zach Lowe; I've been waiting for this for a while.
I wonder if ESPN changed their guest policy? Usually they refuse ESPN talent appearing on other platforms. I guessed they were withholding Voulgaris from Bill as well.
 

Kliq

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I wonder if ESPN changed their guest policy? Usually they refuse ESPN talent appearing on other platforms. I guessed they were withholding Voulgaris from Bill as well.
I feel like Voulgaris has been on the his new podcast. I know like a month ago Jacoby was on a Channel 33 thing; so it looks like things have changed a little bit.
 

Senator Donut

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As far as I know there has never been blanket ban on ESPN personalities appearing on non-ESPN platforms. Pardon My Take has had several ESPN talents on their show and Kirk Minihane had Jackie MacMullen on his show as well. Bill Simmons appeared on Adam Carolla's podcast when he worked for ESPN. They did object to the content, not his appearance on that platform.

ESPN does prevent its talent from appearing on stations that compete with ESPN radio however.
 

ifmanis5

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As far as I know there has never been blanket ban on ESPN personalities appearing on non-ESPN platforms. Pardon My Take has had several ESPN talents on their show and Kirk Minihane had Jackie MacMullen on his show as well. Bill Simmons appeared on Adam Carolla's podcast when he worked for ESPN. They did object to the content, not his appearance on that platform.

ESPN does prevent its talent from appearing on stations that compete with ESPN radio however.
They are very strict with podcasts as well. Zach must have got a stay from the warden or perhaps they are re-thinking this policy.
 

mandro ramtinez

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I wonder if ESPN changed their guest policy? Usually they refuse ESPN talent appearing on other platforms. I guessed they were withholding Voulgaris from Bill as well.
Forgive my ignorance but does Haralabos work for ESPN. I can't find any evidence that he does. He was on Simmon's current podcast twice in 2016.
 

wilymomoonshot

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Bill just uploaded a new podcast with Zach Lowe; I've been waiting for this for a while.
This was good stuff. Simmons is much better when he has someone that calls him on his shit. Enjoyed Lowe immediately shutting him up when he started talking about Whiteside as an All-NBA center. If Joe House were the guest that would've been a 3 minute Simmons rant while House agreed in the background.
 

Grin&MartyBarret

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This was good stuff. Simmons is much better when he has someone that calls him on his shit. Enjoyed Lowe immediately shutting him up when he started talking about Whiteside as an All-NBA center. If Joe House were the guest that would've been a 3 minute Simmons rant while House agreed in the background.
Yep. And Simmons saying Hayward's all NBA followed by Lowe calmly explaining that, no, Simmons was not going to vote Hayward all NBA.
 

mcpickl

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I wonder if ESPN changed their guest policy? Usually they refuse ESPN talent appearing on other platforms. I guessed they were withholding Voulgaris from Bill as well.
Haralabob has never worked for ESPN. Probably more of a time/interest issue.
 

Kliq

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Yep. And Simmons saying Hayward's all NBA followed by Lowe calmly explaining that, no, Simmons was not going to vote Hayward all NBA.
In Simmons' defense, he said he would move Brow to Center. I don't think it is unreasonable if you do that, plus if you knockoff Durant if he doesn't play for the rest of the season. Then you have LeBron, Kawhi, Draymond, Giannis and two of Butler, George, and Hayward (I hope I not forgetting someone). Considering Hayward is on the best team and is the most efficient scorer, I think he could get some votes.

I agree with Bill on Whiteside. IIRC he was saying he was considering him for All-NBA. I agree that a guy averaging 16-14 with 2 blocks should be in the conversation at least, even if you don't vote for him.
 

Grin&MartyBarret

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In Simmons' defense, he said he would move Brow to Center. I don't think it is unreasonable if you do that, plus if you knockoff Durant if he doesn't play for the rest of the season. Then you have LeBron, Kawhi, Draymond, Giannis and two of Butler, George, and Hayward (I hope I not forgetting someone). Considering Hayward is on the best team and is the most efficient scorer, I think he could get some votes.

I agree with Bill on Whiteside. IIRC he was saying he was considering him for All-NBA. I agree that a guy averaging 16-14 with 2 blocks should be in the conversation at least, even if you don't vote for him.
Simmons specifically said he wasn't leaving off Durant. Your list also leaves off Draymond and Aldridge. So you get two of Butler, George, Hayward, Draymond and Aldridge.
 

Kliq

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Simmons specifically said he wasn't leaving off Durant. Your list also leaves off Draymond and Aldridge. So you get one of Butler, George, Hayward, Draymond and Aldridge.
I wasn't making Simmons' case directly, just saying that I don't think it's nonsensical to say Hayward might make All-NBA. I think he's been better than Aldridge this season and I didn't leave out Draymond, read my post again.
 

ifmanis5

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Haralabob has never worked for ESPN. Probably more of a time/interest issue.
You're right. A few months ago I was wondering why Haralabob wasn't on anymore so I Googled him. First hit that came up was an ESPN link that I never clicked on and so I assumed that he was providing content to ESPN in some way. But he isn't. So he's actually free and clear to go on with Bill but I guess he is blowing Bill off for some reason.
 

ElUno20

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Balmer on the latest podcast. This should be interesting as bill is always consistently shitting on the Clippers

Edit: good listen. Love balmer. Such a normal dude
 
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Kliq

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Balmer on the latest podcast. This should be interesting as bill is always consistently shitting on the Clippers

Edit: good listen. Love balmer. Such a normal dude
I don't get why people make fun of him for being a goofball at Clippers games. If I was worth $28 billion I would be like that ALL THE TIME.

If you thought Lowe appearing on Simmons' podcast was weird, it just got stranger. Zach just uploaded a new edition of the Lowe Post...with Bill Simmons as the gues.
 

Swedgin

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I don't get why people make fun of him for being a goofball at Clippers games. If I was worth $28 billion I would be like that ALL THE TIME.

If you thought Lowe appearing on Simmons' podcast was weird, it just got stranger. Zach just uploaded a new edition of the Lowe Post...with Bill Simmons as the gues.
Barnwell and Mays got back together this week as well. Clearly there has been some kind of rapprochement.
 

TFP

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Funny - I see mailbag columns everywhere too! Does Bill think he owns the rights to those? Maybe just writing an article online is something he invented that no one else should do either?
 

gtg807y

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People actually think he was being serious? Other than Drew Magary and his worn-out Simmons hatred?

Also Keri credits Simmons in the article.
 

ifmanis5

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I'm pretty sure that he was joking.
I actually can't tell. It's possible. It's also possible he's just poking at ESPN and not Jonah.
EDIT: usually when you good-naturedly kid around online you do it with a wink emoji or some explanation points or some kind of sign that you're having a bit of fun. Didn't see any there.
 

TFP

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People actually think he was being serious? Other than Drew Magary and his worn-out Simmons hatred?

Also Keri credits Simmons in the article.
From reading that tweet only and with knowledge Simmons' past, yes it's very easy to think he's being serious.

If he's joking, he did a shitty job of it. There's a somewhat funny joke to be made there somewhere, this just came across as petty (even if unintentionally).
 

kenneycb

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Simmons hired Keri at Grantland and had him write a MLB trade value column for them. Fifth result in a Google of "Jonah Keri Trade Value". Don't think there's an issue here.
 

B H Kim

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Keri wrote the column for Grantland for three years and then for SI last year. If Simmons actually had a problem with it, I'm sure something would have come up last year and Jonah wouldn't be thanking him in this year's column.
 

ifmanis5

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I think he was plugging Jonah's column and trying to be funny but failing at being funny.
Looking at the comments on the Tweet seems about 50/50 opinion whether he was serious or not as well. Anyhow, thought it was odd. Carry on.
 

bowiac

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The worst part is he's going to spend 10 minutes on the podcast complaining about how terrible the internet is as result of this, and he'll be mostly right.
 

Mooch

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I have the feeling there's an inside joke subtext that at some point, ESPN accused/threatened Simmons with "stealing" something that he did previously at Grantland. Just a hunch.
 

JohntheBaptist

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I think he was plugging Jonah's column and trying to be funny but failing at being funny.
Looking at the comments on the Tweet seems about 50/50 opinion whether he was serious or not as well. Anyhow, thought it was odd. Carry on.
It's one of those jokes that's "just a joke," but oh look whoops I just pointed out again how ahead of the curve I am...
 

Kliq

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The fact that people even think he wasn't joking is a testament to how weird this board treats Simmons.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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If WEEI (specifically Alex Reimer) is making a headline issue out of Simmons' tweet, then I'm convinced it was in jest and part of an inside joke with Keri.
 

Kliq

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Explain please.
I understand the relationship between Simmons and SoSH is different than pretty much any other reporter, so I think he is certainly a special case. There are plenty of reasons to disagree with Bill or dislike something he said, but people spend so much time picking over the smallest facets of his character, and it is a long term trend here. Only a fucking idiot would think Bill was serious for his tweet at Keri. People didn't even do the research to know that Keri wasn't working for ESPN, it was just a rush to start talking about Simmons.

I remember several years ago Simmons made a comment on a podcast about how he wished Starbucks had a premium feature where you could pay more so you could be rushed to the front of the line to get your coffee. There were dozens of posts about whether or not Simmons was no longer in touch with reality and whether or not he was capable of identifying with the "common sports fan" because he had become such a Los Angeles elitist that he wanted to jump the line to get his coffee. It was such a stupid thing to talk that much about, and that was only something that would really happen on SoSH.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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I get what you're saying but at the same time, Bill Simmons is a prominent member of the media. This is ostensibly a baseball site and there is a gigantic thread dedicated to the stupid shit Pete King writes week in and week out. Nick Cafardo gets blasted (rightly, good god, he sucks), Peter Abraham, Dan Shaughnessy, practically every show on either EEI or TSH has hundreds of replies. Hell, there's a thread in P&G about the comic strip "For Better or For Worse" that is a daily chronicle of picking the strip and it's author a part for the slightest transgressions.

It's kinda what SoSH does best.

As far as being a "fucking idiot" for believing it to be true, Tom Ley, the Deadspin writer who penned the Simmons story, said the he knows for a fact that this wasn't Simmons joshing around with Keri. I don't know how he knows, but he made it pretty clear in the comment section when someone brought up the fooling around thing. I mean, Deadspin is always on Simmons' ass for something so take it for what it's worth, but at the same time Gawker Media has been under a microscope for the last year or so, so I doubt that they'd make something up (but maybe they did, who fucking knows).

I'm not sure why Bill Simmons should be held as some sacred cow*.

* Especially for the way he left this place.
 

johnmd20

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I get what you're saying but at the same time, Bill Simmons is a prominent member of the media. This is ostensibly a baseball site and there is a gigantic thread dedicated to the stupid shit Pete King writes week in and week out. Nick Cafardo gets blasted (rightly, good god, he sucks), Peter Abraham, Dan Shaughnessy, practically every show on either EEI or TSH has hundreds of replies. Hell, there's a thread in P&G about the comic strip "For Better or For Worse" that is a daily chronicle of picking the strip and it's author a part for the slightest transgressions.

It's kinda what SoSH does best.

As far as being a "fucking idiot" for believing it to be true, Tom Ley, the Deadspin writer who penned the Simmons story, said the he knows for a fact that this wasn't Simmons joshing around with Keri. I don't know how he knows, but he made it pretty clear in the comment section when someone brought up the fooling around thing. I mean, Deadspin is always on Simmons' ass for something so take it for what it's worth, but at the same time Gawker Media has been under a microscope for the last year or so, so I doubt that they'd make something up (but maybe they did, who fucking knows).

I'm not sure why Bill Simmons should be held as some sacred cow*.

* Especially for the way he left this place.
God dammit JMOH. You couldn't have made a bigger error. Probably the biggest error you've ever made. The FBOFW is in Omar is Dead. I'll never believe anything you ever write now.
 

DannyDarwinism

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The fact that people even think he wasn't joking is a testament to how weird this board treats Simmons.
FWIW, Tom Ley of Deadspin, in the comments to the piece he wrote about it, responded "I can tell you with extreme confidence that he was not joking", which makes me think he heard from Kerr himself about it, but Kerr didn't want to go on record. Then again, maybe Ley is joking. Also, judging from Twitter, former Grantland writer Jay Caspian Kang also does not apparently believe Simmons was joking. "It's funny when the biggest traffic thing they've done was the fast food bracket idea I had 4 years ago".

If he was, in fact, serious, it's a tremendously dickish way to handle this.