The Bill Simmons Thread

Spacemans Bong

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I'm not even sure what you're trying to say. On Christmas morning, Ben didn't get his sister anything. When called on this fact, he ran upstairs and picked up a pile of money and threw it at her sister.

But it was a lot of money, so I guess it isn't the thought that counts.
Right, he threw a ton of money at her. Probably three times what his presents cost her. So not only does she get a funny story out of it, she makes out like a bandit. That's the most expensive bubble bath Ben Simmons will ever buy.
 

HowBoutDemSox

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Simmons was on Zach Lowe’s pod today, for those who like them together but may not check Lowe’s pod regularly otherwise.
 
Just listened to Simmons and House talk about Bill's NBA All-Star starting lineup...and there wasn't a single mention of LeBron. Not one. (He picked Curry, Harden, Durant, George and Jokic as his starting five in the West, with Davis right on the fringe.) I look forward to the "brain fart" apology on Twitter in due course.
 

ifmanis5

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Thanks. Though this interview shows how hard it is to get anything meaningful out of him.
For sure! About as hard to get the Nazis off of Twitter apparently.

Bill's Kyrie takes are getting a bit hot. Bill's advice for Kyrie (and I guess for most players?) is to simply skip press conferences and/or refuse to answer questions from the media in a meaningful way. He seems to be on this jag lately, he told his buddy Durant about the same. Bill is negative about post game press conferences (which are still actually quite useful) especially for star players. While I agree that it would be helpful for Kyrie to not show up his teammates or blame them via the media but there's no advantage to shunning the media either. Lack of accountability usually is a negative stain on star players that can be difficult to wash off.
 

Gunfighter 09

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For sure! About as hard to get the Nazis off of Twitter apparently.

Bill's Kyrie takes are getting a bit hot. Bill's advice for Kyrie (and I guess for most players?) is to simply skip press conferences and/or refuse to answer questions from the media in a meaningful way. He seems to be on this jag lately, he told his buddy Durant about the same. Bill is negative about post game press conferences (which are still actually quite useful) especially for star players. While I agree that it would be helpful for Kyrie to not show up his teammates or blame them via the media but there's no advantage to shunning the media either. Lack of accountability usually is a negative stain on star players that can be difficult to wash off.
As Bill pointed out, that stain didn’t seem to hurt the (2nd) most successful champion of the 21st Century, Tim Duncan. I thought citing Duncan as the example and then comparing his act to Kobe’s pretty effectively made Bill’s point.
 

fairlee76

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Real journalists would kill for this interview. I really hope this is something beyond a one-hour tongue bath.
Apologies for the thread derail, but what podcast interviewers do engage in interviews that are more than tongue baths/we'll avoid the controversial stuff with problematic celebrities? Best example of this to me is Joe Rogan. Love that he has a big tent when it comes to guests; hate that he always avoids the hard/interesting questions in his interviews. Just listened to his discussion with Mike Tyson and, while it was interesting/entertaining, it certainly did not cover any new ground, let alone ask any controversial questions.
 

ifmanis5

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As Bill pointed out, that stain didn’t seem to hurt the (2nd) most successful champion of the 21st Century, Tim Duncan. I thought citing Duncan as the example and then comparing his act to Kobe’s pretty effectively made Bill’s point.
I mean, Tim was one of the most accountable successful athletes in recent memory. There was no stain at all with him. He went to every post game presser, answered every question thoughtfully. His approach was similar to Jeter and Brady in that he never threw teammates under the bus and often opted to be guarded with answers to the media but he was always there. What Bill is advocating for is to get rid of post game pressers altogether which is a weird take in my book. I guess he liked Steve Carlton and Marshawn Lynch.
 

Gunfighter 09

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I mean, Tim was one of the most accountable successful athletes in recent memory. There was no stain at all with him. He went to every post game presser, answered every question thoughtfully. His approach was similar to Jeter and Brady in that he never threw teammates under the bus and often opted to be guarded with answers to the media but he was always there. What Bill is advocating for is to get rid of post game pressers altogether which is a weird take in my book. I guess he liked Steve Carlton and Marshawn Lynch.

We heard it differently, I probably need to re-listen. It thought he was advocating for Duncan’s brand of boring, not silence.
 

blueline

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Gotta love Bill not remembering "the other overtime game" and then referencing it in the pod 20 minutes later. In his defense, the snow, the Tuck Rule, and Vinatieri's kicks overshadow anything else about that game.
 

scottyno

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Did he really want to trade Kyrie for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Boban, and filler a few days ago on a podcast? His Celtics takes seem to have gone off the deep end lately.
 

Kliq

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Sal losing money on the Saints game was hilarious. At the end when he said he had a good feeling about blue Gatorade and was going to win it all back I almost had to pull over.
 

luckiestman

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Sal losing money on the Saints game was hilarious. At the end when he said he had a good feeling about blue Gatorade and was going to win it all back I almost had to pull over.

These guys are so good together.
 

sox311

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That's what she said.
Simmons actually asked some good and some tough questions with Twitter founder/CEO Jack Dorsey. Surprisingly he didn't seem like he was just trying to talk over his guest and kiss their ass today with Jack.

Of course, Jack wanted to tell him the sports moment, in the NBA, where he first thought that Twitter was the best place to follow a breaking story. Bill just talked over him and gave him his opinion and didn't follow up with what Jack wanted to stay. Same old Simmons...
 

CarolinaBeerGuy

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Apologies for the thread derail, but what podcast interviewers do engage in interviews that are more than tongue baths/we'll avoid the controversial stuff with problematic celebrities? Best example of this to me is Joe Rogan. Love that he has a big tent when it comes to guests; hate that he always avoids the hard/interesting questions in his interviews. Just listened to his discussion with Mike Tyson and, while it was interesting/entertaining, it certainly did not cover any new ground, let alone ask any controversial questions.
Marc Maron, maybe? He at least asks interesting questions from time to time and actually gets engaging responses. Sure, there’s ball washing, but I like his interview style more than most.
 

luckiestman

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Rogan because of the super long form often exposes people by showing them as very shallow. Some of the conservatives far right guys come to mind: Sargon, Molyneaux, and one of the other fox comedian guys.

One leftist came off really bad too.

Bari Weiss just came off like a dope.
 

Nick Kaufman

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So, the other day I decided to listen to the podcast featured Aaron Sorkin, but before that conversation, Simmons had House in so as to make picks for NFL championship Sunday. I can't get over how bad the reasoning behind the picks they do was; like House picks a couple of arbitrary statistics with extremely small sample sizes and then makes a pick based on that. Like he seriously brought up that the Pats were only 2-3 against the spread on the road in the playoffs and that the Rams were 0-4 against the spread against opponents with winning records this year and thusly he picked the Chiefs and the Saints. I mean, never mind the infinitesimal sample which is meaningless, but the idea that a New England record that has accumulated over years with different personnel and circumstances has any particular meaning is preposterous. Plus, there's the problem that when a Pats team plays on the road, it probably isn't the best version of the Pats.

If i ever used past team record against the spread to inform my betting - which I probably wouldn't- my tendency would be to bet on the opposite side of where the current record is under the assumption that over the long term, every team's record against the spread would gravitate towards .500.But even that is gambler's fallacy and you can't time when the record will go back to even.

As for Bill, he gravitated towards the Rams over the Saints, the logic being that when two teams meet each other in the playoffs, the one who lost has an advantage because of an extra edge. As examples of this he used the Chargers vs the Ravens and obviously his daughter's high school team. However, the fact that the Patriots had beaten the Chiefs during the regular season failed to enter his mind.

I guess I am making a mountain out of an molehill. As I ve said before, the only way to enjoy these podcasts is as bs entertainment to pass the time. Because as a serious look on how to bet it's just nonsense.
 
I'm just glad they figured it out in the end, unlike Bill and Sal re: the Patriots' other overtime playoff game that must not have happened. But yes, it's refreshing that Bill isn't afraid to show himself in less than the best possible light on occasion. (Or maybe he and nephew Kyle are just lazy, but let's try and stay positive...)
 

johnmd20

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I'm just glad they figured it out in the end, unlike Bill and Sal re: the Patriots' other overtime playoff game that must not have happened. But yes, it's refreshing that Bill isn't afraid to show himself in less than the best possible light on occasion. (Or maybe he and nephew Kyle are just lazy, but let's try and stay positive...)
Editing a podcast is very easy to do. I think leaving in the mistakes is charming, it makes the entire podcast feel "live", even tho it isn't.
 

blueline

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Bill's latest pod with Spike Lee is one of his absolute best. Some interesting comments about Larry Bird, and Spike's story about how he funded the last leg of Malcolm X was great.
 

Kliq

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Spike was a great guest and they could talk forever. He said some stupid stuff but he’s had a fascinating career.
 

johnmd20

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Bill's latest pod with Spike Lee is one of his absolute best. Some interesting comments about Larry Bird, and Spike's story about how he funded the last leg of Malcolm X was great.
Spike was legitimately hilarious. It was definitely one of the best, that was some high quality content.
 

apskit

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Bill's latest pod with Spike Lee is one of his absolute best. Some interesting comments about Larry Bird, and Spike's story about how he funded the last leg of Malcolm X was great.
I agree it was a good podcast but man does Spike Lee laugh a lot at his own stories and jokes.
 

ifmanis5

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The Chris Bosh interview was good. Hilarious that KG got way into his head by calling him a "mama's boy" and causing him to lose a night of sleep. I love the KG shit-talker stories, true evil genius at work.
 

luckiestman

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I really enjoy the podcast chemistry between Simmons and Russillo. I've tried listening to the podcasts Russillo hosts, and they don't really do anything for me, but his humor seems to bounce nicely off of Simmons.

BS is the greatest podcast facilitator of all time.
 

cheech13

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I really enjoy the podcast chemistry between Simmons and Russillo. I've tried listening to the podcasts Russillo hosts, and they don't really do anything for me, but his humor seems to bounce nicely off of Simmons.
Agreed on all counts. Rusillo and Simmons have this wonderful chemistry togeher because of their similar ages, personal interests and backgrounds, but Russillo's willingness to poke fun at Bill or disagree with him adds an extra layer that isn't there when he's working with other Ringer employees. There are a few points each weak where I legitimately laugh out loud at their back-and-forth. Ryen can be low-key hilarious in the right setting.
 

luckiestman

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Agreed on all counts. Rusillo and Simmons have this wonderful chemistry togeher because of their similar ages, personal interests and backgrounds, but Russillo's willingness to poke fun at Bill or disagree with him adds an extra layer that isn't there when he's working with other Ringer employees. There are a few points each weak where I legitimately laugh out loud at their back-and-forth. Ryen can be low-key hilarious in the right setting.

Simmons first not getting and then downplaying the greatness of Massketball really has me reevaluating my fanboyism about his work.
 

cheech13

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Simmons first not getting and then downplaying the greatness of Massketball really has me reevaluating my fanboyism about his work.
That was funny. Even better was later on when they were talking about the Lakers and Bill asked what Mitch Kupchak and Pelinka should do on the trade market and Russillo deadpanned something about Hornets trades and Bill didn't get it all. He was really out of his depth most of that podcast and Russillo kind of low-key slagged him when he went on Zach Lowe's podcast later and brought up all the dumb narratives around Lebron, most of which Bill had just put out there on that podcast together.
 

Kliq

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Russillo kind of irks me. Something about him just screams rich kid from the Vinyard. He went on both Simmons' podcast and then the Lowe Post, and went on this big rant about how LeBron has been slacking off on defense for years and how people are only talking about it now, but HE has been noticing it for years, and everyone else is late to the party talking about it now. Of course, plenty of people have been talking about it since at least last season, and Windhorst even wrote a whole big story on how much walking LeBron does during the course of a game.
 

cheech13

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Russillo kind of irks me. Something about him just screams rich kid from the Vinyard. He went on both Simmons' podcast and then the Lowe Post, and went on this big rant about how LeBron has been slacking off on defense for years and how people are only talking about it now, but HE has been noticing it for years, and everyone else is late to the party talking about it now. Of course, plenty of people have been talking about it since at least last season, and Windhorst even wrote a whole big story on how much walking LeBron does during the course of a game.
He wasn't taking credit for pointing out his lackadaisical defense. His point was that Lebron not playing defense was nothing new, but because the Lakers were bad it was now becoming a media narrative that Lebron's lack effort was the source of the problem. He thought that was intellectually dishonest if you'd been paying attention the past five seasons. It was more of a take-down of popular narratives than some effort to credit himself with a great basketball observation.
 

JCizzle

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Russillo kind of irks me. Something about him just screams rich kid from the Vinyard. He went on both Simmons' podcast and then the Lowe Post, and went on this big rant about how LeBron has been slacking off on defense for years and how people are only talking about it now, but HE has been noticing it for years, and everyone else is late to the party talking about it now. Of course, plenty of people have been talking about it since at least last season, and Windhorst even wrote a whole big story on how much walking LeBron does during the course of a game.
He's very much a rich guy now and leans into it, which I find refreshing. Instead of trying to hide that he's wealthy, he's pretty open about it while talking about it in a low key sarcastic way. No idea how wealthy he was growing up, but he did talk about doing a lot of construction work for his Dad's contractor company growing up so I don't think he was spoiled. I do agree that it took me a minute to get used to his persona - he comes across as overly self important, but really isn't - I think it's usually poking fun at himself.

Overall I really like Russilo after listening to his podcasts recently, he's one of the few guys that clearly puts in a TON of study time and doesn't rely on fake hot takes. I don't always agree with him, but his opinions are always well grounded. Kinda disappointed I missed out on him and SVP. I always assumed everything on ESPN radio was Mike and Mike style vanilla.
 
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MarkBT

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I've enjoyed the Russillo and Simmons podcasts as well, but the bit where they compare 'NBA Scenario ______' to their own careers is tiring.

"It'd be like if you were asked to work the boards at WEEI back in the day"

"Bill, you're someone who's always been the star in your endeavors"

"Kryie's leadership is like if I told a bunch of young Ringer writers that they needed to better understand their roles"

I did appreciate that the two of them said "drinking game!" when Simmons referenced for the Nth time that he used to play pickup so he knows what its like when teammates don't gel
 

Sam Ray Not

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How many people are *from* the Vineyard? Like, a few hundred? I can't say I'm a Vineyard expert, but if it's anything like Eastham-Wellfleet, I'd guess most of the people who are actually from there are not all that rich.

Now "rich kid from Back Bay" or "rich kid from Lincoln-Sudbury," that I could see. :)
 

The Social Chair

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I've enjoyed the Russillo and Simmons podcasts as well, but the bit where they compare 'NBA Scenario ______' to their own careers is tiring.

"It'd be like if you were asked to work the boards at WEEI back in the day"

"Bill, you're someone who's always been the star in your endeavors"

"Kryie's leadership is like if I told a bunch of young Ringer writers that they needed to better understand their roles"

I did appreciate that the two of them said "drinking game!" when Simmons referenced for the Nth time that he used to play pickup so he knows what its like when teammates don't gel
I enjoy when he compares professional sports to his daughter's youth soccer league.
 

Kliq

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This is incredible. ESPN aired a clip of Bill's interview with Silver, except they edited Bill out of the video so Silver just looks like Clint Eastwood talking to an empty chair. Bill even audibly says "Yes" and it looks like a ghost is talking:

 

allstonite

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Sports Repodders is always great and I wish they did it on a regular basis like every other week or monthly. Jason Gay’s parting shots kill me every time
 

johnmd20

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Sports Repodders is always great and I wish they did it on a regular basis like every other week or monthly. Jason Gay’s parting shots kill me every time
Brian Curtis is really tremendous, too. It's a great Podcast and so is The Press Box. I never miss it.