The Bill Simmons Thread

luckiestman

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I didn't agree with Simmons Sr. either but I don't see how that makes it a bad podcast. I actually enjoyed the exercise of going through DA's picks. The Titus segment was the weakest segment but even that had some interesting parts.
 

allstonite

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I never said it was a bad podcast. I enjoyed it too and I love NBA draft coverage and going back over old drafts. But his dad was being so obtuse just because he wasn't happy with the Fultz trade and angry with Danny.
 

Kliq

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I always like it when Bill's father is on. Sports is a very special connection I have with my own dad and if I was big and famous I'd like to have my grumpy old man on my podcast. What are you guys expecting when he comes on, Nate Silver? It's harmless and always on the last 15 minutes or so of a pod so if you don't like it you can just end the podcast.
 

Grin&MartyBarret

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Simmons and Gladwell just had a 15 minute conversation about how Balmer should ignore the luxury tax and assemble a super team.

Simmons doesn't understand even the basics of the CBA, I guess? Really sort of baffled by how bad he's been on the NBA since leaving ESPN.
 

luckiestman

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Simmons and Gladwell just had a 15 minute conversation about how Balmer should ignore the luxury tax and assemble a super team.

Simmons doesn't understand even the basics of the CBA, I guess? Really sort of baffled by how bad he's been on the NBA since leaving ESPN.
My take on that was different. I think he was just letting Malcolm rant.
 

MarkBT

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Listened to the NBA Draft pod with Joe House this morning. Decent analysis and fun listen, and apparently Joe House is getting his own food-based podcast.

He featured a piece of classic Simmons-meme analysis.. here's the sequence:

1) What were the Bulls thinking? Thibs took Butler from them and gave up the #7 pick and what we know is a 6-player draft

2) Sacramento gave up #10 pick for the combination #15 and #20 picks. Anyone who listens to me will probably guess what I think about that maneuver in a 10-player draft.

3) [Can't recall the lead up]... We all knew this was a draft with sure things in the top 6 + Monk, depending on how people felt about him

4) [Long segment in which he ranted about Sacramento not taking Monk @ #10 and instead trading...] Why trade #10 in a 10-player draft??!?!

So which is it? 10-player draft or 6-player draft?
 

Bunt4aTriple

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That was the first time I heard House not on the phone and it threw me off.

He sounded way goofier, a slightly more articulate cousin Jimmy from S-town.
 

the1andonly3003

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At the beginning of this year, I decided to go the beginning of my podcast subscriptions to catch up on my unlistened episodes. After knocking off a ton of Men in Blazers, I caught up to the early BS podcasts that I missed. I am starting on episode 4 (Oct 2015). I guess these early "new" podcasts are considered his better ones before quality starts to waver later in 2016?
 

Rough Carrigan

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My take on that was different. I think he was just letting Malcolm rant.
In a previous podcast, Gladwell lamented that baseball was no longer financially fair, the way it was back in 1992 and 1993 when his Toronto Blue Jays were winning, showing zero awareness that the Jays were one of the financial bullies back then.
 

ifmanis5

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Bill is back to bashing Doc Rivers. Calling him "lazy" and throwing shade on his golf game and work ethic. Not to say it's totally undeserved criticism but so much for the Michael Wilbon orchestrated cease fire between them. The beef is back on now.
 

Kliq

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He's been back on him for the last year or so for being the coach/gm and apparently not taking it serious enough. TBH, throwing shade at Doc playing golf is kind of like people getting on Obama for taking too many vacations. I do agree with him however that both positions are full-time gigs and no one can reasonably pull them both off unless they are a wizard like BB.
 

ElUno20

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Bill is back to bashing Doc Rivers. Calling him "lazy" and throwing shade on his golf game and work ethic. Not to say it's totally undeserved criticism but so much for the Michael Wilbon orchestrated cease fire between them. The beef is back on now.

So he doesn't like any of the moves Jerry West has made the last 2 weeks?
 

lefty13

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Is there nobody at the ringer that has the balls to tell Simmons that there is no 't' in 'Wimbledon'? McEnroe had lots of things to say, but between BS talking over him and mispronouncing the most famous tennis event approximately 120 times, it was a tough listen.
 

Senator Donut

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Glad it wasn't just me. "Wimbleton is for simpletons." If you give that as a question on Jeopardy! you are rightfully marked down.

 

the1andonly3003

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So I've listened to the first Klosterman and Apatow appearances. The Klosterman episode was pretty mediocre: they started talking about college football and referred to players as "Cal State QB" or "Baylor's QB" - as a non-college football fan, I had no clue who they were talking about.

The Apatow episode was really good - now I get his references to the Gary Shandling stuff in the episode he did after Shandling's death. Do BS and Apatow run out of topics in subsequent episodes?
 

luckiestman

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Is there nobody at the ringer that has the balls to tell Simmons that there is no 't' in 'Wimbledon'? McEnroe had lots of things to say, but between BS talking over him and mispronouncing the most famous tennis event approximately 120 times, it was a tough listen.

He addressed this in his latest mailbag and says he knows he just has speech glitches with certain words
 

johnmd20

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Malik MAAAHNK and De'Andre Fox played well together at Kentucky. It was almost like they were robits
I utterly love the way he pronounces robit and his Monk work is also kind of funny. The only word that really sounds weird coming out of his mouth is good.
 

HoyaSoxa

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So Simmons just did a big pod with Jim Miller and Bryan Curtis to talk about ESPN leadership changes, and somehow I never even heard mention of Jamie Horowitz (despite some significant discussion of Fox vs. ESPN). Bill avoided dancing on the grave of Marie Donoghue and was generally bullish on ESPN's future, making me wonder if there is some future for a relationship. Miller seems convinced Katie Nolan is heading to ESPN, but not certain it will be to join Greeny's morning show - Simmons said that he tried to make a trade to bring Nolan to ESPN but that Fox wanted some NASCAR guy that ESPN would not part with (plus Ian Darke for soccer).
 

allstonite

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So Simmons just did a big pod with Jim Miller and Bryan Curtis to talk about ESPN leadership changes, and somehow I never even heard mention of Jamie Horowitz (despite some significant discussion of Fox vs. ESPN). Bill avoided dancing on the grave of Marie Donoghue and was generally bullish on ESPN's future, making me wonder if there is some future for a relationship. Miller seems convinced Katie Nolan is heading to ESPN, but not certain it will be to join Greeny's morning show - Simmons said that he tried to make a trade to bring Nolan to ESPN but that Fox wanted some NASCAR guy that ESPN would not part with (plus Ian Darke for soccer).
They brought Horowitz up a few times in passing but never talked about the firing/resigning/scandal. Probably smart for now.

I remember hearing about the Nolan trade before. What might have been with her at Grantland. She wouldn't have had as much exposure alone as getting her own show on FS1, but she'd probably have more exposure with an ESPN backed audience. Also, her and Rembert have had great chemistry in the videos I've seen them do together.
 

ifmanis5

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I'm old enough to remember when Bill hated Game of Thrones and all the stupid nerd crap that happened in the forest. Now his media empire, including himself, are practically devoted to it right now.
 

johnmd20

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I'm old enough to remember when Bill hated Game of Thrones and all the stupid nerd crap that happened in the forest. Now his media empire, including himself, are practically devoted to it right now.
It has been a funny turn, but HBO is an investor in The Ringer, so obviously they need to devote almost all their resources to HBO's biggest product. And their coverage is impressive.

The Binge Mode podcast is really awesome, but I could only listen to a few episodes. I think it would have been better if Jason and Mallory didn't kill themselves to record 60 podcasts in a few weeks, who can listen to that? One a week would have been better. That way, you can listen to the whole thing over a year, with the hosts, before the final season premiere. That's what I'm going to do.
 

Kliq

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The overall proliferation and mainstream appeal of "nerd" things has changed a lot over the last 20 years as a whole. 20 years ago when Simmons was starting out the general public's opinion on comic books, video games and fantasy television shows were different than they are today. I mean one of the most talked-about television shows from last year was essentially all about D&D. Times and culture change; we all have things that we thought were stupid 20 years ago that we are now fans of.
 

mcpickl

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I'm old enough to remember when Bill hated Game of Thrones and all the stupid nerd crap that happened in the forest. Now his media empire, including himself, are practically devoted to it right now.
It also led Bill Simmons, who constantly whines about people stealing his ideas, to produce After the Thrones for HBO.

Guess he doesn't get AMC on his cable package.
 

shaggydog2000

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I mean one of the most talked-about television shows from last year was essentially all about D&D.
Was it one of the Real Housewives shows? The Bachelor? Oh, I know, The Challenge! If it wasn't one of those, then Bill probably didn't know it existed.
 

nattysez

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The Binge Mode podcast is really awesome, but I could only listen to a few episodes. I think it would have been better if Jason and Mallory didn't kill themselves to record 60 podcasts in a few weeks, who can listen to that? One a week would have been better. That way, you can listen to the whole thing over a year, with the hosts, before the final season premiere. That's what I'm going to do.
I partially agree with this. There was no reason for this too be a death march for them. With even a modicum of planning, they could've done this over the course of a few months. They could've still dropped them all at once, Netflix-style. The quality would've been better, they could've been more thoughtful about ways to avoid repeating their intro language every single episode, etc. It speaks to a lack of organization that their preparation for the premiere, which they knew was going to be huge and had a definitive start date, was so hastily done.
 

Number45forever

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I partially agree with this. There was no reason for this too be a death march for them. With even a modicum of planning, they could've done this over the course of a few months. They could've still dropped them all at once, Netflix-style. The quality would've been better, they could've been more thoughtful about ways to avoid repeating their intro language every single episode, etc. It speaks to a lack of organization that their preparation for the premiere, which they knew was going to be huge and had a definitive start date, was so hastily done.
They hinted at the struggle this was on the last episode of Binge Mode where they presented this like an idea BS had and they just did it. Sounds like they just didn't have the idea for it until late in the game and then had to rush it.

I didn't listen to every episode, but the ones I did listen to were really well done. Jason and Mallory need to be the only people talking GOT. The other two on the postgame show are draining when the topic is GOT. Most people watching a show like that, I think, are really into GOT and don't need the beginner hand-holding that Greenwald and Ryan are providing.

There were some annoying moments in the Binge Mode pods, like them repeating the same disclaimers to begin each pod, etc. But overall it was awesome. I'd have no hesitation doing a GOT re-watch at some point where I watched a sinlge episode, then listened to that episode's pod. Then repeat 60 times. I just finished a six-week re-watch of GOT that was spurred by the very idea of them doing Binge Mode. I listened to prob 10 of the pods during that time following big episodes I wanted to recap. It was a lot of fun and can't wait for them to do season seven recaps.
 

the1andonly3003

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It also led Bill Simmons, who constantly whines about people stealing his ideas, to produce After the Thrones for HBO.

Guess he doesn't get AMC on his cable package.
Pretty sure Michael Davies doesn't have an issue BS borrowing his empire (Embassy Row produces a lot of the Andy Cohen post-shows, and Men in Blazers was part of Grantland)

They hinted at the struggle this was on the last episode of Binge Mode where they presented this like an idea BS had and they just did it. Sounds like they just didn't have the idea for it until late in the game and then had to rush it.

I didn't listen to every episode, but the ones I did listen to were really well done. Jason and Mallory need to be the only people talking GOT. The other two on the postgame show are draining when the topic is GOT. Most people watching a show like that, I think, are really into GOT and don't need the beginner hand-holding that Greenwald and Ryan are providing.

There were some annoying moments in the Binge Mode pods, like them repeating the same disclaimers to begin each pod, etc. But overall it was awesome. I'd have no hesitation doing a GOT re-watch at some point where I watched a sinlge episode, then listened to that episode's pod. Then repeat 60 times. I just finished a six-week re-watch of GOT that was spurred by the very idea of them doing Binge Mode. I listened to prob 10 of the pods during that time following big episodes I wanted to recap. It was a lot of fun and can't wait for them to do season seven recaps.
The West Wing Weekly does ok with a weekly format for a show that has been off the air for over 10 years. Then again, how many GOT fans don't binge watch?
 

the1andonly3003

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True, but it's also a much better show (ducks)
That's an interesting take. When will BS and team put together the pantheon of all time TV shows? How will GOT rate vs TWW vs The Bachelor?

so, I'm listening to the BS podcast chronologically filling in episodes I originally skipped...what is the fascination of Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald with Jeremy Rennar?
 

the1andonly3003

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You should start a weekly Binge Mode podcast about episodes of The Bill Simmons Podcast. Let's revisit the 2016 week 12 "Friday Rolling" and see how Lombardi's inane metaphors hold up!
quite possibly since I skipped every episode between the pre-season lines w/ House & Sal to the Super Bowl prop bet w/ Lombardi and Cousin Sal

at what point does quality plummet?
 

the1andonly3003

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Was that the one where Klosterman pitches the idea of nationalizing Star Wars?
Don't think I heard that - is that something I should look forward to?

This was 11/2015 (within the first 35 episodes after BS's return). Klosterman applies guilt to TB12 b'c he refused to answer the Deflategate question for the GQ cover story. I remember everyone here killed BS for not challenging Klosterman on the pod.
 

allstonite

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I'd say give up now and listen to current ones because I think it's strange to relive 2015-2016 via weekly podcasts. There's too much other good, current content out there (and I'm a Simmons fan.)

I haven't noticed any drop in the quality at any time since he move to The Ringer. Some are interesting, some are "Simmons Greatest Hits," and some fall victim to his worst habits (talking over guests, talking to Tate without a mic, pushing his idea without much evidence.) They are what they are but I enjoy them more often than not to at least kill time during work or a commute.

The Theron one was actually a strange one. She was very charming and willing to talk about just about everything but he had no direction for her. He just read down her IMDB, which seemed like a fine idea, but just said the title of the film. He didn't prepare any questions about each one or a theme of any kind. She didn't know how to respond most of the time and called him out on it finally at the end. I'd listen if you're interested in her career at all and, like I said, she handled it well and was charming.
 

the1andonly3003

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I initially tried to keep up with new episodes as they were posted, but as my subscription list went up to 6 different podcasts, I only have so many 90-minute gym sessions to listen. I ended up listening to 3-4 in a row and then skipping 2-3. I got to a point earlier this year that I decided to listen to all my feeds chronologically. I had only subscribed to brand new podcasts (so no, I am not going listening to stuff from 2013).

I actually don't mind listening to podcasts discussing older topics. I'm midway reliving Leicester City winning the EPL through Men in Blazers.

From BS, I find gold nuggets like him telling Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan that ABC would never bring back "Battle of the Network Stars" in this day and age (actors/actresses would never hurt their brands doing things where they may look bad). Or how RJ Hunter just looks like an NBA player.
 

Remagellan

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I'd say give up now and listen to current ones because I think it's strange to relive 2015-2016 via weekly podcasts. There's too much other good, current content out there (and I'm a Simmons fan.)

I haven't noticed any drop in the quality at any time since he move to The Ringer. Some are interesting, some are "Simmons Greatest Hits," and some fall victim to his worst habits (talking over guests, talking to Tate without a mic, pushing his idea without much evidence.) They are what they are but I enjoy them more often than not to at least kill time during work or a commute.

The Theron one was actually a strange one. She was very charming and willing to talk about just about everything but he had no direction for her. He just read down her IMDB, which seemed like a fine idea, but just said the title of the film. He didn't prepare any questions about each one or a theme of any kind. She didn't know how to respond most of the time and called him out on it finally at the end. I'd listen if you're interested in her career at all and, like I said, she handled it well and was charming.
I haven't listened to Simmons Theron interview yet, but contrast that to whenever Andy Greenwald conducts a solo interview with a guest, and he's capable of doing a deep dive on practically any project in the guest's career. Like in all things, preparation is the key. But I guess Simmons is either too busy or too lazy to do that for all his pod guests.
 

the1andonly3003

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of course the first female guest on the podcast is Katie Nolan...looking forward to listen to this:

BS teased it on Monday
Well, finally reach the Katie Nolan episode in my listening catch up. I was waiting for the moment that everyone jumped on BS (the bf question). I thought that was overblown. Katie Nolan mentioned their relationship a few times earlier in the conversation, so she shouldn't have been surprised.

Anyhow, I get a little lost at the references made by guests brought back from his ESPN days. This wasn't a straight interview like the Michael B Jordan or Charity Water episodes, but it also didn't have a specific topic like the Rappaport/Klosterman episodes.

Anyhow, I am starting a stretch of 9 straight BS podcast episodes to get through the beginning of 2016 before I reach skipped episodes from other pods. For a non-daily podcast, are we sure BS doesn't record too much? I'm realizing BS makes up 1/3 of my total unlistened episodes...
 

jmcc5400

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I like Bill, but the Theron podcast was awful. Literally going down her IMDB page, saying the title of the movie and waiting for her to respond.

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