The Bill Simmons Thread

donutogre

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Is summertime in LA significantly cooler?
Enough to make a difference. Cools off more in the evening, and general hits the mid-80s rather than the mid-90s.

Edit: well, averages would say I'm wrong! Oh well. My anecdotes are meaningless. FWIW Philadelphia (where I have currently reside) is definitely worse :) But Boston is a good 5 degrees cooler on average it seems.
 

luckiestman

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Those temps are downtown LA. I stayed closer to the water. We need a Cali resident because I think the same temp number feels and order of magnitude cooler in LA.
 

Senator Donut

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luckiestman

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According to my extensive research (i.e. Wikipedia), downtown Los Angeles is slightly hotter than Logan Airport most months in the summer (and 0.1° cooler in July based on daily mean), but LAX is significantly cooler than Logan, so I guess the answer is "it depends." I think Simmons lives in Malibu.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles#Climate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston#Climate

No idea how to get statistics on humidity

Fucking Simmons is living the dream. Thanks for your extensive research.
 

joe dokes

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Those temps are downtown LA. I stayed closer to the water. We need a Cali resident because I think the same temp number feels and order of magnitude cooler in LA.
My parents lived in LA, on the edge of Santa Monica (so quite west), for a long while. Summer temps there rarely exceeded 80, even when downtown or the San Fernando Valley was much hotter.
 

Spelunker

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I'm in DTLA once a month or so, and while it can be pretty hot, it never strikes me as humid. It's much more comfortable than Boston during the miserable stretch we'd get every summer.
 

Stitch01

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Anyone else listen to the Pats 25 greatest wins podcast? Im enjoying it, of course, but the sheer number of factual errors on things that are easy to look up is annoying the hell out of me. He put the Pats 59-0 win over Tennessee on the list as "the biggest fuck you win of the 2007 season and the start of the fuck you TD", which would be fine except the game was played in 2009.
 

tims4wins

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Anyone else listen to the Pats 25 greatest wins podcast? Im enjoying it, of course, but the sheer number of factual errors on things that are easy to look up is annoying the hell out of me. He put the Pats 59-0 win over Tennessee on the list as "the biggest fuck you win of the 2007 season and the start of the fuck you TD", which would be fine except the game was played in 2009.
Yeah we talked about it some over in BBtL, I think in the "16 most important Pats" thread. A couple others I noticed were that the 2003 OT Miami win was most certainly not MNF as he thought, and also the 2005 regular season win in Pittsburgh was not the opener, it was week 3. Just really poor research. Stuff I knew off the top of my head without even looking it up
 

blueline

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On today's pod, Bill declared that if the Giants and Jets could do it over again, he's sure they'd build a 50,000 seat stadium instead of the current 80,000, which has been at about 95% capacity for both Giants/Jets games since it opened.
 

Clears Cleaver

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On today's pod, Bill declared that if the Giants and Jets could do it over again, he's sure they'd build a 50,000 seat stadium instead of the current 80,000, which has been at about 95% capacity for both Giants/Jets games since it opened.
Did he say that the 30,000 seats would be replaced by suites and other consumer-friendly areas? The Dolphins redid their stadium and took thousands of seats out and replaced with lounges and other stuff. The economic analysis suggested the fewer seatsreplaced by higher end options would make more $$ over time

The PSLs drove the seat decision when Metlife was built. Those have gone by way of dinosaur
 

luckiestman

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My favorite recent Billism is how he describes how he watches something. "I watched it for what it was." As opposed to....?

I think I get exactly what he means. I watch the Jack Reacher movies. If you asked me if they are good, I'd say "yeah, they are good for bad action movies."
 

Kliq

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I think I get exactly what he means. I watch the Jack Reacher movies. If you asked me if they are good, I'd say "yeah, they are good for bad action movies."
Considering Bill's favorite genre is constantly replayed cable movies, I think this is exactly what he means.
 

ifmanis5

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Disagree. In the GoT example I think Bill means "I liked it (mostly because of corporate alliances says I have to) just don't call me a nerd."
 

ElUno20

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Disagree. In the GoT example I think Bill means "I liked it (mostly because of corporate alliances says I have to) just don't call me a nerd."
Haven't listened to Bill in a while but I'm hoping his corporate overlords make him do a boxing podcast ahead of the ggg/canelo fight. that I'd listen to
 

Spacemans Bong

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Did he say that the 30,000 seats would be replaced by suites and other consumer-friendly areas? The Dolphins redid their stadium and took thousands of seats out and replaced with lounges and other stuff. The economic analysis suggested the fewer seatsreplaced by higher end options would make more $$ over time

The PSLs drove the seat decision when Metlife was built. Those have gone by way of dinosaur
Weren't the Dolphins failing to sell those seats anyway? I seem to remember thousands of empty seats whenever I watched a Dolphins game in the last 10-15 years.

Also, Joe Robbie Stadium was just old enough to be from a different time in terms of the stadium experience. I doubt it had the extensive lounges and as many premium seating options as newer stadiums. MetLife has five lounges, so it's pretty well equipped there.
 

Clears Cleaver

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Well, they hadn't made the playoffs but once in like 12 years. So like Sullivan stadium in the 70s and Fenway in the 80s it had thousands of empty seats. Plus, it's Miami. I'm sure they realize their fixed demand is well south of 80k

I've been to Joe Robbie twice. There were lots of concourse open bar areas but not the private lounges or clubs. At least that I knew of. Maybe now there are more

Ross realized providing discerning fans with better experience than sitting in a seat was worth more. Most stadiums now are built with this in mind, I would think. The at-home experience is 100x better than it was even 10 years ago. I have no clue why anyone would sit through an NFL game unless they had a luxury box. Especially when parking and traffic is considered.

I'm sure Henry would love to scrap the entire grandstand section in deep RF and turn it into luxury boxes if it was architecturally viable.

How many seats will LA have? Atlanta has 71k I think. That stadium is insane looking.
 

allstonite

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The Sports Repodders idea was pretty good. I like these types of podcasts, similar to Deitch's Round Tables that sometimes include Chad Finn. Jason Gay's parting shot was very funny. I hope he does more of these.

Also, the stadium capacity was about creating a more exclusive, intimate experience for fans. They were interested to see how the LA Rams is going to work and then compared modern Fenway to new Yankee Stadium. It was a good discussion but Giant Stadium may have been a bad example to make his point.

His GoT point was that he watches it like it's a dumb action movie. He could see why Mallory and Jason might have gripes but he didn't care because the story is secondary for him.

Finally, agree with Kenney that Dave Roberts is awesome. He seems like the easiest person to talk to and was gracious answering Bill's questions
 

SeoulSoxFan

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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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I liked the Theron podcast. Just because it gave her chances to comment on her past movies and shoot off some off-the-cuff stories that were entertaining.
 

nattysez

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Bill's NBA takes have apparently hit the "well, this is how I feel even if the stats say otherwise" point that his baseball takes did years ago. I guess he made repeated statements during the last NBA pod that are demonstrably false.

Read this thread:
 
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blueline

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Bill has always had a weird thing about Kyrie. Prior to the finals, he thought the matchup between Steph and Kyrie was a wash and they were on the same level.
 

blueline

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Have to love Bill praising the innovation of steakhouses these days, followed by silence from David Chang.
 
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Kliq

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I think his last few weeks (Sports Repodders, Willie McGinnest, Youngsoo Koo, Sal, The Rewatchables, RJ) have been really good. I never really thought much of Jefferson but he came off as a bright and engaging guy that looks to have a future in broadcasting.
 

DieHardSoxFan1

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A stunning bit of football analysis today. Did you guys know that Mark Ingram, one of the better pass-catching RB's in the league, is "the same guy" as Adrian Peterson? Go Bill.
 

luckiestman

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The Richard Jefferson pod is excellent.

It was really really good. I could nitpick Bill and maybe that would make me feel better about myself but I feel nothing but gratitude for the guy. He puts out a great podcast and has put together a bunch of other great podcasts. GM street with Lombardi is really really good, Joe House on anything is fantastic, Kevin O'Connor does a good job on the NBA podcast. All for free. Yeah yeah yeah, Bill is sometimes wrong and he is thin skinned... big fucking deal.
 

Gunfighter 09

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It was really really good. I could nitpick Bill and maybe that would make me feel better about myself but I feel nothing but gratitude for the guy. He puts out a great podcast and has put together a bunch of other great podcasts. GM street with Lombardi is really really good, Joe House on anything is fantastic, Kevin O'Connor does a good job on the NBA podcast. All for free. Yeah yeah yeah, Bill is sometimes wrong and he is thin skinned... big fucking deal.


This needs to be said every now and then.

The Rewatchables might be my favorite podcast right now. The Silence of the Lambs rewatchable was outstanding, largely because Ryan and Simmons pair great together. Ryan really tempers Simmons' habits of overreaching quite well.
 

SydneySox

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It was really really good. I could nitpick Bill and maybe that would make me feel better about myself but I feel nothing but gratitude for the guy. He puts out a great podcast and has put together a bunch of other great podcasts. GM street with Lombardi is really really good, Joe House on anything is fantastic, Kevin O'Connor does a good job on the NBA podcast. All for free. Yeah yeah yeah, Bill is sometimes wrong and he is thin skinned... big fucking deal.
So, instead of nitpicking, you strawmanned. Good work.
 

bbc23

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The Richard Jefferson pod is excellent.
Highly recommend the Road Trippin' podcast if you're at all a basketball fan. Channing Frye and RJ are excellent on it. It's a much more fun/lighthearted version of the podcast JJ Redick had and during the season they'll have someone on from the team as a guest almost every week.
 

allstonite

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The new rewatchables about Speed is another great one but Simmons still has to Simmons. They were talking about River Phoenix and the night he died and Bill goes "I wish they had like 30 for 30 but on celebrities because they I'd watch one about River Phoenix." They have those Bill. They're just called documentaries.

I'm still a fan and listen to most of his stuff but there should be a Bill Simmons Podcast Bingo.
Some ideas
-talks to Tate who doesn't have a mic
-asks Tate about his "generation" and if they're familiar with older but popular things
-compares the topic to basketball or a basketball team
-says "Zapruder"
-says "wonky
 

johnmd20

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That's a pretty wonky take.

The nitpicks about Simmons are kind of ridiculous. Every podcaster has their verbal tics that they go back to over and over again, even Marc Maron. It does not change the fact that Simmons' podcast is excellent and he's actually a pretty good broadcaster and his shows are varied, as are his guests.
 

leetinsley38

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That's a pretty wonky take.

The nitpicks about Simmons are kind of ridiculous. Every podcaster has their verbal tics that they go back to over and over again, even Marc Maron. It does not change the fact that Simmons' podcast is excellent and he's actually a pretty good broadcaster and his shows are varied, as are his guests.
Agreed. Simmons has become so overrated he’s now underrated.
 

allstonite

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Agreed. Simmons has become so overrated he’s now underrated.
This is funny. And you're right. They aren't so much complaints but stuff you get tired of after listening for 10 years. Except the Tate not having a mic. He does sometimes but not every time. And the 30 for 30 comment was just funny. I can't believe nobody called him on it