The Bill Simmons Thread

johnmd20

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Funny argument between Bill and Mike on the NBA MVP with Mike giving Bill a hard time. Mike thought that anyone other than LeBron was a terrible argument. Bill liked Harden. Bill never broke out the stats to defend his side. Maybe Bill was a little shook.
That was hilarious and compelling "radio". Bill and Mike are excellent together, in general. The sarcasm from both sides was really delightful.
 

luckiestman

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That was hilarious and compelling "radio". Bill and Mike are excellent together, in general. The sarcasm from both sides was really delightful.

Just listened to a lot of this on my commute. That was really good.


Edit: finished the segment

Mike telling Bill: I love that you love to hate is an all time great moment in podcasting history.
 
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CarolinaBeerGuy

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The latest podcast with Shea Serrano is so incredibly out of touch with reality and just reeks of rich guy privilege. They’re discussing movies and how much they’d pay to watch them on demand. Bill’s go to price is anywhere from $49.99 to $100+ for the majority of these films. Maybe I’m just cheap, but even the ones that he says he’d pay $15 to watch are out of my reach.
 

luckiestman

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The latest podcast with Shea Serrano is so incredibly out of touch with reality and just reeks of rich guy privilege. They’re discussing movies and how much they’d pay to watch them on demand. Bill’s go to price is anywhere from $49.99 to $100+ for the majority of these films. Maybe I’m just cheap, but even the ones that he says he’d pay $15 to watch are out of my reach.

Shut it off before I got there, but going to the theatre for a family of 4 is probably more than $50.
 

Senator Donut

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That price seems about right. Most boxing events are in the $50 to $100 price range and that's probably the best comparison to a first-run Hollywood film.
 

johnmd20

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Shut it off before I got there, but going to the theatre for a family of 4 is probably more than $50.
I saw Tomb Raider a few weeks ago with 3 friends. It was a Wednesday night at 6pm. It was in 3D and it was 90 bucks for 4 tickets.

I do love how Simmons is sticking with his "Houston is going to end up going 122-40," prediction, in spite of the fact that they are on pace for 90 wins.
 

cheech13

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I highly doubt Shea Serrano is rich. Which is unfortunate because he's awesome.
Both of his books were really fun reads, but I find him duller than dishwater on podcasts or live streams. Used to feel the same way about Rembert as well.
 

luckiestman

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Both of his books were really fun reads, but I find him duller than dishwater on podcasts or live streams. Used to feel the same way about Rembert as well.

He was really good on the Good Will Hunting rewatchables podcast but I can't dispute your characterization beyond that one incident
 

HoyaSoxa

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Anyone else notice that Simmons has stopped writing again? Last piece on The Ringer appears to be March 1. I don't miss him too much, but would almost certainly be reading a Friday NBA Playoffs column today.
 

Kliq

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Simmons and Russillo exchanging fake Tommy Heinsohn stories made me bust out laughing while driving today.
 

luckiestman

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Anyone else notice that Simmons has stopped writing again? Last piece on The Ringer appears to be March 1. I don't miss him too much, but would almost certainly be reading a Friday NBA Playoffs column today.

He’s been doing a lot of podcasts recently.
 

Rook05

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Ugh, disappointed Bill wasted an ESPN bullet on Windhorst. I was hoping for someone like Zach Lowe before remembering Lowe has his own pod. Of course, who do I find on today’s Lowe Post?

Here’s to Windhorst covering LeBron in the Big3 finals in 2026.
 

luckiestman

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Ugh, disappointed Bill wasted an ESPN bullet on Windhorst. I was hoping for someone like Zach Lowe before remembering Lowe has his own pod. Of course, who do I find on today’s Lowe Post?

Here’s to Windhorst covering LeBron in the Big3 finals in 2026.

I saw both of those and skipped both. What’s the point? LBJ is great, who gives a shit about his hype man?
 

Kliq

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I actually liked Windhorst on the pod. I’ve definitely made fun of him over the years but he does carry insight and he wasn’t just touting LeBron; I thought he was very fair. He even called him out on his 2011 Finals performance including some stuff I forgot; like when he was making fun of Dirk and asking if he was really sick while Dirk was burying him in the finals.
 

mcpickl

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Anyone hear Wyc Grousbeck on Fridays podcast?

He decided now was the time to let everyone know he's a personnel decision maker and it was all him who got Brooklyn to throw in the last two draft picks in the KG trade.

Pretty bad look there Wyc. Never good when someone wants to make sure they're singled out for credit and praise.
 

johnmd20

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Anyone hear Wyc Grousbeck on Fridays podcast?

He decided now was the time to let everyone know he's a personnel decision maker and it was all him who got Brooklyn to throw in the last two draft picks in the KG trade.

Pretty bad look there Wyc. Never good when someone wants to make sure they're singled out for credit and praise.
It was a great podcast but he definitely dislocated his shoulder patting himself on the back.
 

Kliq

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The lesson is that over a 70 minute podcast, Bill said spent 15 seconds saying something inane and therefore you shouldn't be happy to hear him and Lowe rave about the Celtics.
 
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blueline

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What's wrong with not drawing conclusions from small sample sizes?
I went back and relistened to his comment (around 4:15 in the podcast), and I must have misheard him earlier. His actual argument was that some of the offensive numbers regarding Hordford/Baynes line ups in the playoffs don't matter as much because of small sample sizes. Seems like a reasonable argument; I thought he was suggesting the opposite for some reason.
 

Mugsy's Jock

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Anyone hear Wyc Grousbeck on Fridays podcast?

He decided now was the time to let everyone know he's a personnel decision maker and it was all him who got Brooklyn to throw in the last two draft picks in the KG trade.

Pretty bad look there Wyc. Never good when someone wants to make sure they're singled out for credit and praise.
I thought this was a real misstep by Grousbeck. As johnmd pointed out above, saying out loud that you outsmarted somebody you did a deal with only makes people hate doing deals with you, and if going back and asking for more was "his move" he gave that away.

And he just sounded like a douche, but hey, if I had his dough I might not be so lovable either.
 

Pablo's TB Lover

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Yeah Wyc came off a little like Larry Lucchino when he and Theo would have their spats and try to take credit for the "good" moves, except instead of feeding his narrative to Shaughnessy behind closed doors for publication later, this was out in the open. I mean in becoming an owner to begin with he's probably more Mark Cuban than your average Joe, it's just that Cuban is in front of a microphone more often and we get ample evidence of his douchiness.

To be fair to Wyc, after the booing and initial dissatisfaction from last year's draft followed by the results since, he's got to be feeling a little chesty right now. Even this average Joe, in his position, would be tempted to find a way to tell the haters to suck it.
 

kelpapa

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Here is a tweet with that discussion. He comes off like the guy that's pulling the strings behind Danny.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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He looks like Paul Stanley with a short hair.

"HEY! AH SAID HEY! AH was backstage and ah heard you kids like ... TRADING DRAFT PICKS! Is that TRUE!? OH YEAH! Let ME tell you about the time AH got Jayson Tatum for a SONG! AND that song was ... 'DETROIT ROCK CITY'!"
 

allstonite

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The Ethan Hawke Hawke podcast is great. Bill is good at taking people in Hollywood that I always perceived as pretentious or snobby and humanizing them. It also worked for Jake Gyllenhaal and PTA.
 

johnmd20

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The Ethan Hawke Hawke podcast is great. Bill is good at taking people in Hollywood that I always perceived as pretentious or snobby and humanizing them. It also worked for Jake Gyllenhaal and PTA.
Hawke was really funny and the entire interview was engaging. The story about the Knicks was a real treat!
 

MarkBT

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The Ringer's recent "Rewatchables" podcast had an interesting Simmons nugget related to the title of this thread.

Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey were dissecting "The Social Network" and reflecting on the morals/ethics of Zuckerberg 'stealing' the Harvard Connection website idea. Fennessey (quoting the rapper Nas) commented that ideas aren't really original, its just about who gets to them first. Simmons (agreeing) said, "well except for the Trade Value column.." (kind of joking... but also sounding kind of serious?) to which Fennessey and Ryan kind of said "umm.. okay.." and just moved on.
 

jmcc5400

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Big fan of Bill's. But that he didn't know that Rozier is not a free agent this summer in a recent podcast with Zach Lowe was astonishing to me
 

OurF'ingCity

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Kinda sounds like it will be a combination of "Hard Knocks" and "Inside the NFL" - I imagine it will combine behind-the-scenes locker room footage, etc. with talking head segments led by Simmons. As with Inside the NFL, I'm interested in the behind-the-scenes stuff and highlights, but not so much with whatever Simmons et al. have to say after-the-fact.