The Bill Simmons Thread
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It was
While discussing Tatum not getting recognition if he has a poor shooting game, Ryan pointed out that Tatum doesn't influence the game the way a player like Kyrie does, where everyone instantly points to all the great little things Kyrie does, while Tatum doesn't capture people the same way.
I immensely enjoyed the 45 minute Celtics slobberfest in the face of a Sixers fan. Granted Ryan is a decent enough guy, but fuck the Sixers.
I think someone here made the analogy, but Tatum really is a lesser version of forward Duncan. Never the flashiest or coolest player, but does the little things and impacts winning.
I think someone here made the analogy, but Tatum really is a lesser version of forward Duncan. Never the flashiest or coolest player, but does the little things and impacts winning.
Haha, you know when I posted it I hadn't finished the pod--I did not know Ryan was going to LITERALLY attack SoSH posters later!
Does anyone else think Rob Mahoney sounds a lot like Fennessey? It was very evident today when he was on with Bill and CR.
The "you might as well be on QAnon, then!" quip made me laugh out loud. QAnon, but smarter and evaluating things that actually exist/can be witnessed.
Random story, but on Tatum being "cool," I had an awesome interaction with a high school classmate of his (or so she said) a few years ago at a brewery here in Denver. I had gone to the brewery on a Sunday afternoon to read and watch the Celts. She saw my Celtics sweatshirt and casually mentioned knowing Tatum. She went on to say that they went to high school together and she had no idea how big a deal he was/would become nationally. "He was just always a really nice dude" was the essence of her experiences with him. I love that about him and it is absolutely part of what makes it so hard for me to criticize him.
Tatum really does seem like a great guy. How many athletes have this perspective? Especially ones that are unfairly criticized.
View: https://www.twitter.com/NoaDalzellNBA/status/1789507127049929119
View: https://www.twitter.com/NoaDalzellNBA/status/1789507127049929119
It’s the usual story.:: the media gripes about what’s “wrong” with “today’s athletes”… Tatum is what’s right… and they rip him anyway.
Head of podcast monetization Bill Simmons is the one doing ad reads for the Ringer pods. He is on a lot of the ads. Simmons is indomitable.
No ad gets fast forwarded faster than his reads.
To Rob Mahoneys credit, he pushed back on this. Somehow Simmons didn’t? Despite his like 10 minute long speech about Tatum being 26 years old?
A strange one for me was when Danny Heifitz of the Ringer Fantasy Football Show popped up doing ad reads on Fantasy Footballers. I thought wait, aren't these shows kind of competing with each other?
I get why it happens, the shows have plenty of overlap. But, yes, hearing Danny on the Fantasy Footballers show is always a shock.
Maybe because the Mavs/mid-90s MFY seem to be playing the 21st century Minny Twins.
Edit: I see there's a new podcast out. I guess I'll listen to it.
Edit2 mid-90s Yankees was actually "late 90s Yankees" in the podcast.
I'm not sure I can hate the Mavs at a late-90s MFY level, but I don't want to find out.
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I rarely listen to his NBA podcasts, but I listened this morning and he and Russillo were going on and on about how Turner was ruining the last few episodes of Inside the NBA ever by having Draymond in studio. The Turner-NBA rights deal ends after next season, right? This isn't the end of it.
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By "people," he means himself, who he obviously thinks is important. I don't listen to him, so fuck him. As far as I'm concerned, nobody gives a shit about what he thinks, and those that do have already donated their brains to science so who cares about them. I understand getting paid well to be stupid is still getting paid well. But it's also being stupid.
I think for those of us that grew up reading bill from his digital City or page 2 days, it's almost muscle memory to keep listening to him. There are definitely better podcasts and better analysis but his is pretty much the first podcast I checked after a big Celtics game. Or for that matter even a big Patriots game
I would take him a thousand times over anything like first take or pardon my take, or YouTube drama channels that have emotive faces in the thumbnail etc ..
But it's hard for me to put myself in the mind frame of someone that's not a 25-year consumer of his content and a Boston fan. If I try really hard to do that I can understand why some people find him insufferable.
But I also think there are plenty of people that overly romanticize his early years as well. His stuff was entertaining at the time on page two and digital City. His article about the 2003 Red Sox after they lost was truly amazing.
But I go back and read some of the old old stuff and we're probably all guilty of a little bit of golden age fallacy when we look back on it.
Isn't his dad in his '80s? I'm not going to judge anyone in their '80s unless it's like a an elected public official who has influence over high stakes matters. Bill's dad is definitionally harmless even if he is exaggerating or embellishing takes about what the Patriots players think.
Sure, couched in between multiple "I'm not making any excuses for Ant but here's another excuse" lines. First I thought they were serious, then it sounded like they were in on the joke, then they sounded serious again.
Was just coming to post this. The ongoing Simmons~Russillo Podcast Express to Nowhere took quite a turn there from “Ant reminds us of Jordan and Tatum is DEFINITELY not top 5” to “maybe Ant’s career potential is a touch higher.” I thought I was hearing things.
Edit: Increasingly, Russillo is having these moments where he sounds audibly appalled/lobotomized as his brain start to reject the extent of hyperbole that's happening on the show but then he remembers that he's contractually obligated to keep it coming.
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I think Russillo's takes can be just as hyperbolic, he just says his ridiculous stuff less excitedly.
Personally, I'm less forgiving of Russillo's inanity. Simmons whole career is built on him coming up with lists and rankings. And he gets tied to those things, which leads to his “I’m not trying to make excuses for Ant” silliness.
For the pod they did after BOS/IND Game 3, I found Russillo to be far worse than Simmons. Bill was genuinely positive coming out of that game. Not only did Russillo barely comment on the game itself, he conjured up some doomsday “Kyrie wins game 7 with a 3” scenario.
I’m at the point where I’d prefer Bill do these pods with Chris Ryan. Russillo has kinda become a sanctimonious bore.
So I’m taking it you didn’t buy a $105 Rusillo tech hoodie?
https://www.legends.com/collections/ryen-russillo-x-legends
I still enjoy Ryen and Bill, but the issue is doing the weekly Sunday night pods during a playoff season that has generated a lot of repetitive talking points (plus the annoyance of Celtics skepticism each week despite them advancing smoothly to the finals) hasn't led to the best content from them. I think Russillo has some interesting takes, but I also find his lecturing gym-bro style of talking to be grating at times.
I thought someone photoshopped his head on this picture. Then I found out after clicking the link and googling that this is actually real. I actually like Russillo with Simmons, but who in the hell would buy this? What is the intended audience? Its cringy.
I mostly get Russillo, and he does challenge BS’s BS on occasion, which has value…but I need a break. I’m just so tired of the ‘only I really watch hoops and know what’s up’ delivery. I’m starting to only hear Jim Rome he is so infatuated with his own takes. Could just be Bill is having a hard time finding a partner ? Mutiple weekly 2hr podcasts of “greatest 37 NBA point guards over 6’2 between November 1976 and Easter 2016 that were left handed”
/end rant from boring drs office
What is cringy about it outside of Russillo's self-admitted awkwardness in pictures? He's an investor in Legends and has the third biggest sports podcast in the US. There's plenty an audience given it sold out in a few hours.
Yeah, it's really the delivery that is kind of this pompous--I actually agree on his takes quite a bit.
I don't think Simmons has a hard time getting guests, he has an army of Ringer people to talk hoops with and a million different people would love to get booked to talk basketball on one of the most popular podcasts in the world.
I agree that Chris Ryan would be a better guest. He maybe doesn't know as much about basketball or is as observant as Russillo is, but he's more fun and a lot more self-deprecating which I like.
I largely enjoy it too, and I agree that it has become repetitive as hell. Plus Russillo's patented pregnant pause before he makes an obvious point starts to get really grating when one hears it 27 times a week.
Might depend on which chart you cite but RR is #18 currently. Bill is #1 this week, usually PMT is #1. RR is generally top 20 but I've never seen him #3.
https://chartable.com/charts/itunes/us-sports-podcasts
He's mentioned in the past he's third behind PMT and Simmons. I don't look at the charts and know they can be manipulated so was taking his word at it. Not sure if he access to different data behind the scenes at Spotify.
Yeah, pretty much all Podcast data is junk, especially what's publicly available. Russillo clearly has a very large following and listener base for his work.
Anyone else getting tired of this mode of conversation on the Sunday pod with Bill and Ryen?:
Bill: What if I were to tell you that I think monkeys flew out of my ass over the weekend?
Ryen: I'd think that you're insane because monkeys can't fly and I don't know how one, let alone multiple, would ever fit in your ass. It's impossible no matter how big your ass is... Basically, if someone told me that and honestly believed it, I'd lose all respect for them.
Bill: ...And I 100% agree with you. But what if they did? Here, I have twenty minutes of research that supports this theory that I said I don't believe in at all...
(Bill shares long-winded theory supported by spotty statistics)
Ryen (humors him): Yeah, thanks for sharing that. I just still think it's impossible due to basic facts that we've known for hundreds, maybe even thousands, of years about anatomy and biology. It's just not an idea anyone should entertain.
Bill: I'm not saying it happened. I'm in total agreement with you that it didn't... I just kinda think monkeys might've flown out of my ass this weekend (audible smile)
I wish Bill had enough of a spine to stand up to Rusillo. If you're going to make outlandish statements (is Ant as good as a young Jordan? etc), at least stand by them instead of undercutting them as statements you yourself don't even believe.
Bill: What if I were to tell you that I think monkeys flew out of my ass over the weekend?
Ryen: I'd think that you're insane because monkeys can't fly and I don't know how one, let alone multiple, would ever fit in your ass. It's impossible no matter how big your ass is... Basically, if someone told me that and honestly believed it, I'd lose all respect for them.
Bill: ...And I 100% agree with you. But what if they did? Here, I have twenty minutes of research that supports this theory that I said I don't believe in at all...
(Bill shares long-winded theory supported by spotty statistics)
Ryen (humors him): Yeah, thanks for sharing that. I just still think it's impossible due to basic facts that we've known for hundreds, maybe even thousands, of years about anatomy and biology. It's just not an idea anyone should entertain.
Bill: I'm not saying it happened. I'm in total agreement with you that it didn't... I just kinda think monkeys might've flown out of my ass this weekend (audible smile)
I wish Bill had enough of a spine to stand up to Rusillo. If you're going to make outlandish statements (is Ant as good as a young Jordan? etc), at least stand by them instead of undercutting them as statements you yourself don't even believe.
I guess I haven't listened to it enough to get tired of it. What you wrote is a lot of fun and if what Bill is doing is as funny as what you wrote I don't think I would get tired of it.
I’ve come to a conclusion… I like Bill. Russillo stinks.
He actually said “the basketball community seems sick of the Celtics”. The “basketball community” Ryen? It’s you. You’re sick of them. You don’t like them. Which is fine, but my God just cop to it.
He actually said “the basketball community seems sick of the Celtics”. The “basketball community” Ryen? It’s you. You’re sick of them. You don’t like them. Which is fine, but my God just cop to it.
RR was awful in this most recent pod. It's actually kind of embarrassing to listen to. He's acting like the Mavs beat the Dream Team every round whereas the C's beat a group of middle schoolers.
He's said he's taking the Celtics in 7 but he certainly isn't talking like that. Is he trying to get a job with the Mavs?
Ryen wants it both ways. Too much of a coward to pick the Mavs so we get hedged Cs pick. I want to slap this fucking guy for the way he tries to diminish Tatum. He better keep up is little Muay Thai lessons if he plans on coming back to the mean streets of CT. Call me a Stan or whatever, Russillo is dead to me now.
It's basically all Celtic players. He diminshes Tatum and then even further diminishes Brown. I've listened to this pod for 45 minutes and I have no idea how he said he picked the C's in 7. He's said pretty much nothing positive about Boston this entire time.
Meanwhile, he's slobbered over Luka for a good 20 minutes.
Both Simmons and Russillo appeared to agree that Luka can/will finish his career between 10th and 15th all time. A bit premature for a chunky dude who doesn’t play much D.
I thought Bill was decent this time. He asked why the eye test seems to support one conclusion among the punditry (“Yay, Dallas!”) while all the data and history points strongly towards Boston. Which was a good way of framing the disconnect, such that it allowed him to make the case that Boston is being criminally disrespected without sounding whiny and partisan.
Russilo was a giant droning bore.
Russilo was a giant droning bore.