Bill Simmons, He Gone

Pro Sports 14 replies 895 views
Commander of Awesome's avatar
Commander of Awesome
Posts: 23,151
May 8, 2015 11:13am
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/09/sports/bill-simmons-and-espn-are-parting-ways.html?smid=tw-nytimes


“I’ve decided that I’m not going to renew his contract,” said John Skipper, the president of ESPN. “We’ve been talking to Bill and his agent and it was clear we weren’t going to get to the terms so we were better off focusing on transition.”

I wonder if he takes everyone from Grantland.
B
BR1986FB
Posts: 24,104
May 8, 2015 11:30am
Good. Screw that Bostonian leg humping POS.
lhslep134's avatar
lhslep134
Posts: 9,774
May 8, 2015 11:40am
BR1986FB;1727514 wrote:Good. Screw that Bostonian leg humping POS.
You can say that until you're blue in the face but Grantland shits on pretty much every other sports site and without Bill's involvement, Grantland doesn't exist in the first place.

While I find him whiny, annoying, and a fanboy at times, that's who he is. He doesn't shy away from it, and it's how he developed his following.

Curious to see what happens to Zach Lowe, Jonah Keri, and Bill Barnwell, who are among the best writers in their respective sports.
Heretic's avatar
Heretic
Posts: 18,820
May 8, 2015 11:58am
lhslep134;1727522 wrote:You can say that until you're blue in the face but Grantland shits on pretty much every other sports site and without Bill's involvement, Grantland doesn't exist in the first place.

While I find him whiny, annoying, and a fanboy at times, that's who he is. He doesn't shy away from it, and it's how he developed his following.

Curious to see what happens to Zach Lowe, Jonah Keri, and Bill Barnwell, who are among the best writers in their respective sports.
Truth. As a big baseball fan, Keri's "The 30" is the sort of thing I find myself hitting refresh on Grantland's home page until it pops up. They have a lot of great writers there and usually have a handful of "required reading" columns every week.
Iliketurtles's avatar
Iliketurtles
Posts: 8,191
May 8, 2015 12:49pm
lhslep134;1727522 wrote:You can say that until you're blue in the face but Grantland shits on pretty much every other sports site and without Bill's involvement, Grantland doesn't exist in the first place.

While I find him whiny, annoying, and a fanboy at times, that's who he is. He doesn't shy away from it, and it's how he developed his following.

Curious to see what happens to Zach Lowe, Jonah Keri, and Bill Barnwell, who are among the best writers in their respective sports.
I agree with all of this. Simmons allure has wore off a bit but he still puts out some good stuff sometimes and what he has done with Grantland is amazing not just the sport related stuff either. Bill Barnwell and Robert Mays are my favorites. Will suck if they don't do their football podcast together anymore.
Mulva's avatar
Mulva
Posts: 13,650
May 8, 2015 12:59pm
30 for 30 also owes itself to Simmons.
like_that's avatar
like_that
Posts: 26,625
May 8, 2015 1:12pm
I hate what bill Simmons the person became, but I will give him reps for grantland 30/30. Hopefully he gets all the grantland guys to join him.
lhslep134's avatar
lhslep134
Posts: 9,774
May 8, 2015 1:15pm
Iliketurtles;1727534 wrote:Bill Barnwell and Robert Mays are my favorites. Will suck if they don't do their football podcast together anymore.
I agree. I never really tuned into podcasts in general until about 3 months ago and the Grantland NFL Podcast has quickly become one of my favorites, and that's without having heard an in-season one.
B
BR1986FB
Posts: 24,104
May 8, 2015 1:15pm
like_that;1727539 wrote:I hate what bill Simmons the person became, but I will give him reps for grantland 30/30. Hopefully he gets all the grantland guys to join him.
This is pretty much my take. He's a douche but a talented/creative douche. Didn't say I didn't like 30/30 or Grantland. Just said I can't stand Simmons.
like_that's avatar
like_that
Posts: 26,625
May 8, 2015 1:22pm
BR1986FB;1727542 wrote:This is pretty much my take. He's a douche but a talented/creative douche. Didn't say I didn't like 30/30 or Grantland. Just said I can't stand Simmons.
Yup. Too many examples of why he is a douche but to name a few:

- Boston homer (he thought the cavs/celtics series was going 6 LOL)
-he bitched and moaned about Cleveland winning the lottery a third time. How quickly he forgot that his celtics were gift wrapped KG.
-ALWAYS talking about (insert player) leaving (insert team), even if the player has 3+ years on his contract.
-Dramatic. He pretty much implied lebron was done after the first 12 games of the season.

In summary he can go fuck himself, but ESPN can as well. So, I hope Simmons steals ESPN's talent and assets.
ts1227's avatar
ts1227
Posts: 12,319
May 9, 2015 11:45pm
BR1986FB;1727542 wrote:This is pretty much my take. He's a douche but a talented/creative douche. Didn't say I didn't like 30/30 or Grantland. Just said I can't stand Simmons.
Ideally you'd hope there would be a way to get him off of the airwaves but let him continue with his creative ventures, but you know his ego isn't letting that happen
Heretic's avatar
Heretic
Posts: 18,820
May 10, 2015 10:28am
ts1227;1727836 wrote:Ideally you'd hope there would be a way to get him off of the airwaves but let him continue with his creative ventures, but you know his ego isn't letting that happen
Nope. I used to really like Simmons, but now mainly like him for how he created a great conduit for good writers to be read. Now that he's become a TV Whore, he half-asses most of his work and, for the stuff he puts actual effort into, he still puts more effort into self-promotion. Like his yearly free agent value column, where he fucking did it in four parts. One for 50-31 (or so), one for 30-11, a "preview of 10-1" where he did 10, and then 9-1. It's like, "DUDE! It's your opinion on NBA free agent values, not some major Hollywood production where you have so much anticipation you need to give a sneak preview of your PERSONAL top 10!".
Classyposter58's avatar
Classyposter58
Posts: 6,321
May 10, 2015 1:18pm
Why wouldn't ESPN match him just so it could keep ties to Grantland? The writing on that site is clearly superior to what ESPN produces. This is what I hate about ESPN, it's became so big that it doesn't care if it has diluted content, kind of like EA with sports games


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Lovejoy1984's avatar
Lovejoy1984
Posts: 5,277
May 10, 2015 6:23pm
Um....It still gets to keep grantland. Its theirs, he's just the editor, same with 30/30.
like_that's avatar
like_that
Posts: 26,625
Jul 22, 2015 6:27pm