Bill Simmons Leaving ESPN

[FlyRy]

http://espn.go.com/espnradio/feeds/rss/podcast.xml?id=2864045

april 3, 2015

I actually really enjoyed that retrospective

 

[Kufismack]

He could, but Bill is thinking bigger then just the NBA.....at least at this point in his career. I personally think a pairing with Vice would be perfect for him. It may not pay anywhere near what his other suitors are offering.....but in terms of building his brand, and creative freedom it could be a bigger payoff in the long run.

I can't see him wanting anything to do with a "traditional" media company. Sure he would get more money, but he would also be on a leash as well.

Yeah you're probably right. I just think this is probably NBA TV's last hope of having something resembling decent.

 

[James Genius]

i never liked him mostly because he dikkrode lebron for his tenure at espn.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

i never liked him mostly because he dikkrode lebron for his tenure at espn.

A major Boston homer dikkriding Lebron? You serious? Simmons didn't praise Lebron any more than a million other basketball guys did. Do you dislike every sportswriter who writes like Lebron deserved all those MVPs?

 

[Optimus Prime]

Bill Simmons: What He Might Do Next

It was just two colleagues having a chat. That, say sources, is the way things seemed when ESPN president John Skipper spoke with agent James Dixon on May 7 — part of an ongoing series of talks about the future of Dixon's client, sports personality Bill Simmons, whose contract was set to expire in September. There was no hint of the bombshell to come.

But between then and the following morning, something changed. That's when Simmons learned Skipper was not going to renew his contract, which paid a reported $5 million a year — mortally wounding his ability to use the ESPN job as leverage in other negotiations.

He never was told directly but learned it from Twitter, after The New York Times broke the news. "I decided today that we are not going to renew Bill Simmons' contract," Skipper stated with unusual bluntness. "We have been in negotiations, and it was clear it was time to move on."

Sources say Simmons was "reeling" from being axed after nearly 15 years at ESPN, and the voluble journalist declined comment — but he likely will have many options as the most read sportswriter and a name brand.

Money might have had something to do with his departure (he reportedly wanted more than $6 million a year), as did his endless parade of controversy. Most recently, the very day that Skipper and Dixon spoke, Simmons lambasted NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Dan Patrick's radio show — and not for the first time.

What Simmons will do next is unknown, but there is speculation he might end up at Fox Sports, where former ESPN executive Jamie Horowitz begins his new job May 18 as head of programming at Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2. Sources also indicate Simmons might raise money for his own company.

Grantland, the website Simmons founded for ESPN, will remain with the network, but sources say multiple staffers — including many writers Simmons hired — are debating whether to follow him. None had resigned at press time.

As recently as March, Skipper told THR his "intention was to renew" Simmons. But the journalist had become a lightning rod who had trouble being as circumspect as the parent company might like — including on the May 7 radio show, when he questioned Goodell's "testicular fortitude."

Whether Skipper's thinking was influenced by Disney TV topper Ben Sherwood is uncertain, but sources say Simmons had lost the support of Disney CEO Robert Iger. "In the last year, [their relationship] has really dissolved," says one insider.

Reps for ESPN and Disney had no comment.

 

[Goat poster]

i never liked him mostly because he dikkrode lebron for his tenure at espn.

Bill is a Boston Homer, That trashed LeBron for the Decision and rooted against the Heat in ANY way when Bron was there.

Where do you guys get this stuff from?

 

[Walt]

One of the only honest assessments of Simmons I've ever read:

http://deadspin.com/bill-simmons-is-a-shytty-writer-1703163076

An excerpt:

The circumstances have changed; the writing has not. Simmons circa 2000 wouldn’t have been choosing which of those two events to attend—he’d have been writing insufferable gobbledygook about Is this the greatest TV night in sports history? I’ve got it as a “Brother, You Are Going Down” on the Sports Greatness TV Night Heat Quotes Scale ... It’s a good thing they’re not on at the same time, or my remote control hand would be as worn out as Houston at the end of The World’s Biggest Gangbang 3. Definitely a Remote Hand Punishment all-timer. If that seems more appealing to you, that’s because you’re more willing to accept graphorrheic nonsense and shameless pandering from an insurgent upstart than from a rich celebrity.

That’s not entirely unreasonable. If Simmons understood how analogies work, he himself might liken it to how, say, Trevor Ariza’s lousy handle and glacial first step didn’t seem like big weaknesses when he was the intriguing young D-and-3 wing lightening Kobe Bryant’s workload, but made him woefully inadequate when the Houston Rockets foolishly paid him to be a star. Context and expectations change our perceptions, sure—but, they didn’t change Trevor Ariza’s game. His handle really is shyt. Bill Simmons’s writing really is bad.

So, if his writing was always shytty, and fame and access actually improved his skill-set, then why don’t you like Simmons as much as you used to? What changed?

You did. You are not 19 anymore. You matured, read other, better writers, and eventually discovered the difference between an analogy and a reference, between affectation and personality, between pointless maundering and having something to say. You grew to prefer coherence over in-group signaling. You figured out that writing that claps you on the back and congratulates you for being careless and white and male and steeped in mainstream pop culture is the precise opposite of subversive. You lost your taste for Bill Simmons, whose writing is bad. You grew up. Good for you! Growing up is cool.

I have no idea whether Simmons’s other skills justify the millions hiring him likely will cost. Maybe? Who knows. Whichever gazillionaire wins the auction, I hope he budgets enough leftover cash for a second, less flashy purchase: a tough and skilled and empowered editor. Bill Simmons needs one, because his writing is bad.

 

[The ADD]

One of the only honest assessments of Simmons I've ever read:

http://deadspin.com/bill-simmons-is-a-shytty-writer-1703163076

An excerpt:

The circumstances have changed; the writing has not. Simmons circa 2000 wouldn’t have been choosing which of those two events to attend—he’d have been writing insufferable gobbledygook about Is this the greatest TV night in sports history? I’ve got it as a “Brother, You Are Going Down” on the Sports Greatness TV Night Heat Quotes Scale ... It’s a good thing they’re not on at the same time, or my remote control hand would be as worn out as Houston at the end of The World’s Biggest Gangbang 3. Definitely a Remote Hand Punishment all-timer. If that seems more appealing to you, that’s because you’re more willing to accept graphorrheic nonsense and shameless pandering from an insurgent upstart than from a rich celebrity.

That’s not entirely unreasonable. If Simmons understood how analogies work, he himself might liken it to how, say, Trevor Ariza’s lousy handle and glacial first step didn’t seem like big weaknesses when he was the intriguing young D-and-3 wing lightening Kobe Bryant’s workload, but made him woefully inadequate when the Houston Rockets foolishly paid him to be a star. Context and expectations change our perceptions, sure—but, they didn’t change Trevor Ariza’s game. His handle really is shyt. Bill Simmons’s writing really is bad.

So, if his writing was always shytty, and fame and access actually improved his skill-set, then why don’t you like Simmons as much as you used to? What changed?

You did. You are not 19 anymore. You matured, read other, better writers, and eventually discovered the difference between an analogy and a reference, between affectation and personality, between pointless maundering and having something to say. You grew to prefer coherence over in-group signaling. You figured out that writing that claps you on the back and congratulates you for being careless and white and male and steeped in mainstream pop culture is the precise opposite of subversive. You lost your taste for Bill Simmons, whose writing is bad. You grew up. Good for you! Growing up is cool.

I have no idea whether Simmons’s other skills justify the millions hiring him likely will cost. Maybe? Who knows. Whichever gazillionaire wins the auction, I hope he budgets enough leftover cash for a second, less flashy purchase: a tough and skilled and empowered editor. Bill Simmons needs one, because his writing is bad.

Seemed fair until to the end when he questions the $. I don't get that practice.

 

[Drones]

One of the only honest assessments of Simmons I've ever read:

http://deadspin.com/bill-simmons-is-a-shytty-writer-1703163076

Kind of seemed like a jealous hit piece to me. Like him or not, Simmons has had a lot of influence and success as a sportswriter and that seems to invoke envy if not outright resentment in a lot of other writers' hearts.

I say that as someone who likes his work but thinks he harbors some low key racial resentment.

 

[Walt]

Seemed fair until to the end when he questions the $. I don't get that practice.

Billy gonna get paid regardless. Is he worth that money? Really depends on how you define worth, and what determines worth in the sports market.

The last time I read a Bill Simmons column was 2008. At that point his writing had become so offensively bad that I was alternating between grimacing, raising my eyebrow like The Rock, and laughing out loud from one paragraph to the next. This particular column was about going to the All Star Game in New Orleans after Katrina. This was the paragraph that provoked all three of the aforementioned reactions at once:

"There's no question. I'm having a moment. I'm having one those I'm-in-a-movie, larger-than-life moments that can happen only in New Orleans. And right as it's happening, almost on cue, a tattered white van pulls up to the stop sign directly in front of me.

An older black guy is driving. He looks like he has aged 10 years in the past three. He's gazing ahead in silence, lost in his own thoughts, oblivious to the stares from the out-of-towner covered in powdered sugar. Meanwhile, his car radio happens to be blaring a classic Tupac song, and what's really blowing my mind is that it's the chorus of the perfect song for this particular moment. If you froze the moment and asked me to pick a song, I would have picked this song. And now it's playing. And I'm frozen in midbite. I can't believe it. I'm standing there in complete disbelief.

Keep ya head up … ooooh child, things are gonna get easier … keep ya head up … ooooh child, things will get brighter.

Is this really happening?

Ooooh child, things are gonna get easier … keep ya head up … ooooh child, things will get brighter.

And just like that, he drove away."

Simmons is a bad writer, who relies heavily on an audience who is just as misguided in its perception of "cool" as he is, and who have a smugness about them that is completely out of step with any actual insight into sports but who believe they are expert on sports, music, movies, and culture. It's a noxious mix. But I saw its appeal back then, and I still get it.

 

[The ADD]

Billy gonna get paid regardless. Is he worth that money? Really depends on how you define worth, and what determines worth in the sports market.

The last time I read a Bill Simmons column was 2008. At that point his writing had become so offensively bad that I was alternating between grimacing, raising my eyebrow like The Rock, and laughing out loud from one paragraph to the next. This particular column was about going to the All Star Game in New Orleans after Katrina. This was the paragraph that provoked all three of the aforementioned reactions at once:

"There's no question. I'm having a moment. I'm having one those I'm-in-a-movie, larger-than-life moments that can happen only in New Orleans. And right as it's happening, almost on cue, a tattered white van pulls up to the stop sign directly in front of me.

An older black guy is driving. He looks like he has aged 10 years in the past three. He's gazing ahead in silence, lost in his own thoughts, oblivious to the stares from the out-of-towner covered in powdered sugar. Meanwhile, his car radio happens to be blaring a classic Tupac song, and what's really blowing my mind is that it's the chorus of the perfect song for this particular moment. If you froze the moment and asked me to pick a song, I would have picked this song. And now it's playing. And I'm frozen in midbite. I can't believe it. I'm standing there in complete disbelief.

Keep ya head up … ooooh child, things are gonna get easier … keep ya head up … ooooh child, things will get brighter.

Is this really happening?

Ooooh child, things are gonna get easier … keep ya head up … ooooh child, things will get brighter.

And just like that, he drove away."

Simmons is a bad writer, who relies heavily on an audience who is just as misguided in its perception of "cool" as he is, and who have a smugness about them that is completely out of step with any actual insight into sports but who believe they are expert on sports, music, movies, and culture. It's a noxious mix. But I saw its appeal back then, and I still get it.

I won't wade into the argument of his writing so much. That said the article resonates with me because unless something very interesting I only read his mailbags.

It juse seems like the writer of the article undermines good analysis by getting into the compensation aspect.

 

[Lucky_Lefty]

This may be the greatest comment in DS traditionally unfunny comment section

(Cross-commenting)

/clicks Subscribe, queues up podcast

Jack-O: Complex litigation, this is John.

Simmons: OHHHHHHHHHH JOHNNNNAAYYYY!!!!!

Jack-O: Heh heh...’sup Willy?

Simmons: (Francesa impression) Yo Dog. Yo Dog. I, uh...yo dog. One sec, let me conference in Cousin Sal.

Cousin Sal: (Russo impression) THAT IS A GOOD JOB BY YOU BILL! THAT IS A GOOD JOB TALKING ABOUT RUSSELL HUSTLE BUSTLE MAN MUSCLE BRUSSEL SPROUT WILSON! KHAAAAN! /hangs up

Simmons: Good job by you!

Jack-O: So, you wanna talk about noted cheater David Ortiz?

Joe House: JOE HOUSE is on the line!

Simmons: OHHHHH! House. We totally nailed that under 46.5 wins bet on the Indiana Pacers.

Joe House: Did we go over or under the Washington Professional Basketball Team which is what I hilariously call them?

Simmons: You know who the Washington Professional Basketball Team could really use? A little Jeff Green! And you know who knows about basketball, my best friend Jalen Rose!

Jalen Rose: Correct.

Simmons: Jalen, instead of talking about basketball can we spend the next 5 minutes of this Podcast talking about the best NBA cities for players to anonymously get fukked up and bang strippers or groupies?

Jalen: A little CHAMPAGNIN AND CAMPAIGNIN. See, when we used to fly into Atlanta, I would make sure my side women flew into a different airport and made sur-

/clicks Unsubscribe

2Reply

 

[Dirty D]

That deadspin article may be accurate but it's also dripping with haterade.


That Keep Ya Head Up story was pretty bad. I didn't realize that movie moments can only happen in New Orleans. Or that what was described qualified as one.

 

[fact]

I honestly want to neg you for that

One of the only honest assessments of Simmons I've ever read:

http://deadspin.com/bill-simmons-is-a-shytty-writer-1703163076

An excerpt:

The circumstances have changed; the writing has not. Simmons circa 2000 wouldn’t have been choosing which of those two events to attend—he’d have been writing insufferable gobbledygook about Is this the greatest TV night in sports history? I’ve got it as a “Brother, You Are Going Down” on the Sports Greatness TV Night Heat Quotes Scale ... It’s a good thing they’re not on at the same time, or my remote control hand would be as worn out as Houston at the end of The World’s Biggest Gangbang 3. Definitely a Remote Hand Punishment all-timer. If that seems more appealing to you, that’s because you’re more willing to accept graphorrheic nonsense and shameless pandering from an insurgent upstart than from a rich celebrity.

That’s not entirely unreasonable. If Simmons understood how analogies work, he himself might liken it to how, say, Trevor Ariza’s lousy handle and glacial first step didn’t seem like big weaknesses when he was the intriguing young D-and-3 wing lightening Kobe Bryant’s workload, but made him woefully inadequate when the Houston Rockets foolishly paid him to be a star. Context and expectations change our perceptions, sure—but, they didn’t change Trevor Ariza’s game. His handle really is shyt. Bill Simmons’s writing really is bad.

So, if his writing was always shytty, and fame and access actually improved his skill-set, then why don’t you like Simmons as much as you used to? What changed?

You did. You are not 19 anymore. You matured, read other, better writers, and eventually discovered the difference between an analogy and a reference, between affectation and personality, between pointless maundering and having something to say. You grew to prefer coherence over in-group signaling. You figured out that writing that claps you on the back and congratulates you for being careless and white and male and steeped in mainstream pop culture is the precise opposite of subversive. You lost your taste for Bill Simmons, whose writing is bad. You grew up. Good for you! Growing up is cool.

I have no idea whether Simmons’s other skills justify the millions hiring him likely will cost. Maybe? Who knows. Whichever gazillionaire wins the auction, I hope he budgets enough leftover cash for a second, less flashy purchase: a tough and skilled and empowered editor. Bill Simmons needs one, because his writing is bad.

The article is right on, the only thing about it is, imo anyway, if these people have been duped into hiring Bill as a writer first and foremost, then, wtf I care? I don't have much complaints about his writing, because I stopped reading him around the time he got to espn (when I was just out of high school, I was actually getting the BSG articles emailed to me, and they were just like long winded posts on here, but about the Celtics and I loved it) but once I started reading more HST out of high school, although I was still entertained, I caught on to what Bill's style was derived from, and even though I would still skim, if I wanted to read HST I would just read him, if I wanted to read masterful basketball writing relating to my Celtics, I would read Bob Ryan or Jackie's work, and if I wanted to laugh and enjoy my teams at the same time, I would just hit the hamster. Once Bill caught that fame, he really did change, not saying I wouldn't or he shouldn't, just saying it wasn't for me.
I will say however, he has the vision of putting together a good brainstorm team, and coming up with good ideas in a multimedia format, and that is what his new bosses will get.

 

[CrimsonTider]

Billy gonna get paid regardless. Is he worth that money? Really depends on how you define worth, and what determines worth in the sports market.

The last time I read a Bill Simmons column was 2008. At that point his writing had become so offensively bad that I was alternating between grimacing, raising my eyebrow like The Rock, and laughing out loud from one paragraph to the next. This particular column was about going to the All Star Game in New Orleans after Katrina. This was the paragraph that provoked all three of the aforementioned reactions at once:

"There's no question. I'm having a moment. I'm having one those I'm-in-a-movie, larger-than-life moments that can happen only in New Orleans. And right as it's happening, almost on cue, a tattered white van pulls up to the stop sign directly in front of me.

An older black guy is driving. He looks like he has aged 10 years in the past three. He's gazing ahead in silence, lost in his own thoughts, oblivious to the stares from the out-of-towner covered in powdered sugar. Meanwhile, his car radio happens to be blaring a classic Tupac song, and what's really blowing my mind is that it's the chorus of the perfect song for this particular moment. If you froze the moment and asked me to pick a song, I would have picked this song. And now it's playing. And I'm frozen in midbite. I can't believe it. I'm standing there in complete disbelief.

Keep ya head up … ooooh child, things are gonna get easier … keep ya head up … ooooh child, things will get brighter.

Is this really happening?

Ooooh child, things are gonna get easier … keep ya head up … ooooh child, things will get brighter.

And just like that, he drove away."

Simmons is a bad writer, who relies heavily on an audience who is just as misguided in its perception of "cool" as he is, and who have a smugness about them that is completely out of step with any actual insight into sports but who believe they are expert on sports, music, movies, and culture. It's a noxious mix. But I saw its appeal back then, and I still get it.

Hence my "Bill simmons is the single worst analyst of basketball that has ever been given a platform" thread a year ago

In my opinion he does nothing exceptional and his perspectives never provoke thought.

I don't understand how he got to be so big.