bill simmons IS bill simmons IN the book of BASKETBALL

the problem with the "crunch-time shots" discussion is that in modern nba all that means is "who is gonna take the crunch-time drives to the basket in an attempt to get fouled" and with bron AND wade on the same team, i don't think it's gonna manifest itself in a negative way

think you're oversimplifying it a bit; the cavs lost that series to the magic two years ago because 4 dudes stood around and waited for bron to do something. it will be an interesting discussion, at some point--i don't think it's gonna manifest itself as a conflict or problem but maybe more as a strategic challenge.

but basically, does the play start with bron having the ball or wade having the ball--that is going to matter, and it is going to mean something

lwade is gonna take the crunch time shots ok, next question

hehe

wade's a little bit crunchtime, bron's a lil bit pick n roll

anyway re: this book - i love simmons when he talks basketball (and basically ignore him when he talks about anything else) so this seems like a great idea to me - i'll deffo read it someday - and honestly, i can probably count on one hand the number of sportswriters i consider better than him (nb. this is more an indictment of sportswriting than an endorsement of simmons)

― NEW YORK DESERVED 9-11 (cankles), Friday, November 13, 2009 6:39 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

btw i read this book and it sucked and he sucks

simmons note: do i rc that he was a comedy writer? how is this possible? i have never laughed at a single thing he's ever written.

simmons gets way too much mileage out of the "this situation is like some obscure pop culture reference, let me break it down for you with x's and o's"

thing is it's never that obscure, it's like 80s/90s bargain bin bullshit, but yeah he does do that thing u just said

he wrote for kimmel's late night show when it was starting out, after he was already espn famous. why he moved to l.a. iirc.

i have not read simmons in probably a year but have always felt that if the world needed one person like bill simmons we could do a lot worse than bill simmons, if you feel me

i always felt his clowning of doc rivers for using ubuntu was a little o_O and i'm kinda hoping during one of his vegas jaunts he gets lost and walks right into a wnba team.

haha

still think there's a lot of good stuff in tbob--the pyramid, especially, is really fun to read

it's also kind of pissing me off that he's moving into broadcasting. he blows chunks on PTI and I heard he was gonna broadcast some game? I mean granted, reggie miller sets the bar pretty low but I don't need a dude with the voice of some pimply faced fratboy feebly trying to channel excitement after a great dunk

i always felt his clowning of doc rivers for using ubuntu was a little o_O

― omar little, Sunday, December 12, 2010 11:09 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

eh feel like his arguments in favor of debian were pretty strong tbh

i thought he was pretty decent doing the heat-warriors game -- i mean he made a lot of the same points/jokes from his column, but he was as good as anyone on that network outside of jvg

wow that surprises me

content is not the only thing that counts in the booth - you gotta have a vocalic presence, bill simmons has about as much vocalic presence as the boom goes the dynamite kid

yeah i was amazed by how bad he was on PTI... kornheiser was so much more natural and likable

it's not a podcast it's a nationally televised nba game ffs

like dayo says, the bar is set low -- if i had no idea who simmons was & i just flipped on the game i would've thought he was just another announcer, albeit one that was a bit more zingy to the bad players

esp for his second game ever (he did some college game a few years ago) i thought he was totally serviceable, sometimes even funny

anyway, on tbob - its solid, its just wayyyyyyy too long. i went into it liking his schtick and finished it not being able to stand him. too much simmons, too much pyramid, too much everything. im warming up to him again but his style's really unsuited to something that big.

yeah idk i guess i'm just used to his voice? idk

i don't really give a shit about your voice as much as i do about what you say

i don't think i actually finished tbob--it should've ended with the pyramid--but it lends itself well to going back into certain sections and re-reading them

i could see that book being like youre plowing through it cause its readable then like 2/3 through you realize you hate this guy and why am i reading this

if im gonna listen to a nigga for 3 hours i better like your voice... thats why jon miller owns and bryant gumbel doesnt

i could see that book being like youre plowing through it cause its readable then like 2/3 through you realize you hate this guy and why am i reading this

― ice cr?m, Sunday, December 12, 2010 11:22 PM (3 seconds ago) Bookmark

haha that was my exact experience

I think broadcasting voices are pretty important - just try to imagine if bill simmons was in the booth when bobby thomson hit that homer

well great calls are great but this was a west coast time reg season nba game--no one's saying he should call the super bowl

if im gonna listen to a nigga for 3 hours i better like your voice... thats why jon miller owns and bryant gumbel doesnt

― Princess TamTam, Sunday, December 12, 2010 10:22 PM (36 seconds ago) Bookmark

well, i agree with this, but i think it matters A LOT less for color guys than it does for play by play -- simmons might get a bit obnoxious if he was doing two games a week, but it was a nice change up at times to have a dude making cracks about dampier not being able to make lay ups & shit

okay everyone stop comparing play by play guys to color guys

cut him off at the roots tbh

that's one of my problems with him, his way of life seems completely foreign to my experience in life, like his actual adherence to played out LOL WOMEN kinda shit, he's the sort of dude that if i met i'd move away from. i get the same feeling reading his column that PTT had reading his book.

i mean if your benchmark is one of the most famous moments in sports history...

voice is meaningful for sure but i feel like the canned deep announcer style is some v strange shit that were all just used to

i didnt actually hear the game btw, but i will say that i'd rather listen to a billion simmons-called games than one more by reggie miller or mark jackson

I'm just saying nobody should encourage him to spend more time in the broadcast booth, is all

should replace all espn announcers with mexican soccer announcers anyway

what is this about

sportsguy33 Bill Simmons
Hey CPP: took you out of TBOB cuz you trashed it without ever mentioning that you used to email me all the time until I told you to eff off.

sportsguy33 Bill Simmons
I just thought it was dishonest. You came off like a spurned lover in that piece. But seriously, good luck with your red-hot career.

who is cpp?

Charles Pierce

http://deadspin.com/5712872/

ah

the deej n whiney of b-ball

lol

wow does he come off like a whiny bitch there. i mean if you release a book for everyone to read i think people have the right to critique it.

I do enjoy reading Simmons, but he really is coming off more and more like a douche lately; plus he's clearly nowhere near as funny as he used to be. I think he goes above and beyond to try to be "quotable", which results in a lot of stupidity

http://a.espncdn.com/media/pdf/101210/simmons_book.pdf