The Bill Simmons Thread

nattysez

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Do you ever wonder that now that Simmons has F you money and immunity from any significant punishment because of said wealth, he might try to get revenge on you for running him off?
"I'd like to donate $5m to your library system...on one condition."
 

8slim

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Stand By Me Rewatchables is up.
I've spent the past week bingeing a bunch of the recent Rewatchables -- Swingers, St. Elmo's Fire, The Perfect Storm, Fletch. Say what you will about Simmons, but this podcast is fantastic. Granted, given that I am squarely in this demo, a bunch of middle-age guys talking about 80s and 90s movies is an adrenaline shot straight to my heart, but it is by far my favorite podcast.
 

bosockboy

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I've spent the past week bingeing a bunch of the recent Rewatchables -- Swingers, St. Elmo's Fire, The Perfect Storm, Fletch. Say what you will about Simmons, but this podcast is fantastic. Granted, given that I am squarely in this demo, a bunch of middle-age guys talking about 80s and 90s movies is an adrenaline shot straight to my heart, but it is by far my favorite podcast.
Same. Some of the picks aren’t in my wheelhouse but that’s to be expected. Chris Ryan carries these. There’s a few enormous ones just begging to be picked off the tree like Goodfellas, Boogie Nights, Pulp Fiction.
 

fiskful of dollars

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How has he not done "Victory" yet? He used to quote that movie a ton in his early writings. Plus, that was the quintessential "meh" HBO movie that was watched endlessly (at least for me) until it became an all-time favorite.
 

johnmd20

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Same. Some of the picks aren’t in my wheelhouse but that’s to be expected. Chris Ryan carries these. There’s a few enormous ones just begging to be picked off the tree like Goodfellas, Boogie Nights, Pulp Fiction.
They are holding off on some classics to keep the Podcast going.
 

Ralphwiggum

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I am not a podcast guy generally but Rewatchables is the only one I listen to. I haven't listened to more than a handful of them, and I pick and choose based on the movie choices, but it's really fucking fantastic if you love movies. The best ones I have listened to so far are, Ferris Bueller, Top Gun, Boomerang and Fletch. As @8slim said upthread this is totally in my wheelhouse as a guy who grew up in the 80s, but man they are great.
 

jcd0805

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I am not a podcast guy generally but Rewatchables is the only one I listen to. I haven't listened to more than a handful of them, and I pick and choose based on the movie choices, but it's really fucking fantastic if you love movies. The best ones I have listened to so far are, Ferris Bueller, Top Gun, Boomerang and Fletch. As @8slim said upthread this is totally in my wheelhouse as a guy who grew up in the 80s, but man they are great.
I’m a middle aged woman and I adore these pods. My fave so far is Jaws, so many great back stories I’d never heard and something about Bill imitating Robert Shaw being crunched by the shark killed me every time he did it.
 

CarolinaBeerGuy

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Really enjoyed his interview with Enes Kanter. I didn’t realize how ostracized he has been when it comes to his fellow Turkish players. I knew the Hedo Turkoglu stuff, but didn’t know that the current Turkish players won’t speak to him or even acknowledge him during games.
 

Captaincoop

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I’m a middle aged woman and I adore these pods. My fave so far is Jaws, so many great back stories I’d never heard and something about Bill imitating Robert Shaw being crunched by the shark killed me every time he did it.
The Frank Sinatra-as-John McLane bit in the Die Hard episode almost made me pull my car over.

Great podcast.
 

jose melendez

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I've found Bill's constant talking up of how well the NBA's handled this and how poorly MLB has tiring. In particular, his talking about how much baseball sucks without fans but the NBA is fine, infuriates me.

I've watched a ton of baseball so far, and while it's not normal, it's basically been fine. The issue is Bill is no longer a baseball fan. He simply doesn't; like the sport and he loves basketball. Honestly, it's like listening to Eddie Andleman talk about hockey back in the day, but because he doesn't take calls, it's not even amusing trolling.
 

Silverdude2167

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I've found Bill's constant talking up of how well the NBA's handled this and how poorly MLB has tiring. In particular, his talking about how much baseball sucks without fans but the NBA is fine, infuriates me.

I've watched a ton of baseball so far, and while it's not normal, it's basically been fine. The issue is Bill is no longer a baseball fan. He simply doesn't; like the sport and he loves basketball. Honestly, it's like listening to Eddie Andleman talk about hockey back in the day, but because he doesn't take calls, it's not even amusing trolling.
His take on fans it particularly bad.
I take a lot of joy from listening to the reaction of the fans in the NHL and NBA games and it really is part of the viewing experience, but for the MLB the fans do not impact the viewing experience much at all, especially in the regular season.
 

Pablo's TB Lover

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I've found Bill's constant talking up of how well the NBA's handled this and how poorly MLB has tiring. In particular, his talking about how much baseball sucks without fans but the NBA is fine, infuriates me.
I mean based on the Marlins developments and the 60-game schedule at 30 different sites with no wiggle room he's not wrong about how MLB has handled the reboot compared to NBA, but I get what you are saying about the source.
 

ifmanis5

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When the NBA Finals sounds like a summer league scrimmage Simmons will still say it's basically fine.
He's right that the bubble plan is better and the NBA is certainly run more intelligently than MLB but the fan experience of the NBA has a significantly larger difference than the MLB in the Covid era. In fact, the homers going through the cutout fans is pretty fun. Nothing about the NBA bubble experience is fun.
 

Kliq

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Bill certainly has some tired "Look at how GREAT the NBA is!" takes; my least favorite being his "NBA Players when they come into the league are now so polished because they have been in the spotlight for years already" which is something he mentions at least once a week.
 

jose melendez

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He's already talked about how it's fine because it sounds like summer league and we all love summer league.

The NBA is clearly a better run league, and the players, by and large, are more likeable, and the NBA is probably on the up while baseball, relatively speaking, is on the way down. But baseball is still plenty popular--it's just not with Bill Simmons.
 

ElUno20

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Listened to my first Bill podcast in 4 months because I wanted to hear house and sal talk gambling. Didnt realize Sal has started his own podcast network. Good job by you!
 

Kliq

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I haven't listened to today's podcast, but he was pretty snarky last week with Sal/House about how LeBron's PR team went into overdrive to get certain talking heads to start making his MVP case; and how when the season stopped everyone was pretty sure Giannis was the MVP but for some reason during the break the case for LeBron started getting more-and-more airspace.
 

Vinho Tinto

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He's already talked about how it's fine because it sounds like summer league and we all love summer league.

The NBA is clearly a better run league, and the players, by and large, are more likeable, and the NBA is probably on the up while baseball, relatively speaking, is on the way down. But baseball is still plenty popular--it's just not with Bill Simmons.
I just listened and he sounded like Baghdad Bob for the NBA. Every league Is trying its best, but there are clear limitations. To act like watching NBA in a high end gym is wonderful, while MLB with no fans and fake noise is terrible, is really Pollyanna fandom. I loved watching last night’s NBA games, but it still feels like a severely inferior presentation.
 

ifmanis5

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After the "open mic" NYT comment I could not believe he brought back his daughter. Notice she is not listed in the show notes. In fact, since his crisis he basically just laid low without much change other than the recent hire of Logan Murdock. In fact, he has not put out his own original tweet since June 22.
 

kenneycb

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Oh noes. The horror.

The Ringer’s also hired multiple people and greenlit several new shows since the “crisis”. Tyler Tynes on Cam. Bakari Sellers. A guy who was covering the protests whose name I can’t recall. Kyle Brandt. The new show with CC and the other guy from NY. Can’t remember timing on the Higher Learning pod.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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Oh noes. The horror.

The Ringer’s also hired multiple people and greenlit several new shows since the “crisis”. Tyler Tynes on Cam. Bakari Sellers. A guy who was covering the protests whose name I can’t recall. Kyle Brandt. The new show with CC and the other guy from NY. Can’t remember timing on the Higher Learning pod.
Agree with your overall point, but we have no idea when stuff was greenly or paid for vis a vis the pandemic. Just grabbing one thing, there's no reason to think they didn't have the Cam Newton series in the can before all this got started, in fact I'd argue that production of such probably had to start well before.
 

JerBear

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Wasn't the "Open Mic" quote was taken out of context and actually about The Rewatchables falling into a set host group rather than a rotating cast?

And his daughter is in the show notes on my podcast app, "...Finally Bill talks to his daughter, Zoe Simmons, about teen culture during quarantine."
 

kelpapa

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Wasn't the "Open Mic" quote was taken out of context and actually about The Rewatchables falling into a set host group rather than a rotating cast?
Yea, he read the full quote in one of the podcasts.
 

Cellar-Door

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After the "open mic" NYT comment I could not believe he brought back his daughter. Notice she is not listed in the show notes. In fact, since his crisis he basically just laid low without much change other than the recent hire of Logan Murdock. In fact, he has not put out his own original tweet since June 22.
Beyond the open mic being a deceptive quote, it's pretty clear the Ringer (likely due to the union pressure in part) was already starting a real effort to diversify before it became a twitter conversation. The Wire pod with Lathan and Hill, the Sellers pod, the Cam project, higher learning pod with Lathan and Lindsay, all basically had to have been in process before then. Stadio probably was as well. The Ringer wasn't very diverse, and the top level still isn't, but I think you have to give them some credit that when the union brought it to them they did go out and hire really good people and give them space and a platform rather than just some cosmetic fixes like "ok no more of Bill's kid, problem solved".
 

Kliq

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If you believe Simmons' explanation of the open mic comment, there really is no reason for it to ever be brought up again. His explanation was very logical, they launched The Rewatchables as an idea, and it ended up being one of their most successful podcasts and he wasn't going to let every person in the office get a turn driving the million dollar car. I listened to some of the early Rewatchables that don't have Bill, Chris or Mallory and they were much worse than typical episodes.

If people are mad that Bill has his daughter on at the end of his podcasts...I mean find something more productive to get mad at. It's his podcast, he can do whatever he wants.

Bill hasn't put out an original Tweet since June 22? Gee, I wonder why? Maybe because Twitter is a cesspool and a zero-win situation for someone like Bill?
 

ifmanis5

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He's not tweeting because he knows he'll get viciously dunked on and he can't take that kind of public humiliation and it'll hurt his brand. Don't believe his spin, if this was a normal time he would have live tweeted the Celtics/Bucks game for sure. He is as now as he was here, allergic to criticism. I do give the Ringer Union credit for pushing him into a better direction for sure but he's not tweeting because he knows the reception he will get.
 

8slim

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He's not tweeting because he knows he'll get viciously dunked on and he can't take that kind of public humiliation and it'll hurt his brand. Don't believe his spin, if this was a normal time he would have live tweeted the Celtics/Bucks game for sure. He is as now as he was here, allergic to criticism. I do give the Ringer Union credit for pushing him into a better direction for sure but he's not tweeting because he knows the reception he will get.
And that dunking is more than a bit silly. Hiring practices at The Ringer shouldn’t be in anyone’s top 1,000 things to worry about, unless you’re an employee at The Ringer. Bill has his warts. I know from personal experience. But he’s making progress, and the positive impact he’s had on people is farrrrrr greater than the negative.
 

johnmd20

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And that dunking is more than a bit silly. Hiring practices at The Ringer shouldn’t be in anyone’s top 1,000 things to worry about, unless you’re an employee at The Ringer. Bill has his warts. I know from personal experience. But he’s making progress, and the positive impact he’s had on people is farrrrrr greater than the negative.
It's really not even a question and it shouldn't be. But, then again, even Lin Manuel Miranda took a truckload of heat when the Hamilton movie came out because he didn't solve slavery in a 2.5 hour Broadway Musical.
 

ifmanis5

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A huge part of Bill's brand is his online presence and he leveraged those eyeballs into his current deals so it's very important for him. He's using typical brand crisis management strategy which is to lay low, wait out the bad PR cycles and slowly rebuild with new tweaks. It's smart but that's what it is. Of course he "feels better" he's not getting clapped back as much, which he would be if he were tweeting.
 

8slim

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A huge part of Bill's brand is his online presence and he leveraged those eyeballs into his current deals so it's very important for him. He's using typical brand crisis management strategy which is to lay low, wait out the bad PR cycles and slowly rebuild with new tweaks. It's smart but that's what it is. Of course he "feels better" he's not getting clapped back as much, which he would be if he were tweeting.
My point was that those who would be “clapping back” at him while he was live tweeting the Cs game are moronic.

And while his online presence has helped his career, the most crucial part of his brand has been the content he creates and the talented people he has hired. I’d argue his presence on Twitter is largely irrelevant at this point.