The Bill Simmons Thread

luckiestman

Son of the Harpy
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
32,619
Getting Javonte Green's name wrong 5 times in a row despite calling him one of his favorite players is classic Bill. House never corrected him either.
Raja Bell was great, more of him and way less of House please.
Oh hell no. More of Bell is fine but not at the expense of the great Joe House.
 

JCizzle

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 11, 2006
20,530
It was hilarious when he kept messing up Javonte’s name. The first couple times I had no idea who he was talking about
 

Kliq

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 31, 2013
22,669
I haven’t listened to the podcast but I can’t stand the idea of an hour of Bill interviewing Triple H so I might just sit this one out.
 

luckiestman

Son of the Harpy
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
32,619
I haven’t listened to the podcast but I can’t stand the idea of an hour of Bill interviewing Triple H so I might just sit this one out.
I won’t listen but I have heard Triple H before on ...maybe Ferris... and he was a great guest.
 

Marciano490

Urological Expert
SoSH Member
Nov 4, 2007
62,312
HHH’s story about Trump believing Vince died because of a WWE skit is timeless and well told.
 

cromulence

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 25, 2009
6,699
Getting Javonte Green's name wrong 5 times in a row despite calling him one of his favorite players is classic Bill. House never corrected him either.
Raja Bell was great, more of him and way less of House please.
I'm with you - I thoroughly don't get the appeal of House. That seems to be a minority opinion around here, but I find his voice to be extremely grating and his input mostly useless.
 

mandro ramtinez

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 24, 2006
1,612
Boston, MA
Oh hell no. More of Bell is fine but not at the expense of the great Joe House.
Joe House could rack up 100 appearances on the BS podcast where he said nothing and I’d still tune in the next time hoping he had as good an appearance as he did last year on there around Christmas after his work party. That’s the hardest I’ve laughed at a podcast ever. House brings great entertainment, he’s a quality hang. JackO I could take or leave.
 

luckiestman

Son of the Harpy
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
32,619
Joe House could rack up 100 appearances on the BS podcast where he said nothing and I’d still tune in the next time hoping he had as good an appearance as he did last year on there around Christmas after his work party. That’s the hardest I’ve laughed at a podcast ever. House brings great entertainment, he’s a quality hang. JackO I could take or leave.
1:52:35-1:54 is great stuff in this one

View: https://youtu.be/3NW1qvbxX0k
 

TheGazelle

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 17, 2009
1,210
Joe House could rack up 100 appearances on the BS podcast where he said nothing and I’d still tune in the next time hoping he had as good an appearance as he did last year on there around Christmas after his work party. That’s the hardest I’ve laughed at a podcast ever. House brings great entertainment, he’s a quality hang. JackO I could take or leave.
Agree. JackO is definitely the first guy going overboard if we are tossing Simmons' college buddies from his podcast.
 

johnmd20

mad dog
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 30, 2003
61,996
New York City
Agree. JackO is definitely the first guy going overboard if we are tossing Simmons' college buddies from his podcast.
House is a genuine podcaster, with his own show, on top of the frequent appearances on Simmons' podcast. He's seasoned. JackO is occasionally on Bill's podcast, maybe 6 times a year. Not really a fair fight to compare the two.

But, to be clear, House is way better than JackO.
 

johnmd20

mad dog
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 30, 2003
61,996
New York City
There is an entire subreddit devoted to Bill Simmons:

https://www.reddit.com/r/billsimmons/
It's about as snarky as you'd expect. In fact, I'd be surprised if we didn't have SoSH members who were members there.
Does this surprise you? Reddit has threads and sub reddits of everything. Simmons is a media behemoth, of course there would be a subreddit about him. Bill Burr has one. Every Video Game ever made has one. PMT has one. Everything has one.

I'm a bit surprised you're surprised.
 

johnmd20

mad dog
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 30, 2003
61,996
New York City
Do they all have 16,000 members? Every other example you just gave feels more likely to me than having one for Bill Simmons himself.
I don't understand.

Bill Burr has 65,000 members. PMT has 31k. Assassins Creed Odyssey has 55k.

And, amazingly, the Simmons sub is significantly more trafficked than the Burr one and a lot more trafficked than PMT. Simmons' sub has a lot of engagement. The last podcast has 337 mentions. PMT's podcast from the same day(today) has 34 comments. Burr's podcast from today has 22 comments.

The only difference is most people post in the Simmons threads to shit on Simmons. I guess that why it has more engagement, rage sells when it comes to online discourse.
 

luckiestman

Son of the Harpy
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
32,619
I don't understand.

Bill Burr has 65,000 members. PMT has 31k. Assassins Creed Odyssey has 55k.

And, amazingly, the Simmons sub is significantly more trafficked than the Burr one and a lot more trafficked than PMT. Simmons' sub has a lot of engagement. The last podcast has 337 mentions. PMT's podcast from the same day(today) has 34 comments. Burr's podcast from today has 22 comments.

The only difference is most people post in the Simmons threads to shit on Simmons. I guess that why it has more engagement, rage sells when it comes to online discourse.
Rogan has 600k and it’s pretty active with a lot of mocking and critical takes but not the same way people go at Simmons. I really take pleasure in Simmons detractors more than anyone else’s. There just something about Bill that he pisses off exactly the right people.
 

cromulence

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 25, 2009
6,699
I really take pleasure in Simmons detractors more than anyone else’s. There just something about Bill that he pisses off exactly the right people.
This is so fucking strange to me. You enjoy that other people don't like Simmons? Why? If you like him and are comfortable with that fact, why can't you just consume his content and ignore the people who don't like him? I'd also love to know just who "exactly the right people" are, but I think I know anyway, so no big deal.
 

InstaFace

The Ultimate One
SoSH Member
Sep 27, 2016
21,754
Pittsburgh, PA
This is so fucking strange to me. You enjoy that other people don't like Simmons? Why? If you like him and are comfortable with that fact, why can't you just consume his content and ignore the people who don't like him? I'd also love to know just who "exactly the right people" are, but I think I know anyway, so no big deal.
Do you enjoy johnmd20's righteous rants about Trump?

I don't particularly enjoy people ragging on Bill Simmons, he enjoys it but it just seems like an empty waste of time to complain about him. I likewise don't read the For Better Or For Worse thread. But Trump affects everyone's lives so there's a lot more for me to hate there, and I kinda get the impulse.
 

Pedro's Complaint

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2005
201
New York
Jay Caspian Kang wrote about the NBA boycott and, more than once, Simmons in an NYRB essay ostensibly about the new Robert Scoop Jackson book:

In The Book of Basketball, Bill Simmons, undoubtedly the most influential NBA writer ever and the founder of The Ringer, the sports and pop-culture website and podcast network, wrote that when he was a Celtics-obsessed six-year-old, he told his teachers his name was Jabaal Abdul-Simmons because he wanted to be Black. Simmons has been relentlessly mocked for this by other NBA writers and fans, but he laid out the simplest and possibly most honest reduction of the white fan’s relationship with basketball: at some visceral, perhaps subconscious level, that fan obsessively follows the NBA because he wants to be culturally Black.
When I worked for Simmons at the now defunct sports and pop-culture website Grantland, we published a lot of basketball analytics writing. Part of our project was also “celebrating” the NBA through an obsessive coverage of “silly” players like JaVale McGee, Nick Young, and J.R. Smith, who became lovable antiheroes. Every lascivious Instagram post, every tweet that read as “street,” every boneheaded play in a game was converted into smirking content. Everyone in the editorial office, save me, was white. I don’t think we acted out of malice, but the intent, at least subconsciously, was to create two points of access for ourselves, and, by extension, our audience of mostly white, mostly educated sports enthusiasts. First, we wanted to be the best analytics site on the Internet. Second, we wanted to “humanize” the league through a meme parade. We were desperately trying to wring our work through the hope, however misguided, that we could justify our own place in a Black sport. What Jackson understands is that the entire structure of professional basketball—whether ownership, marketing from the shoe companies, or self-conscious coverage of an overwhelmingly white sports media—is just a variation on that same ungainly attempt.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
Do black hockey fans all want to be culturally white too, or is it possible they just enjoy the sport? I don’t buy the universality of that statement.
 

Kenny F'ing Powers

posts way less than 18% useful shit
SoSH Member
Nov 17, 2010
14,425
Do black hockey fans all want to be culturally white too, or is it possible they just enjoy the sport? I don’t buy the universality of that statement.
Right. I think there are probably some people that its true for, but that's quite a broad brush.
 

Pedro's Complaint

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2005
201
New York
Do black hockey fans all want to be culturally white too, or is it possible they just enjoy the sport? I don’t buy the universality of that statement.
The idea that many people--especially young people--want to be "culturally Black"--consciously or subconsciously--rings true to me when I think about growing up. I'm younger than Simmons, but I remember my mostly white and Hispanic classmates venerating Black musicians, athletes, and actors and affecting--usually in a cringe-worthy way, looking back--their clothes, speech, etc.
 

Kliq

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 31, 2013
22,669
The idea that many people--especially young people--want to be "culturally Black"--consciously or subconsciously--rings true to me when I think about growing up. I'm younger than Simmons, but I remember my mostly white and Hispanic classmates venerating Black musicians, athletes, and actors and affecting--usually in a cringe-worthy way, looking back--their clothes, speech, etc.
In my experience, its clear that black culture has a huge influence on social media, particularly Twitter, which is full with contemporary African American language and trends, probably frequently used by white people. I've read a few pieces lately about "digital blackface" which is when white people have pictures of black people as their Avatars, and the problems that can cause on social media. It is interesting that Jay Caspian King ties that to the popularity of meme NBA players like JaVale, Nick Young, and JR Smith, to white NBA's fans ambitions of being a part of black culture, but when I think about the language used when it comes to talking (mostly roasting) those players, it makes sense.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
In my experience, its clear that black culture has a huge influence on social media, particularly Twitter, which is full with contemporary African American language and trends, probably frequently used by white people. I've read a few pieces lately about "digital blackface" which is when white people have pictures of black people as their Avatars, and the problems that can cause on social media. It is interesting that Jay Caspian King ties that to the popularity of meme NBA players like JaVale, Nick Young, and JR Smith, to white NBA's fans ambitions of being a part of black culture, but when I think about the language used when it comes to talking (mostly roasting) those players, it makes sense.
People make blanket statements like this about social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook but they tend to forget that my social media experience may have zero overlap with yours, it all depends on who you choose to follow/friend. Whenever people bitch about FB having shitty content, I always say "get better 'friends'".
 

Kliq

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 31, 2013
22,669
People make blanket statements like this about social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook but they tend to forget that my social media experience may have zero overlap with yours, it all depends on who you choose to follow/friend. Whenever people bitch about FB having shitty content, I always say "get better 'friends'".
Perhaps, but if you follow anything related to the NBA, you probably see what I am talking about. For instance, Pat Bev, as a reference to Clipper's guard Patrick Beverly, was trending on Twitter this morning. Take a look at what kind of culture is represented, and think about how many white fans are probably participating in it:

https://twitter.com/search?q=Pat Bev&src=typed_query
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
Perhaps, but if you follow anything related to the NBA, you probably see what I am talking about. For instance, Pat Bev, as a reference to Clipper's guard Patrick Beverly, was trending on Twitter this morning. Take a look at what kind of culture is represented, and think about how many white fans are probably participating in it:

https://twitter.com/search?q=Pat Bev&src=typed_query
Here's the thing, though: I just came from Twitter, I read about Patrick Beverly and his behavior in the meeting, and that was it. I read one news report (from Yahoo, I didn't recognize the writer's name), no comments. So, yes, I follow the NBA although much less intensely than I used to (a different topic) but I have filtered my feed in a specific way and I don't see that stuff really.
 

Pedro's Complaint

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2005
201
New York
Here's the thing, though: I just came from Twitter, I read about Patrick Beverly and his behavior in the meeting, and that was it. I read one news report (from Yahoo, I didn't recognize the writer's name), no comments. So, yes, I follow the NBA although much less intensely than I used to (a different topic) but I have filtered my feed in a specific way and I don't see that stuff really.
You may be filtering your media in such a way that you're missing the issue that Caspian Kang is addressing. You certainly wouldn't be alone in filtering your media this way, but it doesn't invalidate what he's saying.

Caspian Kang talks about "the white fan's relationship," which I think you read to be universal. I understand that reading, but I wouldn't throw out his theory because it doesn't apply to every last white fan. I appreciate the impulse to look at something from a different vantage, rather than add to what the writer characterizes as relentless mocking.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
You may be filtering your media in such a way that you're missing the issue that Caspian Kang is addressing. You certainly wouldn't be alone in filtering your media this way, but it doesn't invalidate what he's saying.

Caspian Kang talks about "the white fan's relationship," which I think you read to be universal. I understand that reading, but I wouldn't throw out his theory because it doesn't apply to every last white fan. I appreciate the impulse to look at something from a different vantage, rather than add to what the writer characterizes as relentless mocking.
Yes, I'm certainly not saying there's not an issue, I am saying that I find those statements simplistic when the reality is often decidedly more complicated, and I am also saying it is definitely not universal. Maybe those universals are 60 or 70 or 80 percent accurate, but I think a writer needs to be careful to not jump from that to 100 percent and that makes it easier (for me anyway) to focus on the content of what they are saying.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 24, 2002
48,205
Jay Caspian Kang wrote about the NBA boycott and, more than once, Simmons in an NYRB essay ostensibly about the new Robert Scoop Jackson book:
Thank you for sharing. Kang's perspective is fascinating but he fails to note that those non-black journalists were, by and large acting as de facto public relations folks for the players they covered. If Percival in accounting becomes more of a Nick Young fan because of a Ringer three minute read, I would argue that it does far more good than harm.

That said, its not my place to tell anyone how to feel about the Ringer our its writers. While I don't love everything they produce, they clearly have a strong affinity for the NBA and the people who inhabit that universe. If this is an issue, I suspect we should be focused on bigger problems for the time being but again, that isn't my call.
 

Mooch

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
4,494
In my experience, its clear that black culture has a huge influence on social media, particularly Twitter, which is full with contemporary African American language and trends, probably frequently used by white people. I've read a few pieces lately about "digital blackface" which is when white people have pictures of black people as their Avatars, and the problems that can cause on social media. It is interesting that Jay Caspian King ties that to the popularity of meme NBA players like JaVale, Nick Young, and JR Smith, to white NBA's fans ambitions of being a part of black culture, but when I think about the language used when it comes to talking (mostly roasting) those players, it makes sense.
Whenever this topic comes up in some form or fashion, I get flashbacks to the scene in Do The Right Thing when Mookie confronts Pino about his hypocritical adoration of black cultural figures (Eddie Murphy, Michael Jordan, Prince) while simultaneously being racist against black people. I'm not suggesting that Kang's analysis suggests that Simmons and the Grantland staff turning black NBA players into memes (as well as the broader white NBA fanbase) goes anywhere near to the extremes that Spike Lee depicted in that scene but there's a long history of white people's complicated relationship with black culture and a general lack of self-examination about how they express that in public.
 

jose melendez

Earl of Acie
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Oct 23, 2003
30,971
Geneva, Switzerland
Is Bill still friends with Adam Carolla? I assume so.

Carolla was a piece of shit when he was making jokes at the expense of rape victims on Love Line and now that he's a professional right wing crank, he's really the sort of person with whom one can't justify a friendship.
 

kelpapa

Costanza's Hero
SoSH Member
Feb 15, 2010
4,637
Is Bill still friends with Adam Carolla? I assume so.

Carolla was a piece of shit when he was making jokes at the expense of rape victims on Love Line and now that he's a professional right wing crank, he's really the sort of person with whom one can't justify a friendship.
Yea, I'm pretty sure they are still friends. I think he was on the podcast at some point this year.

I went and checked - Looks like he was on in February this year.
 

Senator Donut

post-Domer
SoSH Member
Apr 21, 2010
5,500
I had gotten pretty sick of Bill's podcasts in the time before the NBA restart, but the episodes have been much improved since then. The Sunday pods with Russillo have been especially good since the start of round one.

Raja Bell has been a great addition. He brings a unique outlook as a former player and talent evaluator, plus he has a natural cadence to his voice that makes it sounds like he's been doing radio/podcasts his whole life. His standalone show is just okay, but his guest appearances with Bill and Ryen have been great. I think Raja will be working for ESPN or TNT in the very near future.
 

luckiestman

Son of the Harpy
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
32,619
My grandparents let me gamble with football cards when I was younger than that so I’m missing why this is a big deal. Doesn’t make my top 10 critiques of Bills parenting.
 

PC Drunken Friar

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 12, 2003
14,540
South Boston
My grandparents let me gamble with football cards when I was younger than that so I’m missing why this is a big deal. Doesn’t make my top 10 critiques of Bills parenting.
I agree. I was doing the union football cards (and getting friends to do them) from my dad Iin like 5th grade. Granted we were doing 1-5 bucks a week...