In Bill's defense Rapaport works for a rival media company. He should have written him back but Simmons is also trying to run a business and is hyper competitive which is a good quality for that.
The Bill Simmons Thread
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Plus I'm sure Simmons would have given Rapaport a podcast on the Ringer network if he wanted it. It'll suck not having him on Simmons' pod ever again, those were always really funny shows despite the fact that Rapaport can be a complete idiot and asshole.
On one of the 30-for-30's, I think, Rapaport tried to talk to Bob Ryan about how Bill Russell is overrated. Ryan looked at him like he was insane. Even if he was joking, that is perhaps, the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Every other sports opinion that I've heard from Rapaport has been ignored.
Didn't Rapaport do a whole documentary on how wonderful the Knicks of the early 70s were, a team that basically had to wait for Bill Russell to retire to win anything?
Rapaport posts a rant about someone new every day. He probably just didn't have anything to get aggro over. It's like his new schtick.
It's really funny in a pathetic way hearing a nearly 50 year old man trying to insult people using teenager lingo.
I never really cared about Rapaport's actual opinions, but thought he was a funny guest with Bill and was good as the despondent Knicks fan. He also once told a story about getting an erection while filming a dancing scene with Uma Thurman that was one of the funniest things I've ever heard on a podcast.
I know it's shameful. It's a really, really embarrassing guilty pleasure.
Yes that was great. His Cocksman/Stickman stuff is hilarious. His sports takes run pretty hot.
Deep dive on Deadspin about the infamous Yi Jianlian workout video where he plays against the chair - and how it might not have existed at all, despite Simmons constantly using it for punchlines for a decade since:
https://deadspin.com/the-totally-unexpected-true-story-of-yi-jianlians-magic-1818728951
https://deadspin.com/the-totally-unexpected-true-story-of-yi-jianlians-magic-1818728951
Thanks for that link, really good dive. I never saw that video either and always wondered what he was talking about.
I believe they recorded the interview before the latest Toback allegations but the podcast was released when these things were made public so it looks awkward. During the interview Carter (who is tight with Toback) said he used to see James hitting on women outside of supermarkets on the Upper West Side with the same pick up technique. They had some nice jokes about that and other references to Toback and his dealings with women. They both sound very tone deaf right now.
It didn't sound great in retrospect, no doubt about that, but much worse for Carter than Simmons. How would Simmons know?
One more thing. I love the Guess the Lines podcast with Cousin Sal, Sal is an incredible guest. It's always a blast but I get the impression Sal really REALLY wants to beat Bill every week when they guess the lines. He sounds genuinely annoyed when he loses even one game and he keeps track of the tally like he's analyzing the Zapruder film. It's just kind of funny Sal is that competitive, even a stupid game like this gets him juiced.
This isn't a critique of him at all, more of an observation.
One more thing. I love the Guess the Lines podcast with Cousin Sal, Sal is an incredible guest. It's always a blast but I get the impression Sal really REALLY wants to beat Bill every week when they guess the lines. He sounds genuinely annoyed when he loses even one game and he keeps track of the tally like he's analyzing the Zapruder film. It's just kind of funny Sal is that competitive, even a stupid game like this gets him juiced.
This isn't a critique of him at all, more of an observation.
Bill and Sal should replace Francesca. They are so good together and your observation is so right.
I was just coming here to post about that. His story was funny enough on its own but then having Bill’s be the perfect setup for that made it perfect. I haven’t laughed that hard in a while
Carter was the co-editor of Spy when they wrote an in-depth expose on Toback in 1989, so he definitely put the info he had out there a long time ago.
Love Bill's career advice for Jennifer Lawrence and other actors looking to up their profile: "Just be a star! Make a movie where you're the star!"
Morris is an optimal podcast guest because I float between thinking he is extremely insightful and vehemently disagreeing with him. I thought it was a genuinely interesting discussion about the movie, with a few hot takes thrown in. At one point they were talking about movies that would never get made today without really providing any explanation for why they wouldn't get made today; and Morris is just like "Tequila Sunrise would never be made today because it's a movie that is only concerned with getting people to see the movie." What?
His explanation for why JFK was shot in the front was basically "have you ever seen someone get shot in a movie!"
I share your feelings yet I've seen research that this type of stuff really doesn't matter.
My kids don't watch much beyond PBS kids, but then they go to Catholic School and hear about Jesus getting murdered and that is pretty dark so who really knows?
I work at a movie theater and people bring kids under ten into R rated movies all the time. I think part of it is that today kids have access to the internet through a variety of devices; plus cable TV is so easily accessible, I imagine you would have to be REALLY on top of what your kids are doing to avoid them seeing graphic sex/violence at some point.
Jesus, I just listened to a few minutes of the Parents Corner podcast and stumbled through an anecdote about a Family Movie Night where the Simmons all watch Leatherface together. Apparently, the kids are 'really into horror movies' and so Bill just checks to make sure there's no sex— and then they're good to go! The gist with this story was that the parents were misled into thinking there's no sex. So, they're fine with the opening that involves somebody's head being hammered in but then — oh god!— there's a sex scene and the whole evening devolves into disaster.
Full disclosure: I moved to Europe ten years ago and have gone native. Tonight, at my weekly basketball game, one guy was on parenting duty and had his four year-old daughter in the locker room and it was considered to be no big deal. So, maybe my own perception has become a bit skewed. But I found myself reeling from the implied violence/sex evaluation. Nevermind that I wouldn't watch anything like Leatherface with my kids on either basis.
These guys make a number of, ahem, questionable parenting decisions. But presumably you knew that already?
Yes, I did. What's weird is the way he seems to proudly wave around the fact that he screens his kids' media consumption for sex as a measure of conscientious parenting. Meanwhile, he seems totally unfazed by slasher-movie gore. There's a running narrative about Americans being really weird in their appraisal of sex relative to violence-- was jarring for me to see it so obviously on display.
It's selfishness. One is easy to explain ("he's a bad guy") and one isn't ("Fucking is awesome.")
I'm a bit late to the party on this, but Simmons' two-part mailbag podcast with Steve Kerr is phenomenal. (And timeless, if you want to go back to it.)
Simmons is right, least goals allowed is a fucking moronic tiebreaker. Goals scored is used as a tiebreaker by everybody.
Total radio silence from Simmons on anything since the Weinberger allegation was announced late Sunday night.
I believe they announced they suspended him and will be conducting their own investigation. Surprised he hasn't at least tweeted that out.
Bill has gotten pretty obnoxious with his love for Romo. Every single good game that gets talked about he always adds "imagine if Romo was calling it." We get it Bill, you think Romo is the greatest color guy in history and you desperately want to have him on the podcast.
On Bill's pod today he addressed the Weinberger situation. He re-read the official Ringer statement and left it at that.
Interesting to hear Bill's phone blowing up in the background while they recorded the Cousin Sal pod right as the Skipper news was dropping this morning. Admirable restraint on Bill's part to withhold comment, I was a bit surprised.
On the other hand... I got the sense that Simmons kind of enjoyed having his phone going nuts during the podcast. Wouldn't it have been more, I don't know, "professional" if he had turned it off or put it on mute while he was podcasting?
I say this as a total Simmons fan-boy who admires both his writing and Grantland and The Ringer more unreservedly than most on this board. But I felt the ego on this one.
I don't gamble, but can someone explain to me why Simmons seems to think that the only two-team and three-team NFL teasers worth doing involve gambling on big favorites not to lose their games outright? I mean, I know teasers are for suckers anyway, but doesn't it make just as much sense to tease an underdog when you think it's not going to lose by a lot?
Has he ever been successful at gambling though? I always remember his gambling columns being 10,000 words about rules and policies and predictions followed by:
Last week's record: 2-7
Season's record: 25-80
Yeah - the funniest was when one year he lost to a dog. Yup, a dog outpicked Simmons. Funny he doesn't mention that in any of his subsequent columns.