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View Full Version : Bill Simmons, misguided dittohead



cspan37421
02-21-2008, 08:25 AM
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/blog/index?name=simmons&entryDate=20080220

He suggests the Rockets make a trade that includes Shane Battier, and reasons:

"So what if Battier went to Duke? You can't hold that against him. He didn't know any better when he signed there."

Hmmm. Naismith POY award? Check. National Championship? Check. Seems like he knew pretty well what he was doing. :cool:

There's a contact link on the page above in case anyone wants to suggest Simmons doesn't know what he's talking about.

dukegirlinsc
02-21-2008, 08:31 AM
how wise and profound.

johnb
02-21-2008, 08:34 AM
The anti-Duke contingent focuses on a cluster of personality traits that center around hubris, condescension, arrogance, wealth, presumption, entitlement, etc. Once they believe that Duke basketball players, coaches, students, and fans embody there traits, every Scheyer smile or K grimace feeds their viewpoint.

Matches
02-21-2008, 09:03 AM
Simmons takes shots at Duke pretty regularly. He doesn't try to hide the fact that he dislikes the team. At least he's honest and (usually) clever about it.

He's had a ton of nice things to say about individual Duke alums (particularly Battier) over the years, though.

ChicagoDevil
02-21-2008, 09:13 AM
He's just an idiot....("Idiot" was originally created to refer to "layman, person lacking professional skill", "person so mentally deficient as to be incapable of ordinary reasoning"):eek:

weezie
02-21-2008, 09:17 AM
Simmons loves the attention we give him. Another short guy with no skills.

Misunderestimated
02-21-2008, 09:30 AM
Stop the presses...someone made an Anti-Duke slur :D . Just remember, people don't hate losers.

I've been reading The Sports Guy since 2000 and usually find it to be a decent read.

MulletMan
02-21-2008, 09:41 AM
Stop the presses...someone made an Anti-Duke slur :D . Just remember, people don't hate losers.

I've been reading The Sports Guy since 2000 and usually find it to be a decent read.

Wow... I'm suprised that you've been able to stick around that long. I will admit that I found his columns enjoyable for a few years, but he is pretty much mailing it in now. I mean he runs the same columns over and over and over again. He does NOTHING original anymore, and his move to LA so that he oculd write for Kimmel only to be fired is utterly pathetic. His whole deal was that he was a loooooong suffering Boston fan... so what is he now? A Boston fan with 2 World Series rings, 3 Super Bowls and one of the best teams in the NBA. Cry me a river. Consequently he's got so little to write about (NBA stock report, picking NFL games) that he's enlisted his wife to jazz up his columns. Its like when a sitcom is dying and they bring the cute little blond kid in to save the show.

Misunderestimated
02-21-2008, 09:47 AM
Wow... I'm suprised that you've been able to stick around that long. I will admit that I found his columns enjoyable for a few years, but he is pretty much mailing it in now. I mean he runs the same columns over and over and over again. He does NOTHING original anymore, and his move to LA so that he oculd write for Kimmel only to be fired is utterly pathetic. His whole deal was that he was a loooooong suffering Boston fan... so what is he now? A Boston fan with 2 World Series rings, 3 Super Bowls and one of the best teams in the NBA. Cry me a river. Consequently he's got so little to write about (NBA stock report, picking NFL games) that he's enlisted his wife to jazz up his columns. Its like when a sitcom is dying and they bring the cute little blond kid in to save the show.


I hit the print button and take it to the crapper. Its normally just meaningless ramblings on the sports/pop culture world - but there is some humor added in. If you're expecting anything more, then you will be disappointed.

CDu
02-21-2008, 09:48 AM
Wow... I'm suprised that you've been able to stick around that long. I will admit that I found his columns enjoyable for a few years, but he is pretty much mailing it in now. I mean he runs the same columns over and over and over again. He does NOTHING original anymore, and his move to LA so that he oculd write for Kimmel only to be fired is utterly pathetic. His whole deal was that he was a loooooong suffering Boston fan... so what is he now? A Boston fan with 2 World Series rings, 3 Super Bowls and one of the best teams in the NBA. Cry me a river. Consequently he's got so little to write about (NBA stock report, picking NFL games) that he's enlisted his wife to jazz up his columns. Its like when a sitcom is dying and they bring the cute little blond kid in to save the show.

Agreed. He was at his best when his style was fresh and new, and when you could tolerate his Boston biases (because the Boston teams stunk). Then, the Pats became a dynasty, the Sawks got really good, and he showed his gloating colors. At the same time, his schtick got old.

And his column was always better when it relied more on pop-culture references weaved into sports, and less on the actual sports. Mainly because he's not a good analyst of sports (just a fan) and because as soon as he starts talking about sports his New England bias comes out.

I liked him in his early days on ESPN. But it's been since about 2004 since I've found him interesting.

sandinmyshoes
02-21-2008, 09:50 AM
Simmons takes shots at just about everyone, including himself, for the sake of humor. Nothing to really get indignant about.

Dukiedevil
02-21-2008, 10:38 AM
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/blog/index?name=simmons&entryDate=20080220

He suggests the Rockets make a trade that includes Shane Battier, and reasons:

"So what if Battier went to Duke? You can't hold that against him. He didn't know any better when he signed there."

Hmmm. Naismith POY award? Check. National Championship? Check. Seems like he knew pretty well what he was doing. :cool:

There's a contact link on the page above in case anyone wants to suggest Simmons doesn't know what he's talking about.

Simmons is a huge NBA fan and by his own admission just started following basketball last year because his Celtics were going to get a high lottery pick. He mentioned in a column last year that if you are going to follow college basketball, then you have to decide if you are going to love or hate Duke. He arbitrarily decided to hate them and thus puts a dig in every now and then for humors sake. He is a huge Battier and Boozer fan (though he does ping Boozer for bailing on Cleveland). I wouldn't put much stock in what he says about Duke as he tends to like the players, but decided to root against the school.

Troublemaker
02-21-2008, 10:40 AM
Totally agree with MulletMan and CDdu's takes on Simmons. I used to like his columns a lot but he's a has-been and a douchebag now. Well, he was always a douchebag but it's easier to see it when you don't respect the writing.

BD80
02-21-2008, 11:24 AM
Literally. He was wearing a leather jacket in Vegas and jumped over Jerry Tarkanian who was passed out face down in a puddle.

KandG
02-21-2008, 12:00 PM
If you love Boston area frat boys and their fave teams, then Simmons is your guy...tolerable to have a beer with once in a while, and he can even make you laugh on occasion. But any extended time with the guy is venal.

And the (very few) friends he has that follow college basketball tend to be Carolina fans, so he's a bandwagon Duke hater. His take on the Henderson/Hans incident last year was aggressively stupid to the point of being inflammatory.

Living in Boston, I'm (quite unfortunately) knowledgeable about the unique sense of cloddish entitlement and overbearing self-pity New England area sports fans have, so I find Simmons' popularity particularly appalling. So much so that I admit to having read his post Super Bowl column with a great deal of joy.

jagger
02-21-2008, 12:03 PM
for some reason, I get the feeling that some of you are jealous of Simmons' job.

Duvall
02-21-2008, 12:11 PM
for some reason, I get the feeling that some of you are jealous of Simmons' job.

No, no, no. What you are seeing is the typical bitterness of the disillusioned fan that's still upset about their favorite artist selling out. Jealousy doesn't really enter into it.

bdh21
02-21-2008, 12:18 PM
http://www.serioussportsnewsnetwork.com/mad-libs/sports-guy

Here's a mad lib to create a typical Bill Simmons article. Spot on.

npdevil27
02-21-2008, 12:29 PM
Guess you guys missed this part:

"You could always use Shane Battier on your team."

KandG
02-21-2008, 01:05 PM
for some reason, I get the feeling that some of you are jealous of Simmons' job.


Not me. If I were one of the multitude of sheep wearing a Red Sox cap, a BU/UMass/UConn hoodie, and carrying a large Dunkin Donuts coffee around everywhere...then yeah, he's my idol.

freedevil
02-21-2008, 01:19 PM
His shtick is old. And not that funny.

JasonEvans
02-21-2008, 05:25 PM
I hit the print button and take it to the crapper. Its normally just meaningless ramblings on the sports/pop culture world - but there is some humor added in. If you're expecting anything more, then you will be disappointed.

Bingo-- that is me exactly. It is good light, humorous reading while taking a man-sized dump.

And, if you happen to be out of TP when the whole exercise is over you don;t have to feel bad about using Simmons' columns to... well... you know.

-Jason "I like most of his pop culture stuff, but his actual sports knowledge seems somewhat limited" Evans

jma4life
02-21-2008, 05:29 PM
Yea, this past summer I started getting frustrated with his columns a lot more. I still read and enjoy most of his articles but I used to really look forward to them.

Anyway, I'd say his sports knowledge is about equal to the average huge sports fan, like most people on this site. He just also happens to be a funny writer. He definitely does not have his column because of his ability to analyze sports brilliantly but he knows most of his stuff and is a funny guy.

billybreen
02-21-2008, 08:39 PM
Bill's a hack. Nothing more.

Atlanta Duke
02-21-2008, 10:34 PM
Simmons is a pro sports guy - any zingers he throws at college teams (or zingers a Holy Cross grad throws at Duke) are cheap shots because he does not even pretend to have a clue - consider the source

Carlos
02-21-2008, 10:55 PM
Simmons was at his absolute best back when his pieces were published on the Digital Cities Boston website.

He went downhill when he went to ESPN because he had to be more PC - no more Grading the Wimbledon Babes columns when you're working for a TV network. (Here, about 1/3 of the way down the page. (http://forums.nyyfans.com/archive/index.php/t-3493.html))

He went downhill further after he moved from Boston to LA. He's still great, but he's not what he once was.