Grantland so far

I liked "Untucked," directed by actor Danny Pudi ("Community"). It was about Marquette's 1977 championship team.

 

It was this guy, right?

 

Deep bump here, but what the hell is this?

It's a piece of writing and it's somewhat funny, but is there something else I'm missing about it.

It's here that I'll take some small stock of where Grantland is post-Simmons.

And that's as an elite one-stop shop for NBA stuff and a mediocre grab bag of everything else.

I still like Lee Jenkins at SI the most for NBA features. I think he's a better writer and I guess you have to follow the agent's best friend, Woj, for developing news, although I've soured on him as a commentator, because he seems more like a some guy from a political thinktank - taking predetermined positions on certain people whose agents feed him stuff - than a curious reporter willing to be surprised or moved by much. The Grantland bunch really seems to love the game, and breaks down and understands the NBA on such an intimate, ground floor level that if you really want worm inside the game, you're reading Grantland to do that. And Simmons deserves the lion's share of the credit for that. 7-8 years ago, NBA stuff on ESPN still seemed stuck mourning a world without Jordan. Simmons hired the right people, focused them on many of the right things and elevated the discourse. He did that.

Is that where he focuses in a new endeavor? Wouldn't blame him if he did.

 

Cleave each egg in two with the implacable cruelty of a scorned lover, ...

 

remove the yolks, and fold them into the mayonnaise with the all-knowing caresses of an old lover.

The fuck? And I must have missed something too ... what does this have to do with Roger Federer?

 

A couple of things.

First, that's a terrible recipe for deviled eggs.

Second, people who keep chickens have hens that lay unfertilized eggs, so you don't get chicks.

Okay, a third thing. The writer grew bored with writing another piece on how Federer is technically perfect, etc, etc and wrote a flight of fancy about cooking instead.

This I read. The other I wouldn't have. In a social media world that's a win.

 

Where does this come from? I still have no clue.

 

I love Holly because she's so crazy & creative at the same time.

The whole thing is in Federer's voice, which probably only tennis wonks will really "get." But I love it none the less.

 

Thanks. I don't get it. At all.

 

The Hollywood Reporter has a story up that says Bill Simmons is working with HBO on a show.

It would include a show and digital offerings, whatever that means.

It was tacked onto the end as it is really more about HBO and how they've adjusted with with HBO Go. Pretty interesting, in a very insider baseball sort of way.

 

One thing I'd noticed, but never thought to post until today: Grantland only updates Monday through Friday. (I was looking to see what Brian Phillips had to say about Serena.) That's bizarre for a news site.

 

A few years ago, when I was in charge of tracking such things for a newspaper, we found traffic went way, way down on the weekends. To the point it was hardly worth doing anything more than bare bones coverage online. Sunday definitely wasn't the day to post a big feature.

The major exception was gameday coverage of the local university.