The Ringer is Live

Kind of how like sports reporters rabidly cover the comings and goings of coaches and players?

 

Judging by Holly's Twitter feed, she feels strongly about a lot of things.

That's a talented person who, IMO, has not been done justice by her social media persona, but I can appreciate that someone might entirely disagree.

 

There are things in life whose popularity I never will quite understand, and one of them is Bill Simmons. Put it like this: I understand Kim Kardashian's popularity better than I do Bill Simmons. I understand Skip Bayless' appeal better than I do Bill Simmons. And I can't stand Bayless's contrarian schtick. But I can understand the appeal it has to some. Simmons is lost on me.

Maybe I'm the wrong age. I just see a funny, smart ass sports columnist with middlebrow taste for pop culture. That's what I see.

 

Sports fans are stupid.

 

It's not just fans though. Repeatedly, people with money and cultural currency think Bill Simmons is really onto something. I'm just not clear what it is, beyond being a good writer, which he is. Maybe I've missed all the right podcasts. Or maybe I'm just not culturally into it. That's quite possible too.

 

Good writer?

 

Really? You're gonna say Simmons is a shitty writer? He might not be Jeff MacGregor with his endless string of $10 words or even Charlie Pierce with his insight, but if the aim of most writing is to entertain -- and by keeping people's attention, to then inform -- then Simmons was definitely entertaining. Has his scktick run its course? Well, consider how many damn words he's put out over the years. Who wouldn't start becoming a parody of themselves? He rarely writes nowadays, and with his focus on the launch of his HBO show and making that a go, I doubt you'll see much writing from him at all. At one time, though, I'd say he was a really good writer.

 

I think writing is the least of his talents.

 

+1 . Not to mentioned that his much ballyhooed "Book of Basketball" got many things wrong.
To me he's the consummate frat boy that never grew up.

 

I really enjoyed most of that book, read it this past winter. Some of the opinions were definitely eye-rollers, but it was entertaining as hell and resuscitated some of the love I had for the game, which I lost in the one-and-done era. What faults are you referring to? Not doubting there must have been errors, as it was a huge compendium of stats, etc. -- but just wondering what errors come readily to mind.

 

To piggyback on this post and Elliotte's, Bill has been proven correct. Newspapers are croaking b/c it remained the old boys' club, in every way and at every level. So Bill did an end-around and not only made it as a writer but made tens of millions of dollars in the process. And yet he still acts like he's punching a clock in a coal mine somewhere, his talents untapped, b/c nobody ever gave him a shot or believed in him.

 

Well when you get fired...
To say Simmons has "made it" is one thing; to say he's not in a precarious spot right now is something different. He's outside the support ecosystem of ESPN for the first time, and the lynch pin is a TV show, which -- and I'm a fan -- is not his wheelhouse. He's not naturally controversial or particularly witty on his feet, so it will be interesting to see how he does with the show. Can't blame him for feeling like an underdog; ESPN basically said they were getting out of the BS business. Here's hoping the Ringer improves because right now it hasn't distinguished itself with content.