The Simmons Site

Liked Jones's, not reading the other two.

 

On the first day, shouldn't you be throwing out great pieces to get people to come back?

I know I wasn't overwhelmed and in a very small sample size, those I follow on Twitter weren't either.

 

Yes.

Additional pieces have been added throughout the day, but then why the big countdown, which led people to think it was going to just EXPLODE off the screen?

 

One of new pieces added was a Jonathan Abrams "exclusive" on Donnie Walsh departure.

Pretty much plowed over stuff that all came out an hour after Walsh left.

 

I guess Simmons learned his lesson by not allowing comments.

Too bad I can't point out the myriad mistakes/typos.

 

As Bill himself told us, Kimmel's show sucked the first few weeks too. But now look at it!

That said, I don't understand having a big countdown and then having "Coming Soon" on the blog and the Hollywood ... err, blog. Roll it all out at once and make a big splash.

Anyway, it'll be a must-surf site each day for me. That could change in the future.

 

Where did they get the name Grantland from? I don't see the connection.

 

So the "exclusive" on the Donnie Walsh story was one paragraph at the end of the story that told me absolutely nothing?

 

Pretty much.

So-so debut for the site. I'm still optimistic though. I really want to see it succeed.

 

I see both of these points as having validity. Uncovering interesting lost stories is a great purpose for that type of piece.

But didn't you think it was a little predictable that the "single greatest sporting event" Klosterman ever witnessed would be an exclusive one? That to me is the definition of hipsterdom - my vinyl indie record pressing you can't get, my thrift store shirt you can't get anywhere else, my whatever other exclusive affectation that makes me look cool.

That's pretty much the subjective nature of writing, though. But I think so far we all agree the Simmons intro piece sucked hard.

 

A Simmons/LeBron piece is also up now. Big shock - so. many. words. that I've only managed to get through half of it in one sitting. And he's managed to work in a really tortured Heat/Mike Tyson in the 1980s analogy into the first few paragraphs.

I like Simmons well enough - I'm 35, so I guess I'm just on the outer edges of his demographic. That being said, these first two pieces are hardly compelling reading.

 

It's ESPN's original Page 2 without the notable writers! Well done, Grantland.