From the looks of it, getting fired will be the best thing that's ever happened to Bill (outside of him getting discovered of course). People will have a bidding war for his services. He has all the leverage too because he can easily start something on his own and have it be successful.
I'm a big fan of Simmons. Will follow wherever he goes. He needs Jalen and Lowe for his NBA stuff, though. Together they all make it work. The only other great NBA trio is Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy, and Mark Jackson, but that's a totally different kind of content.
I'm a big fan of Simmons, Grantland AND ESPN. I've followed Simmons since he was the sports guy on ESPN page 2. I remember always checking the site in anticipation for one of his long form articles. They were a pleasure to read and unlike any other at the time. Though I no longer enjoy his writing as much, I still look forward to his podcasts, specials and have thoroughly enjoyed Grantland. I wish the best for Simmons, but selfishly I hope Grantland doesnt skip a beat and that I can still look forward to enjoying the great works of Zach Lowe, Goldsberry, Abrams, Kerri & the hilarity of Chris Ryan, Sharp, Litman & Jacoby. I know lots of people here love to complain about ESPN's biases, but IMO most of the complaints are either due to oversensitivity or exaggerations. Espn is a huge site with tons of writers, not all of whom share the same views. In fact many if not most have divergent views on teams, players and issues. I go to ESPN to find articles, writers, stories that I'm interested in reading, not to complained and seethe about the ones I disagree with.
Molly Lambert isnt good on Grantland in my opinion. When I see a GLand article going insufferable lengths to show female-working-through-barriers, I know she's the writer without seeing who wrote it
Stephen A and Skip are fake personalities. He's not for everyone, but Bill is Bill and he keeps it 100. His writing and production do an excellent job balancing the emotional and cerebral sides of sports and pop culture.
I think Grantland could survive on its own because Simmons hardly writes anymore; he was pretty much putting out podcasts, irregular mailbags and a TV show that nobody watches because it airs at random times. The strength of the website is in its regular writers. That said, I'll follow Zach Lowe to the ends of the earth and if he follows Simmons, I'm on the bandwagon. Personally, I think it'd be interesting to see him go to Vice. They have the money and the determination to grow online, so it could help out both parties. I don't mind Simmons as a writer; I've just forgotten what that's like since he barely writes these days.
I am really intrigued by the possibility of a Simmons/Vice partnership. That would be incredible. Vice doesn't give a damn. There would be no suspensions for calling out commissioners. Simmons would have total freedom. And Vice is young enough in building out their sports coverage it wouldn't surprise me if they offered him considerable equity in that division. This could be really, really, really good for smart sports fans.
I wish Simmons, jvg, and Jalen rose were the announcers for every game Simmons keeps it 100 and I hope he goes where he can be himself. I also hope others follow him. It would be create if bill ended up becoming competition for eapn
Maybe he'll get hired into an NBA team front office...or into the NBA league office to institute change! haha
Why would Yahoo be so great for him? Besides having Woj on a podcast to breakdown his thoughts about the NBA, what does that partnership bring to the table? Woj isn't a creativity guy, he's an extremely reliable news source. And Yahoo's interface is total crap. I like their fantasy sports platform, but I cannot use their Sports News site at all. Its a cheap headlines type site, and unless they changed that image, I think Simmons would make a mistake going there.
This seems like a Conan O'Brien situation. When he left NBC with all the Jay Leno controversy, everyone thought he could go wherever and NBC would regret it, etc. In the end, he did find a new home on a small network but he's now an afterthought. At the end of the day, the vast majority of people will just watch and read whoever's on ESPN - they are the power broker in the deal.
Not really the same situation because Conan and Leno were competing for a popular time slot. Simmons/Grantland is already on top, its just he clashes with the bosses. I liken this more to Howard Stern. Stern did not mix either prior with CBS radio, which was more mainstream while Stern wanted to do content that tight ass big whigs didn't agree with. Howard took his services to Sirius and literally made that station. Simmons could be one of three things: 1) He could partner with VICE who has grand aspirations of being the #1 sports news source, and basically be THE guy to go up against his old bosses 2) He could take the Howard Stern route, move to a smaller medium where he basically has full control over the entire operation, and live in comfortable zone while not really needing to challenge or push himself 3) He could start his own operation all together. Really, #3 makes the least sense, Simmons is such a massive star in the sports production world that he will have full power wherever he goes. Its just, VICE makes so much sense, they aren't going to control him and he will have $50-$100 million budgets to work with to grow a big sports operation.
Haha someone tweeted Morey saying we should let Simmons have a office job or let him be in charge of the rockets twitter account
Dan Patrick comes to mind, although I'm not aware of all the details and if there's really a parallel there. But Patrick went out on his own and has his own syndicated radio show which I'm sure nets him crazy money. I'm curious to see if Simmons can strike out on his own independently or join another big media company. Should be interesting either way. It was the one part of ESPN with any kind of edge; and I'm sure there are plenty of people like me who see no part of ESPN except for Grantland stuff. That audience will be gone, although it sounds like they don't really care. I am personally a fan, not superfan or anything, but I will give any new content from him a try. He's not spouting anything just to get attention (ie the most popular talking heads on ESPN). And he doesn't pass off crap puff pieces as legit sports articles (Woj, Bucher, etc). He's upfront about his fandom and wears it on his sleeve. He's basically a superfan who's well informed, has unique perspectives, and most importantly delivers it in an entertaining fashion whether I agree with him or not.
Do people realize here that he was shown the door by ESPN because he flamed Goddell again, this time for daring to pursue the deflated balls investigation against his beloved NE Patriots and his godlike idol Brady? Are you all still so sympathetic in his favor now that you see that this is the reason? I honestly can't stand him at all and hope he just vanishes. He just spouts random nonsense, mostly to cheerlead for Boston sports, and somehow has a huge platform to do it.
I mentioned something similar earlier but w/o tying Skipper's letting him go to the Goodell insults. His constant need to call out/insult/just talk about Goodell in general became so damn annoying and irritating that I felt it was almost as bad as his constant Celtics/Pats talks. We got the message the first 5 times he spoke his mind about Goodell.
