Bill Simmons is leaving NBA Countdown, launching 'The Grantland Basketball Show'

+ Clyde drexler + Tommy Heinsohn + Joe Rogan

 

What do you care what he does with his career?

And what makes you think that ESPN didn't tell him they were dumping him anyway, and he can save face by running his own NBA show on Grantland?

 

Karl Malone could be a good TV personality:

HTML:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/qThNb4z9VQs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

He could be ESPN's Charles Barkley

 

Shoot, though I could iframe a video, here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qThNb4z9VQs

 

LOVE this move. There is a massive difference between the quality of the NBA podcasts/shows on Grantland and the mediocre stuff they put together on ESPN, mostly because the former works on the assumption that those watching are already big NBA fans and pulls no punches, while the latter just tries to appeal to Joe Everyfan and stays very politically correct.

I mean, on the quarterly NBA shows on Grantland, not only do they devote more time to the actual analysis of the non-big market teams, but they discuss advanced stats/metrics, show interesting comprehensive shot charts from Kirk Goldsberry, and routinely mention basketball-reference.com. And Jalen dropping inside knowledge on everything from player-coach interactions to inter-squad altercations (and even what city's clubs have the biggest effect on how players perform the day after, lol) is a much better way to use a former athlete. Its a show that proves you can get good analysis and have fun too.

It's like night and day from the grade school beginner crap they discuss on national telecasts like ESPN and TNT (yes TNT is the most entertaining show and I love those guys, but their "analysis" is f-cking awful). It was probably killing Bill inside to listen to everyone talking in cliches on Countdown. Jalen adapted better because he's more prone to talking that way unless others are coaxing more out of him, but even he was significantly worse than on the Grantland shows.

If David Jacoby is semi-hosting the show with a panel of Bill, Jalen, and Zach Lowe, it will be incredible. Maybe even bring in some popular NBA-analysis guys like Ryen Russillo or Coach Nick from @BbalBreakdown for some informative guest spots. We'd finally be getting a fun NBA show with actual analysis on the level of the in-depth NFL show on ESPN. Basketball fans have been clamoring for that for a while.

 

As long as Jalen Rose and Zach Lowe are heavily involved, I think this is a fantastic decision.

I thoroughly enjoy his podcasts with Rose and Lowe and hope this decisions means we'll see more of it.

I'm already looking forward to this pre-season pick YouTube vids with Rose. Last year's were epic (especially the cinnamon challenge )

 

I like Jalen's personality and all, but he has been pretty fail this past season in terms of being an insider. Throughout the season all he talked about was how Riley is God and how Miami had a plan to bring in talent. Then Miami did nothing during the trade deadline, and then LeBron left in the offseason even after Riley picked his favorite PG in the draft.

 

Nearly everyone thought LeBron would stay in Miami, being an insider doesn't mean you can predict the future or true thought process of a player.

 

Man nobody is checking NBA Countdown for Bill Simmons. Him leaving is actually beneficial to the show. I'd like to see Rick Kamla take his spot

 

I think he's tied up in the Turner/TNT/NBATV group. Would be cool if he could come over, but as the host taking over for Sage Steele with someone else taking Simmons' spot.

 

I watched sporadically specifically for Simmons, so yes people do, he is incredibly knowledgable in basketball and he is articulate in a manner that no other guys in the business are. Hate him all you want but he knows the game.

 

Good he was awful on espn

 

I'd like to see David Thorpe. I respect his opinion more than most other basketball talking heads.

 

Doesn't that simply imply nearly everyone is not an insider? If all insiders say the same thing and they turn out to be wrong, it doesn't mean they're legit but stuff happens. It just means they're not really as connected as they claim to be.

 

Honestly, the media is more engaged in the narrative than the information. They knew he was going back to Cleveland, it was ridiculously obvious fairly early in the piece.

 

Stephen A. and Skip Bayless will be added to the show.

 

I'm curious what evidence you have for this. I think it was well known in the media before the piece was released that Lebron was going to Cleveland. They knew 3-5 days before the piece was posted. But to say the media knew from the beginning is pretty ludicrous since I don't believe Lebron was sure from the beginning.

 

So it's only gonna cover 4 teams now...

 

Simmons is a bit annoying, his nasally voice, and know it all attitude rubs folks the wrong way.

He is the white Stephen A...

DD