Red Auerbach RIP

Yes - that is the guy I was thinking of. Thanks Michael. I think Jackie Mac may have written story for SI.

Feinstein did a good job in book on Pitino/ auerbacj dynamic. Huge mistake for Pitino to demand title of president as condition of employment.

Feinstein

 

Mike, I'm not the biggest fan of Simmons as a writer. He's OK. As a person, he comes off as aloof if you don't know him. So I'm not sticking up for him, per se.

But the fact that everyone rips him for not making it in the sportswriting business is bullshit. He's one of the most widely read guys around, and he's managed to carve out a niche for himself.

 

And Leo P. is one of the most interesting people you'll ever come across in the sports realm.

 

It's not necessarily that everyone "rips" him for not making it in newspapers, although some do. What gets him ripped more than anything is the holier-than-thou attitude that because he couldn't make it in newspapers, something's wrong with newspapers.

Which is a whole other discussion, really, but it doesn't much pertain to him ...

 

And if you throw in college teams, I'm sure there are some other counterpoints.

 

Bingo. You nailed it, nafselon. I used to like to read him, but as time's gone on, he's been more exposed as the one - trick pony you correctly say he is. And a bitter one - trick pony as well.

And now he goes around giving interviews about how pathetic all the bloggers who criticize his work is. This from a guy who made, and makes, his name from sitting on his butt at his home and taking shots at media figures while he watches tv and reads the internet. Pot, kettle, black. What a joke. If this guy isn't a glorified blogger (which is totally cool, except he pretends he's 'above' bloggers), no one is.

He's a self - absorbed, wanna - be - a - real - frat - boy - but - didn't - get - past - first - callbacks douchebag. He had the temerity to criticize emailers who faulted him for not including his poor overall NFL predictions record in his last NFL predictions column. Something like "I don't want to be offensive, but you're a bunch of idiots." Nobody likes a person with rabbit ears, and Billy's ears are gigantic.

I've seen him use various pseudonyms on all manner of insignificant blogs taking an unflattering author to task. I guess you can spend all day doing vanity Google searches and tracking negative blog references to yourself when you don't have to go and do actual interviews at an arena. Must be nice. Of course, the world awaits the next "Real World / Road Rules 26" reference which can only be divined from SG watching TV 'round the clock.

Guy has talent but he's so outgrown his britches I'm humiliated for him. When he did his whole self - campaigning for a sportswriter award a year or two ago I think I crossed my personal event horizon with him. No going back.

 

Its called the "Francesa Syndrome" . You start out expecting to be be goofer and spotter then end up in some postion of relitive power and start to think you are the second coming.

 

I'll say amen to that. Once, on a scouting trip, Leo made a side trip to manual High in Peoria just because it had turned out so many players that Leo considered it a shrine. The principal was so flattered to have a Celtics scout in the place that he assembled the marching band in the gym in the middle of the day and they played the fight song in leo's honor.
And that's just one of the cleaner stories.