Simmons feature

Well-done feature on Mr. Bill Simmons.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/magazine/can-bill-simmons-win-the-big-one.html

 

He comes up with surprising angles and conceits — in a column last month, he applied quotes from “The Wire” to moments in the N.B.A. playoffs — that may not always work but certainly prevent him from becoming predictable.

I assume this feature was supposed to run in The Onion.

 

I don't know. The fact that he didn't compare the Heat with the Cobra Kai was certainly unpredictable -- although I should say that I don't read him enough to know if The Wire has replaced Karate Kid as his muse.

 

I assume the NYT reporter had never one of his columns before. I like Simmons as a fun read, but he breaks out that quotes column idea once or twice a year.

 

Well, it's sometimes hard to predict which quotes he'll use for which players.

(I'm a fan too)

 

I concur

 

Hate/detest/dislike Simmons because I think he's an overrated, over-writing one-trick pony who happened to be in the right place (ESPN) at the right time. Started reading the profile. Screeched to a halt when I got to those 2 sentences.

You can't be both. If you're really a sportswriter then you can't or shouldn't admit to being a fan of a team/city. Certainly, we all have likes/dislikes/prejudices but those aren't supposed to be trumpeted from the rooftops.

Also, I cringe/gag/vomit when I read the NYT considers Simmons the most prominent sportswriter in America. Well, kiss my hairy white ass.

Small satisfaction: Simmons is probably pissed off being called a "sportswriter" when he considers that profession to be from the horse and buggy days.

 

Simmons writes about sports. He's a sports writer. That doesn't mean he's a journalist or reporter.

 

Whatever you think of Simmons' personality and schtick, the media empire he's carved out with his podcast, the 30 for 30 series and now the website (which might turn out to be a flop, but has attracted some top-shelf writers) is pretty impressive.

 

It's all impressive, and there were things to like about this profile, but I'm with whoever suggested that the reader hasn't really read long enough to understand the evolution of Simmons. In the last three years, he's probably written no more than 10 good columns, and those only come about when he avoids his incredibly predictable, formualic shticks.

 

If Red Smith, Jim Murray, John Lardner and Grantland Rice were sitting around a table at Runyon's and Simmons walked in, they'd snicker about the wannabe sports scribe.

 

My son thinks Simmons is the best sports writer in America.

My daughter loves him, too.

I have managed the urge to remove them as beneficiaries and heirs from the appropriate places.

I don't like Simmons the writer because he writes too long about things I don't care about.

To deny his success, and the fact that he has indeed been doing the right things in the right place at the right time, is asinine and smacks of jealousy, no matter how much some might deny it. And I'd hire him for a website in a heartbeat.

I just wouldn't read him once I did so.