Simmons on Boston beat writers ...

I dunno. He's an evangie, he holds hands with his best (male) friend, and seems a true believer.
I'm a cynic, but not about that marriage.

 

No shit, that "hate" article is bout the most hypocritical piece I've seen. Absolutely NOBODY in this business incessantly, unfairly, and childishly hates and takes cheap shots at his chosen targets (Colts, Manning, A-Rod, Yankees etc.) like Simmons, but as soon as he discovers there's people out there that would have the audacity to hate HIS Patriots he suddenly gets self-righteous and wonders why such a hateful sports culture should exist. That piece was fairly nauseating.

 

See also Simmons' monotonous, incessant shots at Joe Dumars and the Detroit Pistons -- usually through a snotty, snarky, out-of-left-field, appropos-of-nothing essay on Darko Milicic. OK, Billy, we get it, Dumars fucked up, Darko was a bad pick. We get it. We got it the first 27,000 times you brought it up in your column.

 

I wonder how he'd react to someone bringing up Len Bias as incessantly as he plays the Darko card. It'd be mean-spirited and I sure as hell wouldn't do it, but at its base it's the same thing. Dumars didn't know Darko wouldn't reach his potential just like Red didn't know Len would OD.

 

One of my decades-old thoughts is what the NBA -- and Celts -- would have been had Len Bias never died.

 

In the sense of 'blogger-turned-'major'-columnist-without-any-dues-paying' is what I meant. He's one of the "New Jacks" in that sense, IMO, FB

 

Agree on both takes, Dangerous K.

 

*stands and applauds*

Boy, you nailed it. And that's a HUGE source of Simmons' "douchosity."

 

You know I am probably going to get grilled for typing this, but oh well.

I remember back when I was in college and the Suns were hosting the Bulls for the title and Lincicome said the Suns would "fold like tortillas." Well the tv media in town just went nuts with it and actually were waiting for Lincicome to come off the plane for a comment on how he could say something so bad about Our Lord and Savior Suns. Lincicome just said it was a column that was doing nothing more than stirring up interst in the story. It was done of course with "what the fuck are you sorry hicks doing talking to me" look on his face.

Since that day I have always felt that if you always agree with what a columnist writes, then the columnist is not doing their job. They are writing to make you agree or disagree with what they are writing. They want you to take a stand.

From what I am reading, Simmons is doing a great job stirring up intrest in topics. He is also making people passionate about what is written. I think that is the basic job of a columnist.

I read him, and I think a lot of what he writes is very funny and insightful. Some is not. So what. He has a great eye for the NBA and basketball. The betting feature with his wife was a great idea. His pop-culture references are very good. Do I care about the Celtics? Not really. Did I like his takes on the NCAA teams? Yes. I thought it was very good.

I have often thought about the amount of time he must spend watching TV and watching sports to keep current with all of the pop culture. He must not sleep. The wife comment was off a bit, but you cannot agree all 4,000 words.

 

I'd say he has a great mind for NBA history, but when it comes to actual basketball analysis Pat Forde blows him out of the water.

 

I agree. Plenty of people are superior basketball analysts to Simmons, from a variety of angles (strategic, statistical, etc). For a guy who has never worked a beat or covered the NBA, however, he does have a good eye for the game, IMO. Sometimes it takes him awhile to catch on (like how the no handcheck rule helped elevate Nash to an MVP), but he does catch on and he usually gets it right, at least when he steps back from his (not untypical for sportswriters) fanboy or "I staked out one position before, so I can't go back on it now" stances.

It took him time to get over the whole Kobe over Nash MVP thing, but he has since regained his faculties on that matter and now has a much greater appreciation of Nash's talents, particularly in light of the defensive rule alterations.

 

Good Simmons: Red Auerbach tribute piece

Bad Simmons: "This is ourrrr country" x 5,000,000