Worthwhile Will Leitch essay on Bill Simmons

That Simmons' book -- or any book about the NBA, for God's sake -- has topped the NYT's bestseller list absolutely boggles my mind. I fully expect the sun to rise in the west tomorrow.

 

I'm amused at the vitriol aimed at Simmons.

He was THE pioneer in Internet sports columns.

He went to ESPN and in a group that included David Halberstam and Hunter Thompson - he was the NUMBER ONE draw on Page 2.

He continues to blaze trails in the new media of podcasts - does anyone think his podcasts aren't the most popular of all of ESPN's offerings?

Now he has a number ONE seller on the NY Times book list.

Good for him.

Because of his success doors were opened for people like Aaron Gleeman and Chad Finn. They are not alone in their debt to Simmons.

Bill Simmons came to the cross-roads early in his career. He chose a path. It was the right path. It was a path made from the Internet that led to fame and fortune. Let him continue on his journey.

If Bill Simmons cared about what was said here like he did five years ago, he'd take a FLAMETHROWER to this place!

 

Boom, you just proved his point.

1970-71 - 7,648 (Maravich's rookie year)
1971-72 - 8,061
1972-73 - 8,396
1973-74 - 8,479
1974-75 - 9,339
1975-76 - 10,179
1976-77 - 10,974 (merger with ABA)
1977-78 - 10,947
1978-79 - 10,822
1979-80 - 11,017 (Bird, Magic are rookies)

Attendance basically stagnated from 1975-80. Bill's point was that it sagged in the decade of the 1970s. Please try again.

 

25 of the top 50 all time NBA players played in some part of the 70's . Depressing indeed.

If Simmons wants to make the case that the NBA had drug problems in the late 70's fine. He is wildly wrong to term the entire decade. If you want to be considered a "historian " accuracy is heavily weighted in the rubric.

 

Attendance increased about 30 percent between 1974 and 1980. Please try again.

 

Yes, lets ignore the fact that it was basically the same from 75-76 through 78-79, even dropping in two consecutive years and that the merger with the ABA only added 800 fans to the seats.

 

Lets ignore that Simmons used the word "decade" . Lets also ignore that Simmons was born in in 1969 and making observations on a decade that he started still in diapers.

BTW - some attendance figures for the late 60's :

66- 67 6125

67- 68 6118

68 - 69 6442

69 - 70 7500

Pope I am just not seeing the "sagging" that you and Bill "the NBA historian" see.

 

Christ, people, buckweaver writes about players from 1919. He wasn't there either. You don't have to have lived through something to write about it. Can we get past how old Simmons was in the 70s?

 

Buck talks out of his ass too.

The problem with Simmons is that he writes the stuff like he was there. If you are going to do that you better dam well get it right.

 

The problem with the book is that it's disjointed. Doesn't tie in very well, I think. He spent 700 pages convincing us the 1986 Celtics were the greatest team of all time, basically.

 

Someone posted above that the Maravich stuff in the book was word for word the same as an earlier column. Is that basically the substance of the book, repackaged columns? It's pretty hard to write a 700 page book, I have to think some/most of it was recycled. I have no idea, but would be interested to know.