Simmons bets on LeBron to win MVP then votes for him

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

ESPN's star writer Bill Simmons has withdrawn his vote of LeBron James as MVP of the NBA due to a conflict of interest involving a bet he made on the award, Business Insider has learned.
Before the NBA season started, Simmons said on his podcast that he made a bet on James winning the MVP award. By the end of the season, the NBA actually handed Simmons a ballot allowing him to vote on who should be MVP.
He recorded a podcast of him filling in his ballot. Not surprisingly, Simmons voted for James.

http://www.businessinsider.com/espn-writer-bill-simmons-withdraws-nba-mvp-ballot-2012-5#ixzz1tq8XhGPJ

My question: How does Simmons qualify to vote on the MVP award?

 

[JC]

ESPN's star writer Bill Simmons has withdrawn his vote of LeBron James as MVP of the NBA due to a conflict of interest involving a bet he made on the award, Business Insider has learned.
Before the NBA season started, Simmons said on his podcast that he made a bet on James winning the MVP award. By the end of the season, the NBA actually handed Simmons a ballot allowing him to vote on who should be MVP.
He recorded a podcast of him filling in his ballot. Not surprisingly, Simmons voted for James.

http://www.businessinsider.com/espn-writer-bill-simmons-withdraws-nba-mvp-ballot-2012-5#ixzz1tq8XhGPJ

My question: How does Simmons qualify to vote on the MVP award?

Why shouldn't he? He's as qualified as anyone.

 

[Glenn Stout]

For historical perspective, the 1947 American League MVP vote was also corrupted by gambling on the outcome among voters in the BBWAA. If anyone is interested, the story, which I originally wrote for the Sporting News appears here: http://indiepro.com/glenn/selected-articles/

 

[Mizzougrad96]

We'd be hard-pressed to find too many people who watch as much basketball as Simmons. I have no problem with him having a vote.

As far as betting on the outcome when he can impact it, I don't think that's right, but I don't think it's a huge deal either.

 

[Double Down]

My question: How does Simmons qualify to vote on the MVP award?

Yeah, conflict(s) of interest aside, I don't think there are many "media" people who are more qualified. I mean, how could anyone justify, say, Peter Vescey getting a vote and Simmons not getting one?

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

My question: How does Simmons qualify to vote on the MVP award?

Yeah, conflict(s) of interest aside, I don't think there are many "media" people who are more qualified. I mean, how could anyone justify, say, Peter Vescey getting a vote and Simmons not getting one?

I wasn't being sarcastic, I was asking, honestly.
I don't read Simmons. I know he likes basketball, but I didn't know that was what he wrote about with enough frequency to be a BWAA member muchless have a vote in things.
I was unaware he had a beat or specialized in pro hoops.
Based on the fact that I don't read him - ignorance on my part - I thought he was all things Boston, a ****-ton of pop culture references and podcasts.

 

[Dick Whitman]

We'd be hard-pressed to find too many people who watch as much basketball as Simmons. I have no problem with him having a vote.

As far as betting on the outcome when he can impact it, I don't think that's right, but I don't think it's a huge deal either.

I disagree. I think it's an enormous deal. But I'm big on the appearance of conflicts of interest. For example, it still burns me to the core that they let an MLB.com employee judge APSE awards. But particularly gambling. It's pretty well-documented by me on this particular board in past threads. Trying to remember some of the threads. There were some doozies.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

We'd be hard-pressed to find too many people who watch as much basketball as Simmons. I have no problem with him having a vote.

As far as betting on the outcome when he can impact it, I don't think that's right, but I don't think it's a huge deal either.

I disagree. I think it's an enormous deal. But I'm big on the appearance of conflicts of interest. For example, it still burns me to the core that they let an MLB.com employee judge APSE awards. But particularly gambling. It's pretty well-documented by me on this particular board in past threads. Trying to remember some of the threads. There were some doozies.

I'm with you, ****, I don't like that at all. And I don't buy ESPN's bull**** line of reasoning where he didn't know he was going to get a vote for it until after he already made the bet, so it's OK.

For him to place the vote, having already known he had bets down on who would win, is way over the line for me. "Withdrawing the ballot" doesn't erase that ethical lapse.

 

[YankeeFan]

Who did Sarah Phillips bet on?

 

[Double Down]

Albert Pujols. The Puppet Master was trying to steal NotGaryBusey that day so she went with her gut.

 

[Small Town Guy]

My question: How does Simmons qualify to vote on the MVP award?

Yeah, conflict(s) of interest aside, I don't think there are many "media" people who are more qualified. I mean, how could anyone justify, say, Peter Vescey getting a vote and Simmons not getting one?

I don't care about his last 25 years or his horrid efforts on NBA on NBC or the rumors that never went everywhere or even the libel suit. For coming up with Joe Barely Cares, he deserves lifetime voting privileges.

And yes, Simmons is as deserving - more - of having a vote as anyone. (although, while I really enjoyed the column today on footnote NBA titlists, he needs to stop perpetuating the myth about the final three seconds of Game 7 of the 1988 NBA Finals. First, Laimbeer stepped over the line on the inbound. Yes, the crowd should have been thrown off the court. But if you're talking about the play, he committed a violation. And Magic did not commit an obvious foul on Isiah. There's never been a good angle on whether he fouled him. Isiah had the bum ankle and might have just fallen on it. but even if he did, it wasn't shooting. Isiah would have had to make 1, miss 1 and the Pistons would have had to get the board and score. And even if they somehow did call it a shooting foul, in 1988 the NBA did not have three free throws on 3-pointers, so still would have been 2 shots. Please, Pistons fans, I implore you, stop complaining about the final 3 seconds).

Anyway.

 

[MileHigh]

Rough week at ESPN. Rough six months.

 

[Tom Petty]

For historical perspective, the 1947 American League MVP vote was also corrupted by gambling on the outcome among voters in the BBWAA. If anyone is interested, the story, which I originally wrote for the Sporting News appears here: http://indiepro.com/glenn/selected-articles/

Thanks Glenn - I enjoyed the read.

 

[HejiraHenry]

I bet Grantland has one less reader, then I quit going to Grantland. Is that wrong?

 

[Azrael]

This is both a good argument against sports writers voting and sports writers betting.

 

[93Devil]

He's a grown man who can do whatever he wants with his money, but like Romney keeping his money in foreign bank accounts, it is just a bad idea.

Who is to stop Simmons next year putting a grand on Chris Paul as the MVP then writing all year about how Paul should be the MVP, even though he might not deserve it, because Simmons could make $20k on the deal.

 

[Dick Whitman]

He's a grown man who can do whatever he wants with his money, but like Romney keeping his money in foreign bank accounts, it is just a bad idea.

Who is to stop Simmons next year putting a grand on Chris Paul as the MVP then writing all year about how Paul should be the MVP, even though he might not deserve it, because Simmons could make $20k on the deal.

Yep, that's the problem.

And I know some would say, "What's the big deal? LeBron clearly deserved to be MVP, so no harm, no foul."

But my philosophy is that you just don't judge this on a case-by-case basis. It gets too messy that way. It's a hard-and-fast rule, and that's that.

 

[Glenn Stout]

One of a number of articles discussing the topic:
http://thephoenix.com/boston/recroom/115167-should-sportswriters-be-allowed-to-gamble-on-sport/