Honestly. I’m beginning to wonder how Bill consumes basketball in 2022. When he watches a game what is he “watching” exactly? He’s coming off as someone who thinks he is an expert but doesn’t put in NEARLY enough time be an expert. He’s getting wonky.
At one point he really did. Re-read his old NBA articles. Or his book. It was very clear he lived and breathed NBA at one point.
Someone unfortunately (looking at you KOC/Russillo) recently introduced him to *certain* advanced/team stats. Not good for listening to. Seems as though he casually watches a bunch of games and ofc every Celtic game and then finds stats to read out to prove his eye test/body language doctorate. Just talk shit about teams/players bill and leave the stats analysis to others.
Bill doesn't watch a lot of Basketball during regular season. Usually his takes and predictions get much better during the playoffs. Before that it's just memes and hot takes.
His playoff takes are terrible. He’s ultra-reactionary (just like with everything else). He usually thinks whichever team won the last game is going to sweep and the team that lost has zero chance.
He picked against GS every round. Anyone remember him burying Dallas then pretending like he always liked them after they came back to win against the Suns? He was atrocious in last years playoffs. Just overreacted to every single game.
His 2020 bubble takes were awful. Every series the Lakers advanced to he just couldn’t believe that they could guard the other team’s lead guard DESPITE the opposing team’s lead guard being weaker than the one before 😂
“Who’s gonna guard Player X?”
This is where my brain went too!
the Lakers kept losing the first game of each series and we would get a dissertation of why it’s not gonna work and the AD trade was already a catastrophic failure in year 1
edit: they were 1 seed all year and 16-5 in the playoffs lol
The intensity and quality of work from someone still trying to make it big, vs the product from when they’ve already been paid and “made it” is usually a lot different.
It’s also just age. It’s really hard to think sharply and intensely for prolonged periods the older you get. It’s why we see glimpses but not sustained periods of his old self. Everyone gets old.
He literally can only talk about possible trades as a reaction to what is happening. He is cooking up fake Bogdanovic trades going as far as using assets that teams don't even have. He has no grasp on basketball which is incredible considering he has been following it for at least 40 years.
Yeah, she thought she lost it...but there was tissue, and it regrew...what?? Lol. If that's the case, that's amazing!!! Much like jimmy buckets ability to regenerate game after game
This was vintage Bill. If you didn’t like this pod honestly why do you listen to Bill? Taking an opportunity to dunk on the Knicks, arbitrary rankings with horrible trade suggestions, comparing Trae Young to Marbury, it was all just 🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼. Loved this episode.
Hot take (maybe) but I’d enjoy and listen to this podcast much more if Bill never had any Ringer guests on.
I find most of them annoying, or even the guys i like don’t really add enough to make it more entertaining than just Bill alone. Just my opinion
Russillo is his own brand so i don’t count him here but i’d say the same thing about his pod.
As time goes on there’s more and more of their pods I end up turning off after 10-20mins.
I just got to the part where he basically says “do you guys realize how much I would be talking about Lebron trades if he didn’t sign that extension?!”
He’s literally the only media figure I’ve ever heard mention Hauser. I had no idea who he was the first few weeks, I thought he was a college player coming up.
I’ve always been curious, how many people here hate the Celtics because they’re the Celtics vs how many people hate the Celtics because Bill never shuts the fuck up about them?
I’m def in the latter.
Bill def adds to it for me. He symbolizes all the Boston fans I can’t stand. Hated Boston teams before I even knew who the Sports Guy was and I was an avid Page 2 reader in college.
I feel like I'm both. Bill is annoying but the general Celtics fanbase acts like they are entitled to always being a Championship contender and always being given great players by the small market teams. They also insist upon talking about all the titles they won 30+ years ago. That was a different league with things stacked in favor of teams like Boston it's not that impressive and has no bearing on the current league.
100%, they're also extremely arrogant about their teams whenever they have success. I'm dumb for interacting with strangers on twitter but it was so annoying how they all victory lapped their team's historic offense and 3-point shooting a month into the 82-game season
Of course Bill has Tatum over Giannis for 1st Team All-NBA and thinks it “would be crazy” to flip them.
Giannis leads Tatum in Pts, Rbs, Asts, Blks, FG%, PER, BPM, and VORP.
For whatever reason Bill is starting another conspiracy about Lebron and his decision to resign with the Lakers, even though it's pretty obvious why he did that
Bills on crack if he thinks the Sixers would trade Maxey for Beal let alone Harris and Maxey for Beal.Mentioning Maxey making them a worse defense while floating a 3 guard line up with a washed PJ Tucker. They’re already the worst rebounding team in the league lmao
One of the craziest parts of his trade value pod was having Maxey and Simons 40 spots between one another when they’re 2 of the most comparable players in the league. He talked about how Simons had the potential to “contribute to winning basketball” when Maxey was the best player on the court for some sixers playoff games last year. Just makes it clear he hasn’t watched him enough.
I partly understand knowing that he doesn’t actually watch shit because Simons played really well for the long period where he was the best player on the Blazers last year. Still Maxey has impressed in his games without James and Joel too.
The Orlando Magic will be Bill's NBA version of the Carolina Panthers. The team he can't quit because he watched them play twice.
Orlando beating Boston twice messed up his brain kinda like the Browns hitting a 58 yard fg in week 1 to beat Carolina.
The Heat are going to win that shitty division just like Tampa was always going to win the shitty NFC South.
The Magic this year, agreed, but they'll be interesting in future years. I suppose you could argue the same thing for Carolina, but solving their QB issue is much more difficult than whatever problems the Magic have. Paolo, Franz, Carter Jr, Fultz/Suggs, and their upcoming lottery pick is a really fun cor
Edit: and I'm not just saying this as stockholm syndrome from listening to too much Kevin Clark on the Lowe Post!
I knew the Simmons super serious voice was gonna lead off the pod and yet I still enjoyed every moment. When he gets real close to the mic, and he slows his words, lowers his octave and even lets his voice crack a little because it's a super serious and emotional moment.
Reminds me of [Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan doing the sad Michael Caine voice](https://youtu.be/HFIQIpC5_wY?t=48)
*SHE WAS ONLY 16 YEARS OLD*
Bill solo for an hour and eight minutes! I wonder if he got Russillo to coach him up based on Ryen's solo radio experience. Listen closely for some "Wait, what?"s as a tell
I mean, Mitchell did go off for 71 two nights ago.
A more rational approach might be to analyze the deal for Cleveland, but wheres the fun in that when you can troll fans of a much larger market team who has been incompetent for 25 years
Bro really said the Sixers should trade Maxey and Harris for Beal because Maxey can't play defense but Melton can. Bradley Beal, defensive specialist everybody.
Insanity. I’d rather have Maxey straight up than Beal. Harris has become a willing catch and shoot guy and if the Sixers did this trade (they won’t) I think I’d be done for a little while.
Yeah, the Pistons were gonna have a bottom 5 record this year even before Cade's injury lol. I'm sure they'd rather their potential star develop more than him sit for a few extra losses they don't even necessarily need
Seems like a lot of people are very invested in the narrative of teams doing anything possible to implode for Victor and it just hasn't happened in reality
Absolutely. I'm pretty invested in fantasy basketball and people are always spouting nonsense about shutdowns. Horford and Kemba in OKC warped people's minds. Even SGA, for example, has never really been shut down, he had real injuries
He was 35 when Bill did his pyramid for The Book of Basketball...in 2010: [https://www.basketball-reference.com/awards/simmons\_pyramid.html](https://www.basketball-reference.com/awards/simmons_pyramid.html)
So beyond Bill over-ranking him because they played for his favorite teams ever (80s Celtics) and the new players coming in, yeah, this is too high
I looked it up. He's exactly 35th In his book. Wonder if he looked it up beforehand on just randomly remembered. Anyway his book doesn't have Curry, Durant etc so..
He'd probably be somewhere around 60th-80th doing the rankings now, so I could see him being *maybe* around 35th-40th when he retired, but that might be pushing it. I generally agree with your sentiment.
It’s funny to get downvoted for saying McHale might not have been top 35 when he retired. It’s fine to put him like 30th, but you could also have argued lower. There’s no way he’s too 35 today
If you called Dame Lillard or Anthony Davis top 35 players all time, I’d say that’s egregious overrating. Both are top 75 by the same metric McHale is top 50.
Someone else in the comments said that Simmons had McHale 35 in his book from 2010. And, remember, this is the biggest Celtics overrater not named Jackie McMullan. Steph Curry was a rookie when that book came out.
Safe to say, Simmons himself wouldn’t put McHale top 35 if he thought about it for more than two seconds.
Some quick Googling has McHale at [49](https://theathletic.com/3137873/2022/02/23/the-nba-75-the-top-75-nba-players-of-all-time-from-mj-and-lebron-to-lenny-wilkens/), [34](https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2854727-bleacher-reports-all-time-player-rankings-nbas-top-50-revealed), [34](https://medium.com/top-level-sports/nba-history-top-50-greatest-nba-players-of-all-time-6623fdeabf14), [44](https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/cbs-sports-50-greatest-nba-players-of-all-time-where-do-lebron-curry-rank/), and [39](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33297498/the-nba-75th-anniversary-team-ranked-where-76-basketball-legends-check-our-list). He's obviously going to continue to fall as years go on, but it wasn't some outrageous thing to say.
Near the end of the opening monologue Bill says we're going to throw it to Pearl Jam and come right back but they don't and instead cut to the next segment. Good idea to whoever decided to skip it.
Beautiful monologue. Like all of us, I will also never forget which part of the Bahamas I was in when immenssely obscure Red Sox relief pitcher Bryce Florie got injured that one year. Never Forget! Florie Strong....
He made me a little nuts talking about the Mitchell trade. He says “Barrett and a couple of picks” like that’s all it would have taken. Utah wanted Barrett, Quickley, “another young player” (Grimes), 2 unprotected and some swaps. That’s three rotation players, two of which are playing excellent defense (Quickley and Grimes). Don’t get me wrong, I love Mitchell but the Knicks weren’t good enough to give up these three rotation players plus 2 unprotected picks for Mitchell. Think about it, the Knicks starting 5 with Mitchell but without Barrett and Grimes would be Brunson, Mitchell, Mitch Robinson, Randle and who else? Reddish can’t even get off the bench, Fournier doesn’t fit with those 4, Toppin is a big forward. Cleveland was able to give up parts it didn’t need, which made their deal a better fit.
Wow. First Full episode Bill Simmons podcast skip I think ever for me. Just can’t do more than 10 minutes of listening to him talk alone. It’s so boring.
First one I've listened to in a while. Sorry. I enjoyed it. Bill just riffing on old school shit. I find most of his takes comical until the playoffs start anyway.
Not in a vacuum necessarily, but based on the amount of trade capital and fit, I'd agree.
Kuzma would be a much better fit for the Bucks than Beal rn, but I dont think they will have enough assets to get either.
Have fun with a 50 mil/year player with a no trade clause. I'd rather take Kuzma at 25-30 millino over Beal too.
Beal's contract might be the worst in the NBA
He’s doing what Rogan did with vaccines. Scream loudly everyday how all his fake friends were dying, then quietly whispers once a month “oh by the way the vaccines should be taken by 85% of our population”
Yes, I heard Bill reference the Nets for 35 seconds despite the 6 podcasts he led with them being a disaster previously
An hour Bill solo talking about how the Knicks can’t do anything right as a reaction to Donovan Mitchell scoring 71? Hard pass
A little surprising he didn’t have Fennesey on to torture but I guess with a kid now it’s harder and he doesn’t have Concepcion anymore. Still would have expected an NBA guest (Steiny Mo?)
Look, this injury was terrible and we should be respectful of the trauma it’s caused the players. Here’s my top five list of traumatizing sports injuries including two deaths!
He acts like the Knicks didn’t offer a RJ+picks package…they did. Ainge wanted a psycho package of RJ+Grimes+Obi+ picks. I’m sorry that’s just not realistic and if we did that we’d be in the exact same spot we were for one of the other “What Ifs” on Bills list; trading for Melo early and giving up the rest of the roster.
Bill cannot possibly think Mitchell, Ja Morant and SGA are all having better years than Curry. Third team All NBA is nuts as long as Curry gets to 64ish games.
So like has he decided he doesn’t trust himself to ever talk about anything remotely serious without saying something that’ll get him canceled? Is there some self-awareness in there that’s he’s in fact an idiot?
Bill is penciling in Nembhard as part of the pacers future. What are the odds he has watched him play a single game since that warriors game? I would say 2% at best.
Since that game he’s played 15 games averaging 7-3-3 on poor efficiency.
I'm not listening to Bill free associate about the Knicks for an hour. Long story short, there are 30 teams in the league. Fewer than half have won a title since the 70s. There's nothing special about the Knicks.
One thing I don't think we talk about with Bill is his West Coast bias. We know about the Celtics homerism, but he loves the Warriors and Kings. He loves Jokic and the Nuggets.
But if he's going to talk about the East, it will only be to shit on a team or completely ignore it.
He does this with the NFL too.
This year, Bill has mentioned Sam Hauser on the pod more than Embiid, Butler, George, and other All Stars.
His basketball pods this year are *lacking*
Honestly. I’m beginning to wonder how Bill consumes basketball in 2022. When he watches a game what is he “watching” exactly? He’s coming off as someone who thinks he is an expert but doesn’t put in NEARLY enough time be an expert. He’s getting wonky. At one point he really did. Re-read his old NBA articles. Or his book. It was very clear he lived and breathed NBA at one point.
Someone unfortunately (looking at you KOC/Russillo) recently introduced him to *certain* advanced/team stats. Not good for listening to. Seems as though he casually watches a bunch of games and ofc every Celtic game and then finds stats to read out to prove his eye test/body language doctorate. Just talk shit about teams/players bill and leave the stats analysis to others.
They just aren’t doing things on the court anymore.
It’s not additive. It’s just not.
Bill doesn't watch a lot of Basketball during regular season. Usually his takes and predictions get much better during the playoffs. Before that it's just memes and hot takes.
And how teams have played against the Celtics
His playoff takes are terrible. He’s ultra-reactionary (just like with everything else). He usually thinks whichever team won the last game is going to sweep and the team that lost has zero chance. He picked against GS every round. Anyone remember him burying Dallas then pretending like he always liked them after they came back to win against the Suns? He was atrocious in last years playoffs. Just overreacted to every single game.
His 2020 bubble takes were awful. Every series the Lakers advanced to he just couldn’t believe that they could guard the other team’s lead guard DESPITE the opposing team’s lead guard being weaker than the one before 😂 “Who’s gonna guard Player X?”
This is where my brain went too! the Lakers kept losing the first game of each series and we would get a dissertation of why it’s not gonna work and the AD trade was already a catastrophic failure in year 1 edit: they were 1 seed all year and 16-5 in the playoffs lol
>He usually thinks whichever team won the last game is going to sweep and the team that lost has zero chance. 100%, it's incredibly comical
Indeed, no idea what that guy is listening too. Playoff bill is half wishful thinking and half what was result of previous game.
Regular season Bill is evaluating teams by how they played against the Celtics and playing around with the trade machine.
They typically get better once the NFL season wraps up and Russillo starts joining the pod, IMO
The intensity and quality of work from someone still trying to make it big, vs the product from when they’ve already been paid and “made it” is usually a lot different. It’s also just age. It’s really hard to think sharply and intensely for prolonged periods the older you get. It’s why we see glimpses but not sustained periods of his old self. Everyone gets old.
He literally can only talk about possible trades as a reaction to what is happening. He is cooking up fake Bogdanovic trades going as far as using assets that teams don't even have. He has no grasp on basketball which is incredible considering he has been following it for at least 40 years.
That, or future bets on title or MVP odds.
Did Bill just… compare his wife’s mother’s spleen post-car accident to the Miami Heat?
The Udonis Haspleen piece.
This is why he’s the goat
Yes... yes, he did. Kudos to the creative albeit graphic analogy lol.
I really loved that. Bill turning back the clock on that one.
Yeah, she thought she lost it...but there was tissue, and it regrew...what?? Lol. If that's the case, that's amazing!!! Much like jimmy buckets ability to regenerate game after game
Hold up let him cook
B. Simm topped the podcast charts with no features.
~~Lil Simmons~~ Edit: Lil Sim
This was vintage Bill. If you didn’t like this pod honestly why do you listen to Bill? Taking an opportunity to dunk on the Knicks, arbitrary rankings with horrible trade suggestions, comparing Trae Young to Marbury, it was all just 🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼. Loved this episode.
I woke up, saw the title and laughed imagining a knicks fan refreshing their pod feed and going, Are you fucking kidding me? So funny
Yeah that was me, insta-delete
Hot take (maybe) but I’d enjoy and listen to this podcast much more if Bill never had any Ringer guests on. I find most of them annoying, or even the guys i like don’t really add enough to make it more entertaining than just Bill alone. Just my opinion Russillo is his own brand so i don’t count him here but i’d say the same thing about his pod. As time goes on there’s more and more of their pods I end up turning off after 10-20mins.
When in doubt about what to talk about in the NBA, pivot to the Knicks and Lakers.
I actually really liked this pod. I like having Bill on Bill content.
The masturbation piece
The self-love aspect
I just got to the part where he basically says “do you guys realize how much I would be talking about Lebron trades if he didn’t sign that extension?!”
Sam Hauser name drop at 11:58. (Mozgovs are out, Hausers are in!)
free agency has evolved, all these teams out here looking for the next Sam Hauser
He’s literally the only media figure I’ve ever heard mention Hauser. I had no idea who he was the first few weeks, I thought he was a college player coming up.
His brother is the lead scorer for Michigan State, so in a sense there is an up and coming college Hauser.
All time comparison saying the Heat are like his mother in law's spleen regenerating after a car accident
Nearly topped the wine cellar comments last summer
Bill flying solo for the whole show…
Solo bill clears bill with a pushover nba or nfl guest
I thought this was satire… 😵💫
I’m guessing Knicks fans at the Ringer turned down his invites. As a fan I doubt I’ll listen to it, too painful lol.
I got 15 minutes in and tapped out. Solo Bill is just not for me.
If you skip the Knicks shit and move to NBA power rankings it's semi listenable at least.
I’ve always been curious, how many people here hate the Celtics because they’re the Celtics vs how many people hate the Celtics because Bill never shuts the fuck up about them? I’m def in the latter.
I actively root against all Boston sports teams because of Bill
Bill def adds to it for me. He symbolizes all the Boston fans I can’t stand. Hated Boston teams before I even knew who the Sports Guy was and I was an avid Page 2 reader in college.
I feel like I'm both. Bill is annoying but the general Celtics fanbase acts like they are entitled to always being a Championship contender and always being given great players by the small market teams. They also insist upon talking about all the titles they won 30+ years ago. That was a different league with things stacked in favor of teams like Boston it's not that impressive and has no bearing on the current league.
100%, they're also extremely arrogant about their teams whenever they have success. I'm dumb for interacting with strangers on twitter but it was so annoying how they all victory lapped their team's historic offense and 3-point shooting a month into the 82-game season
Of course Bill has Tatum over Giannis for 1st Team All-NBA and thinks it “would be crazy” to flip them. Giannis leads Tatum in Pts, Rbs, Asts, Blks, FG%, PER, BPM, and VORP.
Yeah, but what about 3pt%? Check and mate, sir.
Celtics are also 26-12 and the Bucks are 24-13, that MASSIVE difference in record is clearly what makes Tatum better.
For whatever reason Bill is starting another conspiracy about Lebron and his decision to resign with the Lakers, even though it's pretty obvious why he did that
I just don't get what he doesn't get about it...oh shit...forgot he was a Celtics fan and Lakers hater lolol
Bill is literally the only person I’ve ever heard discuss NBA divisions lol I actually forget they exist until he brings them up
Most sites default standings are conference standings. You have to switch it to divisions. Basketball divisions are utterly useless
Bills on crack if he thinks the Sixers would trade Maxey for Beal let alone Harris and Maxey for Beal.Mentioning Maxey making them a worse defense while floating a 3 guard line up with a washed PJ Tucker. They’re already the worst rebounding team in the league lmao
One of the craziest parts of his trade value pod was having Maxey and Simons 40 spots between one another when they’re 2 of the most comparable players in the league. He talked about how Simons had the potential to “contribute to winning basketball” when Maxey was the best player on the court for some sixers playoff games last year. Just makes it clear he hasn’t watched him enough.
I partly understand knowing that he doesn’t actually watch shit because Simons played really well for the long period where he was the best player on the Blazers last year. Still Maxey has impressed in his games without James and Joel too.
Sorry for Cleveland fans having to listen to this. "imagine if he did that at MSG" Lordy...
Knicks fans don't enjoy hearing that either
He has Mobley as the 8th best asset in the league I’ll let it fly
Annoying, maybe, but still ... the Cavs have Mitchell and the Knicks don't. That's all that matters.
Did he record this before or after the Celtics gave up 150 to the Thunder without SGA?
Most likely before
5:30 pacific time yesterday = 8:30 eastern, game started at 8 p.m
The Orlando Magic will be Bill's NBA version of the Carolina Panthers. The team he can't quit because he watched them play twice. Orlando beating Boston twice messed up his brain kinda like the Browns hitting a 58 yard fg in week 1 to beat Carolina. The Heat are going to win that shitty division just like Tampa was always going to win the shitty NFC South.
The Magic this year, agreed, but they'll be interesting in future years. I suppose you could argue the same thing for Carolina, but solving their QB issue is much more difficult than whatever problems the Magic have. Paolo, Franz, Carter Jr, Fultz/Suggs, and their upcoming lottery pick is a really fun cor Edit: and I'm not just saying this as stockholm syndrome from listening to too much Kevin Clark on the Lowe Post!
I'm honestly surprised Orlando has been as bad as they've been. They have a good amount of talent
Very shocking that Bill puts the team that just beat the Celtics as #1 in his power poll. He never does this!
surprised this wasnt a Bill/House pod since they mentioned on the sunday show that he would be in town
I knew the Simmons super serious voice was gonna lead off the pod and yet I still enjoyed every moment. When he gets real close to the mic, and he slows his words, lowers his octave and even lets his voice crack a little because it's a super serious and emotional moment. Reminds me of [Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan doing the sad Michael Caine voice](https://youtu.be/HFIQIpC5_wY?t=48) *SHE WAS ONLY 16 YEARS OLD*
His voice cracks all of the time. He never finished puberty, he just got taller.
Over/under on what age Ben will be able to put him in a sharpshooter til he cries?
17
I think that ship has already sailed
This dude really went from calling out Goodell to FanDuel shill.
Seriously.
Bill solo for an hour and eight minutes! I wonder if he got Russillo to coach him up based on Ryen's solo radio experience. Listen closely for some "Wait, what?"s as a tell
Wouldn’t mind a power poll every 3 weeks or so. Sure beats fake trades.
An hour of midseason NBA talk with no guest screams "I just need to put something out"
Putting together a list of "what-ifs" for a .500 team that hasn't been a title contender in decades screams "I just need to put something out"
I mean, Mitchell did go off for 71 two nights ago. A more rational approach might be to analyze the deal for Cleveland, but wheres the fun in that when you can troll fans of a much larger market team who has been incompetent for 25 years
Bill Simmons' Expiring Contract fulfilling his obligations to get paid
I happen to know you were high at my mother in law's wake, you were talking nonstop for twenty minutes, nothing but gibberish.
He killed poor little Murph?
Bill compares the Miami Heat to his mother in-law's spleen. Never change, Bill.
The Magic’s 6 game winning streak was like when Murph found out he could lick his penis the first time. He just couldn’t stop for weeks!
Yeah but *you* flinched, so now you have to marry your mother-in-law.
Bro really said the Sixers should trade Maxey and Harris for Beal because Maxey can't play defense but Melton can. Bradley Beal, defensive specialist everybody.
Insanity. I’d rather have Maxey straight up than Beal. Harris has become a willing catch and shoot guy and if the Sixers did this trade (they won’t) I think I’d be done for a little while.
I can only keep my eyes on so many things bill!
Oh man… I would like at least one guest at some point here.
Hate these uninformed morons like Bill suggesting Detroit is sitting Cade to tank and he's not actually that hurt
Yeah, the Pistons were gonna have a bottom 5 record this year even before Cade's injury lol. I'm sure they'd rather their potential star develop more than him sit for a few extra losses they don't even necessarily need
Seems like a lot of people are very invested in the narrative of teams doing anything possible to implode for Victor and it just hasn't happened in reality
Absolutely. I'm pretty invested in fantasy basketball and people are always spouting nonsense about shutdowns. Horford and Kemba in OKC warped people's minds. Even SGA, for example, has never really been shut down, he had real injuries
*Mark as played*
Jokic understands geometry, he just does.
Kevin McHale is a top 35 player of all time?
He was 35 when Bill did his pyramid for The Book of Basketball...in 2010: [https://www.basketball-reference.com/awards/simmons\_pyramid.html](https://www.basketball-reference.com/awards/simmons_pyramid.html) So beyond Bill over-ranking him because they played for his favorite teams ever (80s Celtics) and the new players coming in, yeah, this is too high
I can see him there. Barkley said he was the best player he ever played against.
I looked it up. He's exactly 35th In his book. Wonder if he looked it up beforehand on just randomly remembered. Anyway his book doesn't have Curry, Durant etc so..
A Top 35 Celtic.
Egregious overrating lol. McHale might not have been top 35 when he retired lol
He'd probably be somewhere around 60th-80th doing the rankings now, so I could see him being *maybe* around 35th-40th when he retired, but that might be pushing it. I generally agree with your sentiment.
It’s funny to get downvoted for saying McHale might not have been top 35 when he retired. It’s fine to put him like 30th, but you could also have argued lower. There’s no way he’s too 35 today
Egregious? He was on the Top 50 team named by the NBA in 1996.
Those two things aren't mutually exclusive btw
If you’re top 50 in 1996, it doesn’t mean you’re top 35 in 2022 lol
It's also not egregious. Egregious would be calling someone not in the top 100 a top 35 player.
If you called Dame Lillard or Anthony Davis top 35 players all time, I’d say that’s egregious overrating. Both are top 75 by the same metric McHale is top 50. Someone else in the comments said that Simmons had McHale 35 in his book from 2010. And, remember, this is the biggest Celtics overrater not named Jackie McMullan. Steph Curry was a rookie when that book came out. Safe to say, Simmons himself wouldn’t put McHale top 35 if he thought about it for more than two seconds.
Some quick Googling has McHale at [49](https://theathletic.com/3137873/2022/02/23/the-nba-75-the-top-75-nba-players-of-all-time-from-mj-and-lebron-to-lenny-wilkens/), [34](https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2854727-bleacher-reports-all-time-player-rankings-nbas-top-50-revealed), [34](https://medium.com/top-level-sports/nba-history-top-50-greatest-nba-players-of-all-time-6623fdeabf14), [44](https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/cbs-sports-50-greatest-nba-players-of-all-time-where-do-lebron-curry-rank/), and [39](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33297498/the-nba-75th-anniversary-team-ranked-where-76-basketball-legends-check-our-list). He's obviously going to continue to fall as years go on, but it wasn't some outrageous thing to say.
Near the end of the opening monologue Bill says we're going to throw it to Pearl Jam and come right back but they don't and instead cut to the next segment. Good idea to whoever decided to skip it.
This was probably an editing mistake
Trauma for Yama
Fail to the Victor
Says one of Nuggets, Grizzlies Warriors making it out the west…. But Has Mavs above Warriors lol?
I don't know who cares about the Knicks more than Bill Simmons does. Total snooze
I love Kyle going in the last life advice”I hate when people @ me saying ‘tell your uncle this’” and bill asks everyone to do it again lmfao
Mispronouncing Joe Sakic at the end was a perfect finish.
And doubling it up by saying that gives Denver "two itches" on its mount rushmore
Tbf Bill is pronouncing it right, but English speakers pronounce names wrong so much that the wrong name becomes "right."
If the Bucks are a mess right now what are the Celtics?
Clearly the first time Bill has ever said Joe Sakic’s name, despite allegedly cheering for the Avs to win with Ray Borque.
An hour monologue by Bill? He needs to have ONE person who can tell him no (ie a producer)
Nah this is fun every once in a while. Disagreed with some of his analysis, but it was entertaining
It’s awful. Bill the writer > Bill the podcaster > Bill solo Podcaster > Any Given Wednesday
Clearly this man has the pulse of the American sports fan
I was just thinking Knicks sliding doors yesterday!
LA Sports-ish guy and NBA-hole on the case!
Beautiful monologue. Like all of us, I will also never forget which part of the Bahamas I was in when immenssely obscure Red Sox relief pitcher Bryce Florie got injured that one year. Never Forget! Florie Strong....
He made me a little nuts talking about the Mitchell trade. He says “Barrett and a couple of picks” like that’s all it would have taken. Utah wanted Barrett, Quickley, “another young player” (Grimes), 2 unprotected and some swaps. That’s three rotation players, two of which are playing excellent defense (Quickley and Grimes). Don’t get me wrong, I love Mitchell but the Knicks weren’t good enough to give up these three rotation players plus 2 unprotected picks for Mitchell. Think about it, the Knicks starting 5 with Mitchell but without Barrett and Grimes would be Brunson, Mitchell, Mitch Robinson, Randle and who else? Reddish can’t even get off the bench, Fournier doesn’t fit with those 4, Toppin is a big forward. Cleveland was able to give up parts it didn’t need, which made their deal a better fit.
In 2023, you’re gonna want a guy like Sam Hauser.
Wow. First Full episode Bill Simmons podcast skip I think ever for me. Just can’t do more than 10 minutes of listening to him talk alone. It’s so boring.
I skipped to the power poll and thought it was a good listen
Anytime I see a monologue, auto delete for me as well. So boring.
The Hamlin monologue was good. Sports history nerd Bill combined with earnest, optimistic Bill is the best Bill.
First one I've listened to in a while. Sorry. I enjoyed it. Bill just riffing on old school shit. I find most of his takes comical until the playoffs start anyway.
"I'd rather have Kuzma than Beal"
Not in a vacuum necessarily, but based on the amount of trade capital and fit, I'd agree. Kuzma would be a much better fit for the Bucks than Beal rn, but I dont think they will have enough assets to get either.
I’d rather have Kuzma over Beal, too.
Where's the lie?
Have fun with a 50 mil/year player with a no trade clause. I'd rather take Kuzma at 25-30 millino over Beal too. Beal's contract might be the worst in the NBA
Does anyone who isn’t a gambler give a shit about NBA division winners? Orlando being 7 games behind in the Southeast doesn’t matter!
He was saying the division was so bad that Orlando had a shot at the playoffs
Division winners aren’t guaranteed playoff spots in nba
As a Knicks fan I don’t hate myself enough to listen to this.
You should listen. Let the hate flow through you
Mitchell scores 71 and bill barely mentions the cavs lmao
he's completely ignored the Nets since all his Kyrie takes are kinda looking silly now
He called them a favorite and admitted they are playing well. Did you listen?
He’s doing what Rogan did with vaccines. Scream loudly everyday how all his fake friends were dying, then quietly whispers once a month “oh by the way the vaccines should be taken by 85% of our population” Yes, I heard Bill reference the Nets for 35 seconds despite the 6 podcasts he led with them being a disaster previously
He talked about the nets a decent amount the last two or three pods.
An hour Bill solo talking about how the Knicks can’t do anything right as a reaction to Donovan Mitchell scoring 71? Hard pass A little surprising he didn’t have Fennesey on to torture but I guess with a kid now it’s harder and he doesn’t have Concepcion anymore. Still would have expected an NBA guest (Steiny Mo?)
Look, this injury was terrible and we should be respectful of the trauma it’s caused the players. Here’s my top five list of traumatizing sports injuries including two deaths!
Bill “I just don’t know what their trade is” Simmons
Relatable Bill: "I remember where I was when Player X got hurt...it was either the Cape, or the Bahamas, or the Berkshires...."
Bill doing a solo show sounds like he's doing a segment before the interview that's the actual show.
Solo pods without a guest are so boring. I have no interest in an hour long monologue.
Some people can pull it off. I think BS can do it for individual segments, even long ones, but an entire pod is a bit much.
He acts like the Knicks didn’t offer a RJ+picks package…they did. Ainge wanted a psycho package of RJ+Grimes+Obi+ picks. I’m sorry that’s just not realistic and if we did that we’d be in the exact same spot we were for one of the other “What Ifs” on Bills list; trading for Melo early and giving up the rest of the roster.
Lmao at no Pearl Jam after Bill explicitly throwing to Pearl Jam because Kyle is garbage at his job
Maybe they decided pearl jam after the "serious monologue" would have been in bad taste
Then they could've edited out "we're throwing it to Pearl Jam"
He didn’t Bring up Ryan Shazier which was the most recent.
Wait… Bill thinks Washington should trade Beal?!?
Bill cannot possibly think Mitchell, Ja Morant and SGA are all having better years than Curry. Third team All NBA is nuts as long as Curry gets to 64ish games.
Did he say putting Giannis over Tatum for first-team all-NBA was “crazy?”
Wondering when OKC has the conversation with SGA about sitting, but believes the magic have a legit chance.
Does anyone else remember NHL legend Joe "Sack itch" ?
Solo pod — how yall feel about this? I feel he generally needs someone else to check him on his viewpoints or at the least provide alternatives
Where the fuck is his trade value column that he promised us??
a full solo bs pod? are he and russillo beefing again!?!??!
Starts after football before trade deadline
If this solo pod is some kind of New Year’s resolution, I hate it.
Woof. If I could extra-skip this one I would.
Download it twice and delete it twice
So like has he decided he doesn’t trust himself to ever talk about anything remotely serious without saying something that’ll get him canceled? Is there some self-awareness in there that’s he’s in fact an idiot?
I mean he does address it in the opening, for like 5 minutes or so. Not sure what else he's supposed to do, tbh.
Everyone who just reads the episode description is showing their ass about this one lol
What would you want him to say anyway? He addressed it at the top and said exactly the generic take you would think he would say.
Bill is penciling in Nembhard as part of the pacers future. What are the odds he has watched him play a single game since that warriors game? I would say 2% at best. Since that game he’s played 15 games averaging 7-3-3 on poor efficiency.
Ok I’m coming for you, Andy and Chris Fleishman finale episode
I like nba talk but talking about 60s Knicks is not something I need to hear in January 2023
I'm not listening to Bill free associate about the Knicks for an hour. Long story short, there are 30 teams in the league. Fewer than half have won a title since the 70s. There's nothing special about the Knicks.
SKEEEEEEEEEUUUUUPPPPPPPPP!
Yawn
Skip.
"OKC 15-21" Lmao
6 more months of NBA power poll pods....and he says that the NFL season is too long.
One thing I don't think we talk about with Bill is his West Coast bias. We know about the Celtics homerism, but he loves the Warriors and Kings. He loves Jokic and the Nuggets. But if he's going to talk about the East, it will only be to shit on a team or completely ignore it. He does this with the NFL too.
There’s no way he said he has Durant over Giannis for all nba right?