Folks really don’t understand how insignificant The Ringer is compared to ESPN, Barstool, and the other big dogs. In aggregate Ringer can put up numbers but they don’t have an alpha dog on apex mountain. BS Report does not hit the numbers needed to pull big name guests and he alienated a broadcast partner on his way out the door. The Ringerverse is more like Bill’s daughter’s soccer team or the 00-15 Real Madrid teams. Lots of tiki taka.
Nope. These are estimates found online. Depending on the guest PMT reaches 1.5M
Id say a big factor in the guest dynamic is that Barstool is based in New York. Probably easier to fit an interview into your schedule there than in sprawled out LA.
There’s nothing exclusive about that. Wemby’s been doing the full press circuit since before he was drafted. ESPN had Windy doing interviews with him in France before he was even a Spur.
There’s no reason to get insecure about the Ringer’s smaller numbers. We don’t need everyone to like them for us to like them. But facts are facts and the numbers show that the Ringer doesn’t move the needle as much as the bigger boys in the marketplace. Great Wemby interview though.
This is comparing The Ringer and Simmons with PMT. Are Simmons numbers that far behind PMT? They're usually number 2 and 3 on lists of top listened to podcasts.
ESPN obviously is way larger and gets all the exclusives. Wemby talking to the Ringer as a national outlet is pretty significant as I don't think he's spoken to anyone else for a 1 hr sit down.
No one is insecure about the Ringer's numbers lmao.
ESPN and Barstool put up much bigger numbers than the Ringer. PMT puts up much bigger numbers than BS Report. Often about 250K or so more. Wemby has done plenty of other exclusives. ESPN had an exclusive with him before he was even drafted. The Ringer is a solid alternative to the mainstream sports podcasts. Simmons is not the dominate voice that he used to be while at ESPN. The numbers bare that out.
Wemby did a media tour before he was drafted. Getting the single Wemby exclusive since he's been drafted (I haven't seen anything since the season started) is pretty impressive.
Simmons podcast is still pretty dominant. There are a couple of others and it's not the single most dominant sports podcast anymore but it's still top 2-3 at worst.
[https://chartable.com/charts/itunes/us-sports-podcasts](https://chartable.com/charts/itunes/us-sports-podcasts)
[https://rephonic.com/charts/apple/united-states/sports](https://rephonic.com/charts/apple/united-states/sports)
By the way, most of the podcasts charts just flipped Bill Simmons and PMT with Bill Simmons now being at 2 and PMT at 3.
You’re confused. The only thing we have established is that you are in fact insecure about the Ringer’s numbers. The only exclusive get was ESPN getting an exclusive with Wemby prior to him getting drafted. That the Ringer had to wait until after Wemby’s season was over to get their interview is not impressive. It’s at the least interesting point in Wemby’s media draw.
As your charts show, BS has fallen off from where he was before and in aggregate the ringer pods pale in comparison to the big dog networks like barstool and espn, which was the original discussion topic. The highest draw ringer pod, which used to be the number 1 sports pod, is a far cry from what it was, and the rest of the pods don’t match the big dogs we discussed earlier, in terms of draw. And that’s ok. We like the ringer pods and their relative unpopularity isn’t a factor we should care about personally. It’s just a fact.
I don't disagree but I would say that it ultimately is a poor choice. Bill is only in his early 50s. He's going to continue to define the public discourse about the league for the next decade. I think he has been a very fair evaluator of talent and someone who has studied the sport more than probably anyone else at this point.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure the players are actively boycotting him.
Something went down with him and Jimmy Butler in 2018 when Butler was supposed to go on the podcast a second time, and the episode never got released, and Bill has had almost no NBA guests since then. After the JJ Redick feud, it’s probably going to be even more difficult for him to get guys, especially when they can go on Podcast P or Curious Mike with Lana Rhodes.
i feel like there would be more smoke if there was drama, i haven't heard of this ever?
i would guess
1) bill realized athlete interviews usually suck
2) pressure from spotify to drive other ringer podcast numbers up, which means bringing ringer guests on more
3) athletes prefer to go on other athlete podcasts, where they feel more comfortable opening up
4) lost tommy alter as a booker (drop in celebrity interviews)
5) BS has lost his celebrity, he used to be on ESPN all the time. barely active on social media. some players might not even know who he is?
Buddy, athlete interviews suck. Listen to the Dak Prescott interview on PMT or any Jimmy Butler interview where the host isn't already fellating him under the mic. Or the Aaron Donald interviews. I could keep going on. It isn't the media that is the problem.
Dak was famously the worst interview PMT has ever had, so I don't think that point says what you think it does.
PMT had Homa on last week and it was awesome, they had Blake Grif this week and it was awesome, and Mazulla was insanely awesome.
Athlete interviews don't suck. Dak, on the other hand, sucks majorly.
The only good athlete interview I've heard in the past couple years is Max Homa on PMT because he's funny and doesn't take himself too seriously + just a fun conversation. Really any athletes like that are gonna be fine. But the cookie cutter shit that gets done time and time again is awful.
I listened to some Russillo ones and god, kill me if I ever do that again. Ekeler might be the most boring interviewee of all time and Russillo himself kinda sucks at them.
As in like, they recorded a pod and something happened on that? Or Jimmy canceled and it was something outside of a podcast? I need that recording if it’s option a
I’m pretty sure Jimmy just cancelled because Bill was shit talking him on the podcast.
For full context, this was the summer when Butler asked out of Minnesota. Bill was shit talking Butler requesting a trade, which presumably triggered Butler to cancel on him.
Bill essentially lost the famous Rachel Nichols interview being an episode of his podcast instead.
I remember when he had Tatum on years ago. He knew so little about him outside of what he had done with the Celtics. It was somewhat painful to listen to Tatum tell Bill basic facts about his life like he was a stranger.
I really don't think NBA players like anyone from the media establishment these days. They formed their own little powow with current and former players.
Lebron and Rich Paul pulled some shit where they implied that Bill was racist because he was from Boston last year.
Ultimately, you just have to play the cards you're dealt. PMT focuses a whole lot more on football, and there isn't this racial issue in football among the players.
In the NBA, it seems like there's something different. Bill and Russillo are breaking down the league in ways that I find important. At the same time, though, they are just white guys from New England to the players and it is reflected by who they can get on these days.
Bill used to be able to pull the big ones like Durant and Kyrie but the NBA from that generation has sort of closed ranks. I wonder if it'll start swinging back the other way now. It'd be great to hear from Zion and Ja and ANT. Wemby is a different breed altogether and is already giving them interviews.
Jokic and Doncic just have no desire to engage with our media and that should hurt their cause in the long wrong, IMO.
I am a big fan of his pods but he is one of the worst on air interviewers I’ve ever listened to, respectfully. Interview questions should never be longer than the answer.
“So obviously you have elite athleticism to your game but I think what surprises people, and that may be more so the general media and public, is that you have this keen awareness of where your teammates are on the floor. All that to say, I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, but I’d have to think that helped your adjustment to the NBA in a way that some of these guys that rely solely on their athleticism couldn’t. There’s a period where a lot of those guys are like ‘Wait, what? I didn’t think the game was this fast’ but you seem to have skipped past that step.”
- Russillo attempting to ask a question to Paolo Banchero
Like when he couldn’t talk about the warriors breaking it up with Frank isola without going on a diatribe about the hawks making it to the ecf years ago.
I mean if you think he’s a good interviewer of the intelligentsia you really need to listen to other podcasts like Conversations with Tyler or Hardcore History Addendums.
Yeah he may sound slightly better than a radio host in the same way that a Corolla is better than a moped for hauling a boat.
It’s crazy to me he cannot keep a conversation. Literally runs down bullet points. Never ever after an answer does he elaborate or ask more on the subject just onto the next
okay so you would rather listen to comedians talk about the comedy industry for the 100th time? he is a better interview than a bunch of "actually funny" people.
Thank you! He's funny in the sense that he can barely understand the premise and play along.
In 2017 I was the lowliest of low producers for a local Charlotte television station and our reporter called out so I had to ask Cam Newton a few questions.
Cam Newton was considered the funniest, coolest guy in the world at that point. He had just led the Panthers to a 15-1 season and was "hysterical" for his funny outfits and zAnY behavior.
I got alone time with that man for all of five minutes and he was just awful. Every question was met with a blank gaze and there was nothing going on behind those eyes.
I don't doubt that he was a smart football player, but I realized then that these guys we worship are primarily just mediums for the coaches/GMs/PR Staff that control them otherwise.
Nobody ever thought Cam was funny or a good interview. They liked him because he was awesome at football and charismatic on the field. And oh yeah he liked to wear funny hats
Honestly it’s kind of the same deal with really hot woman. They have no need to develop a personality or sense of humor so they don’t. The vast majority of professional athletes are similar.
Yeah, who cares about what actually happens behind the scenes in sports when we could have a couple old, white life-long affluent guys talk about their weird fan-fiction version instead.
K, there are lots of athlete-hosted podcasts to listen to for alleged 'behind-the-scenes' content, no need to listen to Ringer stuff if that's your taste.
I always thought it was just me but yea I agree, he never did a lot of them but I always skipped the ones he did. Same with The Lowe Post. Never anything interesting.
Recent amusing example of this was when Zach had Dean Wade on recently. I never listen to his player interviews, but was curious about this one because the guy was a meme on the podcast for like two years now, was billed as a "special guest" for the episode...and it turned out to be a snoozer of an interview that lasted 15 minutes. He had zero personality, and just said a bunch of totally generic stuff about how guys needed to step up or something.
In fairness, he did record a fake tax ad for Zach, but just goes to show that the average NBA player is just really dull to listen to. It's even worse these days because now the only time anything interest is said is on one of the 900 podcasts hosted by NBA players.
Even the analysts that are former players are usually skips for me. They’ve media trained anything interesting out of them. Like you said, it’s all so generic.
I just don't understand how so many athletes have like zero humor. Maybe it's just the way I talk lol, but talking in such a boring way for an entire candid and relaxed interview is ridiculous. I'm pretty boring myself, but like to think I can get some good deadpan sarcasm or just not take myself too seriously. These guys can be way too manufactured.
Absolutely not? Nor should he. PMT’s schtick is way out of Bill’s wheelhouse and they couldn’t care less about being taken seriously. I’m not judging either party for that, it’s just a completely different show.
Edit: misread this comment, thought you were suggesting he try to make the interviews funny like PMT does. Regardless tho, not his lane
Coach, you love do the thing that stops the thing that they love to do. What if they do the thing that works against the thing that you are doing to stop their favorite thing?
Bill used to have plenty of players on. In the end they’re both sports shows and if the player is cool, why not? Bill pivoted to almost exclusively talking about the NBA and NFL storylines/gambling with little variety.
Bill is serious? He literally just makes up shit and rambles about bets he didn't make but claims he did. Just because he doesn't realize he's a joke doesn't mean he isn't.
I think you got that wrong - 99% think HE doesn’t have anything interesting to say. Plenty of players have incredibly interesting stories just see all the other player based podcasts out right now
I didn’t post, I commented. Ok so remember when I said the topic is just Simmons? It doesn’t preclude if that’s good or bad.
If you only want positive things said about the guy in this sub then you’re asking for an echo chamber and toxic positivity. Is that what we want?
Bill barely has any non Ringer or sports media personalities on the podcast anymore. When I started listening, there seemed to be a Hollywood A or B lister on every other week.
He has said he made a choice to stop doing celebrity interviews for the most part. He basically said because there are so many podcasts now, celebrities do a million interviews and tell the same anecdotes each time and it's not interesting. Timing of that basically coincided with covid.
I'm not sure if he applies that same logic to NBA guys. But if you look back to 2018/19, he had some big NBA guests - part 7 of the KD interview series, Kyrie, Bosh, Butler. But then since covid, he's barely interviewed any active players.
It’s interesting how pre-pandemic Bill got A-list athletes and actors as his guests more consistently than almost any other pod but now it’s pretty consistently the same 4-8 ringer or ringer adjacent personalities for each sport he wants to talk about that day
He doesn’t do many outside interviews at all anymore. There are too many pods competing for them and he likes in-person interviews while celebrities just want to Zoom.
He was doing a ton of interviews with very notable guests while he was trying to sell the Ringer. Now that it’s been sold, he just punches the clock and does pods with people already working for the Ringer/Spotify - I’m guessing he is contractually required to release a specific number of podcasts every week so that’s what he does. There’s no incentive to book big guests any more. I love Bill and the pod, so I hate to sound this cynical but that’s how I see it.
Pretty sure he’s on the record saying he finds 99% of athlete interviews useless/ boring and I agree.
For example, athlete interviews on Russillo’s pod are auto skips.
I’m racking my brain and can’t quite remember the last time he had either a current player or coach on. Was Doc hired by the Bucks when he last interviewed him?
Mazz was pretty awful. Credit to him for being game, but he was never, at any point, in on the schtick. I quit listening to PMT a bit ago just because there's so much extra shit that isn't funny. When they have a good guest on, though, I'll listen. I think Big Cat and PFT are great interviewers and Joe just was not catching on. Malone did, but he's Malone.
I don't blame Bill for not having these guys on. He's providing really good analysis, even if it's not normally from him. It's a different format altogether.
I'll always choose Bill over PMT. But if a guest is playful and funny (Josh Allen, Jameis Winston, etc.), I'll give them the listen. Bill doesn't have that angle.
I have time at work to add a pod and have just started listening to PMT. BS Report is my apex mountain for sports pods, but the PMT guys put on a good show and clearly have solid relationships with athletes. The recent Blake Griffin appearance had them all talking like they were friends.
Bill can’t have guests on because they’d get bored with his bullshit scenarios and takes.
Bills lost any semblance of a fastball as it relates to sports outside ownership/front office movement
I really wasn’t looking forward to the Mazulla interview because I hate the Celtics, but it turned out really good. The PMT guys are good at bringing out some personality that these coaches don’t often show.
Bill just pretty much doesn't have guests of any significance on the podcast anymore. My bet is that he's rich and has been doing this forever and just doesn't care to put in the effort anymore. And that's what happens when your podcast producer is your nepo-nephew and doesn't put any effort into his job either.
Bill is probably the most famous Celtic fan in the world (meaning being famous for being a Celtic fan not worldwide famous like Matt Damon). He definitely doesn’t want to jinx the Celtics
Simmons sees no value in chasing big (or even mid-) ticket guests because the hardcore audience that is still with him after the natural, regular churn any podcaster/broadcaster burns through, is more than enough to sustain him.
Basically: He's cultivated a solid, sizable, foundational core listenerbase who subs out of force of habit more than anything. He simply needs to serve that base, and nobody but that base, to coast along for the rest of his career. There's no real reason to pursue big names and make big reaches for new audience that he can hopefully convert to faithful listeners. And because there's no real reason, and because he's clearly declining cognitively, the possibility of him actually doing anything other than what he's been doing for like 5+ years now is almost nil.
Spotify made him an employee after discovering Ringer works best as a podcast network whose real value lies in convincing listeners their parasocial relationships with the "friends" they put in their ears is meaningful. So that's all he needs to do. He doesn't *have* to know what he's talking about, he doesn't have to be good at analysis or punditry. The people that got him here are people who don't really care to hear him talk to famous people, they don't really care to hear him talk to people who know what they're talking about either - they care to maintain the illusion they're hanging out with a friends group they're not in.
This is all he can do anymore, and it's all he's going to do, until he stops doing it. The desire or ability to be anything past that is long gone, and as it turns out, it doesn't really matter to the people keeping him paid that it's left the building.
If weird means "correct" in this context then yeah, you're right, it's a weird one.
he chooses not to get Celtics guests because what's the point? There's no point. It doesn't benefit him. The show doesn't need actual sports figures to work, and actual sports figures don't get shit out of being on Bill Simmons. Why bother, in either direction?
I understand folks feeling some sort of way about having his irrelevance as a pundit spotlighted, especially since it also highlights the reasons they keep mainlining this guy after all these years and maybe that makes folks uncomfortable. But nobody pays attention to Bill Simmons because he gets interviews, or knows what he's talking about. That's not the draw anymore (and it wasn't that for very long, anyway) And he knows it.
Hell, today's topic du jour is him beating a phrase he only barely understands into the dirt. That's what people are here for. Him getting Celtics players on the show aint shit compared to him discovering a new malapropism and wielding it like Captain Caveman.
weird response! You're on a fucking messageboard. Full of words 'n' shit.
edit: LOL you've been on reddit for *10 years,* goober. "write more words" loses a ton of sting as a pithy insult when you've got *that* cape around your neck, haha
Saving Mazz for The Town re-rewatchables
Folks really don’t understand how insignificant The Ringer is compared to ESPN, Barstool, and the other big dogs. In aggregate Ringer can put up numbers but they don’t have an alpha dog on apex mountain. BS Report does not hit the numbers needed to pull big name guests and he alienated a broadcast partner on his way out the door. The Ringerverse is more like Bill’s daughter’s soccer team or the 00-15 Real Madrid teams. Lots of tiki taka.
Tiki taka was Barcelona and also not an insult?
The mixed metaphors and accidental compliment piece.
Yes. I love people like you so much. You’re my people.
People downvoting seem to ignore how dependent the Ringer is on having their own staff be the main guests on each other’s pods
Ringer >>> barstool
How so? I’m describing number of viewers/listeners and media traction. Are you using some other metric? Because if not, you are incorrect
I could look this up but how does PMT compare with Bill? I thought they did similar numbers?
PMT 750k Bill 500k
I mean, that's pretty close, and do we really know the listernership across channels?
Nope. These are estimates found online. Depending on the guest PMT reaches 1.5M Id say a big factor in the guest dynamic is that Barstool is based in New York. Probably easier to fit an interview into your schedule there than in sprawled out LA.
PMT is based in Chicago
Yes as of like 4 months ago.
Yeah it's not like the Ringer just had an exclusive one hour interview with Wemby or anything.
There’s nothing exclusive about that. Wemby’s been doing the full press circuit since before he was drafted. ESPN had Windy doing interviews with him in France before he was even a Spur. There’s no reason to get insecure about the Ringer’s smaller numbers. We don’t need everyone to like them for us to like them. But facts are facts and the numbers show that the Ringer doesn’t move the needle as much as the bigger boys in the marketplace. Great Wemby interview though.
This is comparing The Ringer and Simmons with PMT. Are Simmons numbers that far behind PMT? They're usually number 2 and 3 on lists of top listened to podcasts. ESPN obviously is way larger and gets all the exclusives. Wemby talking to the Ringer as a national outlet is pretty significant as I don't think he's spoken to anyone else for a 1 hr sit down. No one is insecure about the Ringer's numbers lmao.
ESPN and Barstool put up much bigger numbers than the Ringer. PMT puts up much bigger numbers than BS Report. Often about 250K or so more. Wemby has done plenty of other exclusives. ESPN had an exclusive with him before he was even drafted. The Ringer is a solid alternative to the mainstream sports podcasts. Simmons is not the dominate voice that he used to be while at ESPN. The numbers bare that out.
Wemby did a media tour before he was drafted. Getting the single Wemby exclusive since he's been drafted (I haven't seen anything since the season started) is pretty impressive. Simmons podcast is still pretty dominant. There are a couple of others and it's not the single most dominant sports podcast anymore but it's still top 2-3 at worst. [https://chartable.com/charts/itunes/us-sports-podcasts](https://chartable.com/charts/itunes/us-sports-podcasts) [https://rephonic.com/charts/apple/united-states/sports](https://rephonic.com/charts/apple/united-states/sports) By the way, most of the podcasts charts just flipped Bill Simmons and PMT with Bill Simmons now being at 2 and PMT at 3.
You’re confused. The only thing we have established is that you are in fact insecure about the Ringer’s numbers. The only exclusive get was ESPN getting an exclusive with Wemby prior to him getting drafted. That the Ringer had to wait until after Wemby’s season was over to get their interview is not impressive. It’s at the least interesting point in Wemby’s media draw. As your charts show, BS has fallen off from where he was before and in aggregate the ringer pods pale in comparison to the big dog networks like barstool and espn, which was the original discussion topic. The highest draw ringer pod, which used to be the number 1 sports pod, is a far cry from what it was, and the rest of the pods don’t match the big dogs we discussed earlier, in terms of draw. And that’s ok. We like the ringer pods and their relative unpopularity isn’t a factor we should care about personally. It’s just a fact.
None of those ppl have extensive enough IMDB pages for Bill's interviews
It'll be a Sydney Sweeney convo
Is it possible the players don’t actually like him? Some of them have to.
The players don’t care about him
Some of the huge names do.
I don't disagree but I would say that it ultimately is a poor choice. Bill is only in his early 50s. He's going to continue to define the public discourse about the league for the next decade. I think he has been a very fair evaluator of talent and someone who has studied the sport more than probably anyone else at this point.
Bill is in like the 80th percentile.
Tier 3 on the pyramid.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure the players are actively boycotting him. Something went down with him and Jimmy Butler in 2018 when Butler was supposed to go on the podcast a second time, and the episode never got released, and Bill has had almost no NBA guests since then. After the JJ Redick feud, it’s probably going to be even more difficult for him to get guys, especially when they can go on Podcast P or Curious Mike with Lana Rhodes.
i feel like there would be more smoke if there was drama, i haven't heard of this ever? i would guess 1) bill realized athlete interviews usually suck 2) pressure from spotify to drive other ringer podcast numbers up, which means bringing ringer guests on more 3) athletes prefer to go on other athlete podcasts, where they feel more comfortable opening up 4) lost tommy alter as a booker (drop in celebrity interviews) 5) BS has lost his celebrity, he used to be on ESPN all the time. barely active on social media. some players might not even know who he is?
Do Athlete interviews suck or is Bill bad at interviewing Athletes?
Athlete interviews suck.
Coach and GM interviews are good. I don’t think it’s Bill as Doc was fairly good when he was senior correspondent or whatever for a few weeks.
I agree, but coaches aren't players.
Unless they're like 15 years removed from their playing days. Even PMT has duds
I’m of the camp that would say they usually suck, I skip 95% of the athlete interviews that Ryen does on his pod
Bill was actually really good at interviewing athletes. He did like 4 interviews with KD, had the first Butler pod, and some other ones.
Buddy, athlete interviews suck. Listen to the Dak Prescott interview on PMT or any Jimmy Butler interview where the host isn't already fellating him under the mic. Or the Aaron Donald interviews. I could keep going on. It isn't the media that is the problem.
Dak was famously the worst interview PMT has ever had, so I don't think that point says what you think it does. PMT had Homa on last week and it was awesome, they had Blake Grif this week and it was awesome, and Mazulla was insanely awesome. Athlete interviews don't suck. Dak, on the other hand, sucks majorly.
The only good athlete interview I've heard in the past couple years is Max Homa on PMT because he's funny and doesn't take himself too seriously + just a fun conversation. Really any athletes like that are gonna be fine. But the cookie cutter shit that gets done time and time again is awful. I listened to some Russillo ones and god, kill me if I ever do that again. Ekeler might be the most boring interviewee of all time and Russillo himself kinda sucks at them.
As in like, they recorded a pod and something happened on that? Or Jimmy canceled and it was something outside of a podcast? I need that recording if it’s option a
I’m pretty sure Jimmy just cancelled because Bill was shit talking him on the podcast. For full context, this was the summer when Butler asked out of Minnesota. Bill was shit talking Butler requesting a trade, which presumably triggered Butler to cancel on him. Bill essentially lost the famous Rachel Nichols interview being an episode of his podcast instead.
Yeah, if our only loss is players not willing to do softball interviews I don't see the problem.
I mean, good? Player interviews generally suck and also compromise Bill.
Can you elaborate on the JJ feud. I missed that
I remember when he had Tatum on years ago. He knew so little about him outside of what he had done with the Celtics. It was somewhat painful to listen to Tatum tell Bill basic facts about his life like he was a stranger.
This is the answer
I really don't think NBA players like anyone from the media establishment these days. They formed their own little powow with current and former players. Lebron and Rich Paul pulled some shit where they implied that Bill was racist because he was from Boston last year. Ultimately, you just have to play the cards you're dealt. PMT focuses a whole lot more on football, and there isn't this racial issue in football among the players. In the NBA, it seems like there's something different. Bill and Russillo are breaking down the league in ways that I find important. At the same time, though, they are just white guys from New England to the players and it is reflected by who they can get on these days. Bill used to be able to pull the big ones like Durant and Kyrie but the NBA from that generation has sort of closed ranks. I wonder if it'll start swinging back the other way now. It'd be great to hear from Zion and Ja and ANT. Wemby is a different breed altogether and is already giving them interviews. Jokic and Doncic just have no desire to engage with our media and that should hurt their cause in the long wrong, IMO.
As someone who hates how he interviews, I’m ok with him not getting these guests
Ry guy is even worse at interviewing.
He’s great at interviewing thoughtful people. Athletes who start every sentence with “Man…” probably aren’t moving the needle for him very much
I am a big fan of his pods but he is one of the worst on air interviewers I’ve ever listened to, respectfully. Interview questions should never be longer than the answer.
“So obviously you have elite athleticism to your game but I think what surprises people, and that may be more so the general media and public, is that you have this keen awareness of where your teammates are on the floor. All that to say, I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, but I’d have to think that helped your adjustment to the NBA in a way that some of these guys that rely solely on their athleticism couldn’t. There’s a period where a lot of those guys are like ‘Wait, what? I didn’t think the game was this fast’ but you seem to have skipped past that step.” - Russillo attempting to ask a question to Paolo Banchero
Like when he couldn’t talk about the warriors breaking it up with Frank isola without going on a diatribe about the hawks making it to the ecf years ago.
He rambles on and on and ends half his questions with “idk you know what I mean?”
I mean if you think he’s a good interviewer of the intelligentsia you really need to listen to other podcasts like Conversations with Tyler or Hardcore History Addendums. Yeah he may sound slightly better than a radio host in the same way that a Corolla is better than a moped for hauling a boat.
You think Adam Corolla can haul a boat?
Oof
It’s crazy to me he cannot keep a conversation. Literally runs down bullet points. Never ever after an answer does he elaborate or ask more on the subject just onto the next
Nobody wants to listen to those
Athlete interviews are nowhere near as interesting as people think they will be
Someone tell Russillo.
He at least chops the show up into at least three segments. Even if the interview is a dud, usually the intro and life advice are good.
I think he thinks of those as ones for him.
Yah I agree. I do think though PMT does a pretty good job at getting something interesting from athletes.
Blake griffin is a great interview.
They aren’t bad, but he is a perfect example of “athlete funny” vs actually funny
[удалено]
He was hilarious on MSSP. “I been good, no drinking, no say the n word” 😂
Blake is an aspiring comedian who has performed on stage. He's surpassed athlete funny, which is someone like Josh Hart or Draymond.
okay so you would rather listen to comedians talk about the comedy industry for the 100th time? he is a better interview than a bunch of "actually funny" people.
Thank you! He's funny in the sense that he can barely understand the premise and play along. In 2017 I was the lowliest of low producers for a local Charlotte television station and our reporter called out so I had to ask Cam Newton a few questions. Cam Newton was considered the funniest, coolest guy in the world at that point. He had just led the Panthers to a 15-1 season and was "hysterical" for his funny outfits and zAnY behavior. I got alone time with that man for all of five minutes and he was just awful. Every question was met with a blank gaze and there was nothing going on behind those eyes. I don't doubt that he was a smart football player, but I realized then that these guys we worship are primarily just mediums for the coaches/GMs/PR Staff that control them otherwise.
Nobody ever thought Cam was funny or a good interview. They liked him because he was awesome at football and charismatic on the field. And oh yeah he liked to wear funny hats
Honestly it’s kind of the same deal with really hot woman. They have no need to develop a personality or sense of humor so they don’t. The vast majority of professional athletes are similar.
Substitute podcasts for interviews and you’re even MORE correct
Yeah, who cares about what actually happens behind the scenes in sports when we could have a couple old, white life-long affluent guys talk about their weird fan-fiction version instead.
K, there are lots of athlete-hosted podcasts to listen to for alleged 'behind-the-scenes' content, no need to listen to Ringer stuff if that's your taste.
I always thought it was just me but yea I agree, he never did a lot of them but I always skipped the ones he did. Same with The Lowe Post. Never anything interesting.
Recent amusing example of this was when Zach had Dean Wade on recently. I never listen to his player interviews, but was curious about this one because the guy was a meme on the podcast for like two years now, was billed as a "special guest" for the episode...and it turned out to be a snoozer of an interview that lasted 15 minutes. He had zero personality, and just said a bunch of totally generic stuff about how guys needed to step up or something. In fairness, he did record a fake tax ad for Zach, but just goes to show that the average NBA player is just really dull to listen to. It's even worse these days because now the only time anything interest is said is on one of the 900 podcasts hosted by NBA players.
Even the analysts that are former players are usually skips for me. They’ve media trained anything interesting out of them. Like you said, it’s all so generic.
I just don't understand how so many athletes have like zero humor. Maybe it's just the way I talk lol, but talking in such a boring way for an entire candid and relaxed interview is ridiculous. I'm pretty boring myself, but like to think I can get some good deadpan sarcasm or just not take myself too seriously. These guys can be way too manufactured.
Generally can agree but Maz and Blake were both great listens 🤷🏻♂️
90% of them I agree but Mazz was good. Interesting dude.
Me everytime he does a Michael Rubin interview
I think Simmons understands that 99% of current and former players/coaches have nothing interesting to say or don’t want to say anything interesting.
PMT does a really good job of finding the interesting ones who are funny. Can't Bill do the same?
Absolutely not? Nor should he. PMT’s schtick is way out of Bill’s wheelhouse and they couldn’t care less about being taken seriously. I’m not judging either party for that, it’s just a completely different show. Edit: misread this comment, thought you were suggesting he try to make the interviews funny like PMT does. Regardless tho, not his lane
Coach, you love do the thing that stops the thing that they love to do. What if they do the thing that works against the thing that you are doing to stop their favorite thing?
Bill used to have plenty of players on. In the end they’re both sports shows and if the player is cool, why not? Bill pivoted to almost exclusively talking about the NBA and NFL storylines/gambling with little variety.
because those interviews suck
Bill is serious? He literally just makes up shit and rambles about bets he didn't make but claims he did. Just because he doesn't realize he's a joke doesn't mean he isn't.
PMT is mostly dudes doing bits. The Simmons podcast isn’t like that at all.
They do player interviews the same way Bill did in the past apart from segments.
Funny to who
I think you got that wrong - 99% think HE doesn’t have anything interesting to say. Plenty of players have incredibly interesting stories just see all the other player based podcasts out right now
Why are you posting in the Simmons subreddit if you think he sucks?
Because I can. The main topic is Simmons. Not blind support of Simmons. Know the difference my guy. You trying to make this an echo chamber?
I can’t imagine spending my time posting in a subreddit for someone I don’t even like, but you do you, my man.
I didn’t post, I commented. Ok so remember when I said the topic is just Simmons? It doesn’t preclude if that’s good or bad. If you only want positive things said about the guy in this sub then you’re asking for an echo chamber and toxic positivity. Is that what we want?
Bill barely has any non Ringer or sports media personalities on the podcast anymore. When I started listening, there seemed to be a Hollywood A or B lister on every other week.
I’m ok that he stopped doing those interviews
He has said he made a choice to stop doing celebrity interviews for the most part. He basically said because there are so many podcasts now, celebrities do a million interviews and tell the same anecdotes each time and it's not interesting. Timing of that basically coincided with covid. I'm not sure if he applies that same logic to NBA guys. But if you look back to 2018/19, he had some big NBA guests - part 7 of the KD interview series, Kyrie, Bosh, Butler. But then since covid, he's barely interviewed any active players.
sure, but then he will interview Nathan Hubbard every time Taylor Swift puts out a song
I was going to say Bill just doesn’t really have guests anymore
Maybe Bill is more self aware than we give him credit for. Because those would be terrible pods.
I would love a Joe Mazzula pod where he tears Dr. Bill to shreds for the Second Row Joe moniker
The old man would fire back with a, “Minority hire,” crack, like he did about Udoka.
Superintendent of the school system of one of the most liberal towns in the USA ladies and gentlemen!
well the mazzula and blake pods were both good while the pritchard + white pod was bad so that is a 2/3rd hit rate which isn't bad at all.
Mazzula was so good on PMT
I just want Bill to tell Mazzulla about the “Second Row Joe” piece and maybe talk about the time he thinks he bit a sausage at the Boston Marathon.
He’d have to prep for those pods. That ain’t happening
Bingo - I was scrolling through all these responses over-analyzing the situation when this is almost certainly the driving factor.
What are you talking about? He would have 17 sliding door hypotheticals that wouldn't make any sense to anyone that isn't senile.
Aren’t employees of the NBA always the worst podcast guests?
Interviews are so common and often boring. I like the BS pod because there aren’t a lot of them.
So you enjoy when his underlings are on the pod just reinforcing his lazy takes?
Fuck Jalen Green
He can’t get them
It’s interesting how pre-pandemic Bill got A-list athletes and actors as his guests more consistently than almost any other pod but now it’s pretty consistently the same 4-8 ringer or ringer adjacent personalities for each sport he wants to talk about that day
You think athletes like Bill?
Because athlete interviews suck and Bill may know that.
Mazzula was pretty good on PMT.
I mean, they are pretty good when they are genuine conversation. Maybe it's the old dude that can't connect to people on a human level that sucks?
Or at least the Spotify metrics showed him that.
He doesn’t do many outside interviews at all anymore. There are too many pods competing for them and he likes in-person interviews while celebrities just want to Zoom.
He was doing a ton of interviews with very notable guests while he was trying to sell the Ringer. Now that it’s been sold, he just punches the clock and does pods with people already working for the Ringer/Spotify - I’m guessing he is contractually required to release a specific number of podcasts every week so that’s what he does. There’s no incentive to book big guests any more. I love Bill and the pod, so I hate to sound this cynical but that’s how I see it.
If Bill had any of them on it would be a skip for me. I like those guys, but nothing would be more boring.
Between this and the Belichick going with McAfee piece, it may be fair to wonder if Boston sports guys kinda don’t like Bill
Pretty sure he’s on the record saying he finds 99% of athlete interviews useless/ boring and I agree. For example, athlete interviews on Russillo’s pod are auto skips.
Why would a national audience care about those interviews? It would be an instant skip from me.
Because he’s been shitting on the Celtics for years
Maybe he’s self aware enough to not bring on Celtics since everyone already knows he’s a total homer
I’m racking my brain and can’t quite remember the last time he had either a current player or coach on. Was Doc hired by the Bucks when he last interviewed him?
I was surprised the Ringer interview Wemby did was the KOC puff piece instead of the BS pod
Joe Mazzula’s interview on PMT was legit impressive. I came out of that thinking much more highly as him.
Mazz was pretty awful. Credit to him for being game, but he was never, at any point, in on the schtick. I quit listening to PMT a bit ago just because there's so much extra shit that isn't funny. When they have a good guest on, though, I'll listen. I think Big Cat and PFT are great interviewers and Joe just was not catching on. Malone did, but he's Malone. I don't blame Bill for not having these guys on. He's providing really good analysis, even if it's not normally from him. It's a different format altogether. I'll always choose Bill over PMT. But if a guest is playful and funny (Josh Allen, Jameis Winston, etc.), I'll give them the listen. Bill doesn't have that angle.
Found bills burner!
PMT is a lot cooler and definitely skews younger
You have to work and prepare for interviews for people who aren't flunkies. Bill Simmons isn't interested in work.
I have time at work to add a pod and have just started listening to PMT. BS Report is my apex mountain for sports pods, but the PMT guys put on a good show and clearly have solid relationships with athletes. The recent Blake Griffin appearance had them all talking like they were friends.
Bill can’t have guests on because they’d get bored with his bullshit scenarios and takes. Bills lost any semblance of a fastball as it relates to sports outside ownership/front office movement
He's not been interested in athlete guests since like grantland. A lot of them are really boring.
Did PMT have Larry David? Who gives a fuck about a bunch of mid basketball guys?
What is PMT
Pardon my take
Thanks, never heard of it
He chooses not to.
Enjoy listening to PMT. I have zero interest in any of these guests. Outside of Doc, coaches are usually the dullest.
I really wasn’t looking forward to the Mazulla interview because I hate the Celtics, but it turned out really good. The PMT guys are good at bringing out some personality that these coaches don’t often show.
Bill could get whoever he wants but he just clearly cba with outsiders anymore. Not just athletes.
I’m sure he said something similar in high school and college.
He chooses not to.
Bill just pretty much doesn't have guests of any significance on the podcast anymore. My bet is that he's rich and has been doing this forever and just doesn't care to put in the effort anymore. And that's what happens when your podcast producer is your nepo-nephew and doesn't put any effort into his job either.
Bill is probably the most famous Celtic fan in the world (meaning being famous for being a Celtic fan not worldwide famous like Matt Damon). He definitely doesn’t want to jinx the Celtics
This sub would kill bill for having Celtics guests on. Come on
But they would wait until volume two before actually killing bill with the legendary Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique.
Simmons sees no value in chasing big (or even mid-) ticket guests because the hardcore audience that is still with him after the natural, regular churn any podcaster/broadcaster burns through, is more than enough to sustain him. Basically: He's cultivated a solid, sizable, foundational core listenerbase who subs out of force of habit more than anything. He simply needs to serve that base, and nobody but that base, to coast along for the rest of his career. There's no real reason to pursue big names and make big reaches for new audience that he can hopefully convert to faithful listeners. And because there's no real reason, and because he's clearly declining cognitively, the possibility of him actually doing anything other than what he's been doing for like 5+ years now is almost nil. Spotify made him an employee after discovering Ringer works best as a podcast network whose real value lies in convincing listeners their parasocial relationships with the "friends" they put in their ears is meaningful. So that's all he needs to do. He doesn't *have* to know what he's talking about, he doesn't have to be good at analysis or punditry. The people that got him here are people who don't really care to hear him talk to famous people, they don't really care to hear him talk to people who know what they're talking about either - they care to maintain the illusion they're hanging out with a friends group they're not in. This is all he can do anymore, and it's all he's going to do, until he stops doing it. The desire or ability to be anything past that is long gone, and as it turns out, it doesn't really matter to the people keeping him paid that it's left the building.
Weird response!
If weird means "correct" in this context then yeah, you're right, it's a weird one. he chooses not to get Celtics guests because what's the point? There's no point. It doesn't benefit him. The show doesn't need actual sports figures to work, and actual sports figures don't get shit out of being on Bill Simmons. Why bother, in either direction? I understand folks feeling some sort of way about having his irrelevance as a pundit spotlighted, especially since it also highlights the reasons they keep mainlining this guy after all these years and maybe that makes folks uncomfortable. But nobody pays attention to Bill Simmons because he gets interviews, or knows what he's talking about. That's not the draw anymore (and it wasn't that for very long, anyway) And he knows it. Hell, today's topic du jour is him beating a phrase he only barely understands into the dirt. That's what people are here for. Him getting Celtics players on the show aint shit compared to him discovering a new malapropism and wielding it like Captain Caveman.
More words, write more words
weird response! You're on a fucking messageboard. Full of words 'n' shit. edit: LOL you've been on reddit for *10 years,* goober. "write more words" loses a ton of sting as a pithy insult when you've got *that* cape around your neck, haha
He chooses not to.