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Bill Simmons going to HBO

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C

Crazymoogle

Member
Haven't heard anything about Sal having a long term contract with ESPN. I guess a Disney employee by way of his boss, but generally speaking the late night guys run their own crews so if ESPN wanted to bar him access to talking on somebody else's podcast, they'd have to go up the ladder to somebody above Jimmy's head to do it.

Anyway, really don't care about video podcasts, but his audio podcasts were great. Really hope those come back. Video/audio double dips like before are fine, though inevitably the audio only ones run longer and get more interesting / happen more often.
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Didn't notice someone created a new thread. :D

I'm quite excited by this news -- especially being an HBO subscriber who probably doesn't make enough use of my sub. Be hilarious if he made another Grantland that was even better than the existing one. :p
 
T

Teggy

Member
Good for him. I remember when he was writing columns about the 100 best sports movies for some local Boston web site (that column is hilarious btw if it still exists.)
 
B

Boombloxer

Member
Gonzalez said:
28465-Jerry-Seinfeld-leaves-gif-yxqm.gif
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Pretty much. Ignoring this one.
 
M

Myggen

Member
Brinbe said:
Great fit and he should be great now that he can truly unload on people (Goddell) without fears of censorship.
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Yeah, he won't get the kind of access that ESPN allows, but on the other hand he's allowed to say pretty much anything he wants now (look at Bill Maher as an example of that, I'm not his biggest fan but you can't argue that HBO doesn't allow him to say what he wants). But this deal sounds like a fantastic fit for both HBO and Simmons himself.

Big fan of Simmons, so I'm excited about this.

beato_angelico said:
morris is definitely the best one. the other writer range from pretentious to mediocre to disposable to embarassing, or some combination of the above.
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Morris is great, but I wouldn't sleep on Zach Lowe.
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Myggen said:
Yeah, he won't get the kind of access that ESPN allows, but on the other hand he's allowed to say pretty much anything he wants now (look at Bill Maher as an example of that, I'm not his biggest fan but you can't argue that HBO doesn't allow him to say what he wants). But this deal sounds like a fantastic fit for both HBO and Simmons himself.

Big fan of Simmons, so I'm excited about this.
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I know access is hugely important for hits and ratings, but thankfully HBO kind of operates outside of that and doesn't have to appeal to the Wal-Mart crowd like ESPN does to run a business. The tradeoff with access is usually absolute garbage and compromised reporting and puff pieces, to the point where I think it's clearly a detriment to quality.
 
H

h1nch

Member
Myggen said:
Yeah, he won't get the kind of access that ESPN allows, but on the other hand he's allowed to say pretty much anything he wants now (look at Bill Maher as an example of that, I'm not his biggest fan but you can't argue that HBO doesn't allow him to say what he wants). But this deal sounds like a fantastic fit for both HBO and Simmons himself.

Big fan of Simmons, so I'm excited about this.



Morris is great, but I wouldn't sleep on Zach Lowe.
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Agreed. Zach Lowe is one of the best NBA voices, period.

Also, I LOVE NBA After dark. My only complaint is that they're so sporadic with episodes. I'm sure they could come up with funny stuff to talk about more often than they currently do.
 
X

xDUMPWEEDx

Banned
NYCmetsfan said:
Real Sports, Last Week Tonight and Now this? Good line up.
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Don't forget Bill Maher.

Saturday night boxing has been amazing this year too. Incredible fights so far.

When I signed a new Verizon contract they gave me 1 year of HBO for free. Their plan worked, I'm definitely subscribing once my year runs out.
 
M

Myggen

Member
h1nch said:
Agreed. Zach Lowe is one of the best NBA voices, period.

Also, I LOVE NBA After dark. My only complaint is that they're so sporadic with episodes. I'm sure they could come up with funny stuff to talk about more often than they currently do.
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I love NBA After Dark in theory, but I've never really liked the episodes I've listened to.

Two other of my favourites at Grantland that I forgot to mention are Molly Lambert and Rembert Browne. That site has so much talent. But yeah, I'm not surprised by that Deadspin article, the site has seemed directionless since Simmons was fired. I do not trust ESPN to do right by Grantland, so I wouldn't be surprised if people start to leave as soon as their contract is up (I would be shocked if Morris doesn't leave for New York Times, for example).

AstroLad said:
I know access is hugely important for hits and ratings, but thankfully HBO kind of operates outside of that and doesn't have to appeal to the Wal-Mart crowd like ESPN does to run a business. The tradeoff with access is usually absolute garbage and compromised reporting and puff pieces, to the point where I think it's clearly a detriment to quality.
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Yeah for sure, but Simmons has always seemed to really care about that kind of access. But I'm sure that the freedom of HBO will more than make up for it.
 
S

spyder_ur

Member
beato_angelico said:
morris is definitely the best one. the other writer range from pretentious to mediocre to disposable to embarassing, or some combination of the above.
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I couldn't disagree more. I don't know how you could put Jonathan Abrams, Zach Lowe or Greenwald on that scale, for instance.

Brinbe said:
Great fit and he should be great now that he can truly unload on people (Goddell) without fears of censorship.
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People really seem to expect scorched earth - I wouldn't, I elaborated a bit on the last page. Besides, HBO is far from detached from the NFL. We'll see I guess.
 
M

Myggen

Member
schwagger15 said:
People really seem to expect that - I wouldn't, I elaborated a bit on the last page. Besides, HBO is far from detached from the NFL. We'll see I guess.
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The point is that HBO would allow him to talk a lot more freely about that stuff. Whether he will or not is something we can't say for sure until October, but there's no doubt that HBO will provide him more freedom in that regard than pretty much everyone else.
 
B

bodyofanamerican

Member
Yep, HBO definitely has some monetary involvement with the NFL, but they're not bidding on the rights to air live games like ESPN, so I don't think Goodell or someone could really lean on the HBO execs like he apparently did with Skipper at ESPN.

What does HBO really have going with the NFL besides Hard Knocks?
 
B

bodyofanamerican

Member
Myggen said:
Only Hard Knocks as far as I know. It wouldn't be the end of HBO if NFL pulled their support there, so I'm not sure what kind of leverage NFL has over HBO.
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Yep, Inside the NFL is Showtime, and weren't the first reports about concussion related CTE on Real Sports? Either way yeah, I'm certain Simmons is gonna have free reign.
 
S

spyder_ur

Member
bodyofanamerican said:
Yep, HBO definitely has some monetary involvement with the NFL, but they're not bidding on the rights to air live games like ESPN, so I don't think Goodell or someone could really lean on the HBO execs like he apparently did with Skipper at ESPN.

What does HBO really have going with the NFL besides Hard Knocks?
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Myggen said:
Only Hard Knocks as far as I know. It wouldn't be the end of HBO if NFL pulled their support there, so I'm not sure what kind of leverage NFL has over HBO.
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Yeah I was thinking Inside the NFL and then realized I'm an idiot.

Is there any evidence goodell pushed ESPN to get rid of Simmons anyways? It always seemed to me that Simmons' problems with the network were mainly internal and largely self-inflicted.

Can you imagine the Wire/NBA crossover pieces he will write now? Or maybe air? Glorious.
 
B

bodyofanamerican

Member
schwagger15 said:
Yeah I was thinking Inside the NFL and then realized I'm an idiot.

Is there any evidence goodell pushed ESPN to get rid of Simmons anyways? It always seemed to me that Simmons' problems with the network were mainly internal and largely self-inflicted.

Can you imagine the Wire/NBA crossover pieces he will write now? Or maybe air? Glorious.
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No evidence per se`, but since his last public appearance as an ESPN employee included the Goodell "testicular fortitude" comment, and since most (all?) of his comments resulting in tension with leadership/suspension have involved the NFL in one way or another, it's not a big leap to imagine a conversation between Skipper and Goodell where the latter says something like "Hey John, that's some mouth Simmons has on him! Are you able to control your boy or what?" said totally jokingly, but with the point totally being made.

I hope you enjoyed my theater of the mind post just now, but I'd imagine it wasn't direct pressure, but some indirect feedback from the NFL that made Skipper realize that Simmons wasn't worth the hassle.
 
S

spyder_ur

Member
bodyofanamerican said:
No evidence per se`, but since his last public appearance as an ESPN employee included the Goodell "testicular fortitude" comment, and since most (all?) of his comments resulting in tension with leadership/suspension have involved the NFL in one way or another, it's not a big leap to imagine a conversation between Skipper and Goodell where the latter says something like "Hey John, that's some mouth Simmons has on him! Are you able to control your boy or what?" said totally jokingly, but with the point totally being made.

I hope you enjoyed my theater of the mind post just now, but I'd imagine it wasn't direct pressure, but some indirect feedback from the NFL that made Skipper realize that Simmons wasn't worth the hassle.
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I suppose that's very possible. I suspect something else is at play with ESPN. If you notice the 3 big names that have left (or are soon to leave) ESPN recently, what's in common? For starters, they have all caused both public controversy and internal disputes/bickering. What else? None of them are crucial to ESPN's broadcasting of live sports, which they are seemingly bidding on everything for.

Quite frankly, I think Simmons wasn't worth the hassle because he doesn't generate revenue. Grantland was reportedly not lucrative for ESPN, and it's hard to imagine the 30s for 30s were profitable either (just a guess). Simmons has alot of value in terms of content and mindshare, but ESPN probably saw what it was going to cost and judged it didn't fit in with their long term plans while they are bidding on multibillion dollars live sports contracts.

I also think it's clear that independent thinkers/talkers/pot stirrers like Simmons and Olbermann just don't fit in well with the ESPN corporate culture. Seems like that will be way less of a issue at HBO, although I still contend that Simmons might be the most thin-skinned, often petulant sports media member that I've regularly followed.

There is no doubt he's immensely talented and even visionary though. Excited to see what comes out of this.
 
B

bodyofanamerican

Member
schwagger15 said:
I suppose that's very possible. I suspect something else is at play with ESPN. If you notice the 3 big names that have left (or are soon to leave) ESPN recently, what's in common? For starters, they have all caused both public controversy and internal disputes/bickering. What else? None of them are crucial to ESPN's broadcasting of live sports, which they are seemingly bidding on everything for.

Quite frankly, I think Simmons wasn't worth the hassle because he doesn't generate revenue. Grantland was reportedly not lucrative for ESPN, and it's hard to imagine the 30s for 30s were profitable either (just a guess). Simmons has alot of value in terms of content and mindshare, but ESPN probably saw what it was going to cost and judged it didn't fit in with their long term plans while they are bidding on multibillion dollars live sports contracts.

I also think it's clear that independent thinkers/talkers/pot stirrers like Simmons and Olbermann just don't fit in well with the ESPN corporate culture. Seems like that will be way less of a issue at HBO, although I still contend that Simmons might be the most thin-skinned, often petulant sports media member that I've regularly followed.

There is no doubt he's immensely talented and even visionary though. Excited to see what comes out of this.
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Same here! One other thing I should have mentioned, ESPN is one of the only Disney properties that didn't grow last year. I think shedding all these larger contracts is part of a cost-cutting measure as well.
 
G

Gigglepoo

Member
gazele said:
I wonder if it would be possible for ESPN to sell grantland to HBO or if thats just a pipe dream
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No reason to buy Grantland when you can just get the writers and start a new site. According to Deadspin, most of Grantland's contracts are up at the end of this year. If Simmons want to start a new site, he and HBO could do so without giving ESPN any money.
 
A

avengers23

Banned
The rumors were that Jon Stewart would enter a collaboration with Simmons. I wonder if Stewart or Olbermann is the other shoe waiting to drop.

I doubt Stewart would go to HBO since HBO has Oliver, and Olbermann would probably land back on MSNBC for the election coverage.
 
beat

beat

Member
Gigglepoo said:
Would Ryan, Greenwald, Rubins, and Conception be as confident saying what they feel? Probably best not to criticize a show your employer funds.
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Greenwald covers all of TV so there's already that issue for him at Grantland as part of the Disney/ABC/etc media conglomerate.
 
G

Gigglepoo

Member
Simmons' new podcast starts October 1st! And Cousin Sal will be back to guess the lines! Fantastic way to start out my week.
 
G

gazele

Banned
Gigglepoo said:
Simmons' new podcast starts October 1st! And Cousin Sal will be back to guess the lines! Fantastic way to start out my week.
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Can't wait, however if its just Sal I'll probably skip as per usual (no interest in guessing gambling lines for NFL, even with simmons)
 
G

Gigglepoo

Member
gazele said:
Can't wait, however if its just Sal I'll probably skip as per usual (no interest in guessing gambling lines for NFL, even with simmons)
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It's not only Sal, he just pointed out there weren't going to play the "guess the lines" game until week 4.
 
B

BearPawB

Banned
I love grantland's podcasts, especially the pop culture ones. But have missed Bill's presence. Excited to see him on HBO, I agree he can be awkward on camera, but i think with the right vibe it could work.
 
8

80s Bad Guy

Banned
Bill Simmons to resurrect his podcast

It still has not been revealed where his writing will be found or whether he will launch another Grantland-style site. But Simmons has dropped some details on Twitter regarding the podcast, and an industry source with knowledge of his plans revealed more information Thursday to this reporter on what’s to come.

The podcast will be called The Bill Simmons Podcast rather than the B.S. Report. Three podcasts per week will be produced in the first six months. It will be found in the usual places initially — iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Spotify, and so on — and a specific web page will eventually be created as a landing spot.
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I've missed this man.
 
diffusionx

diffusionx

Gold Member
gazele said:
Can't wait, however if its just Sal I'll probably skip as per usual (no interest in guessing gambling lines for NFL, even with simmons)
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Guess the lines as a podcast is a stupid terrible idea and it should be awful.

But somehow it is the best. I've really missed it.
 
P

peppermints

Member
Can't wait for these to start back up.

Been a big hole in my daily commutes for going on 5 months now!

Sad that he had just started up the basketball only podcast before he got fired, was really enjoying that one.
 
A

Abounder

Banned
Hope Bill's new podcast has another Ronald Jenkees intro, I need that real dirty sound of a rusty steak knife cutting through a well aged steak.

It's been too long, can't wait
 
I

Into

Member
Podcast will be 2 hours hopefully, and 1 hour will be dedicated to Clips and Bill reading their body language

God i missed Bill, fuck all these other podcasts, either its these awkward weirdos, or its some basketball fantasy bullshit. Nobody cares about how you play your little game.
 
M

methodman

Banned
Love cousin Sal. Missed Simmons so much. I missed his podcasts as the Warriors wrecked the west and then the cavs.

Jalen and jacoby aren't as funny when they talk about the NFL / mlb as much as they have been the last two podcasts I've heard from their radio show
 
G

Gigglepoo

Member
I am ridiculously excited for this. I subscribe to 49 podcasts but there's been a massive hole since the BS Report died. Friday can't get here soon enough.
 
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