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Bill Simmons going to HBO

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M

Man God

Non-Canon Member
Ninja Scooter said:
ESPN will probably just ride out the top paid talent's contracts and absorb everyone else into their fold. They already pushed Jalen and Jacoby to ESPN Radio (and they can keep Jalen). Hopefully Zach Lowe can somehow/someway end up back with Simmons, provided he can still create some kind of written content somehow. He's brilliant. I do sometimes wonder if Lowe will end up like Hollinger though and snapped up by a front office in the next couple of years.
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Couldn't have put it better myself. If Simmons does well on HBO they'd be more than happy to set up a prestige website for him as that is what HBO lives for.
 
J

jtb

Banned
Just got over crying through Do You Like Prince Movies' finale only to find Bill's third episode has Wesley on and I can't wait to listen.

Ninja Scooter said:
ESPN will probably just ride out the top paid talent's contracts and absorb everyone else into their fold. They already pushed Jalen and Jacoby to ESPN Radio (and they can keep Jalen). Hopefully Zach Lowe can somehow/someway end up back with Simmons, provided he can still create some kind of written content somehow. He's brilliant. I do sometimes wonder if Lowe will end up like Hollinger though and snapped up by a front office in the next couple of years.
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That's a great point, I never put two and two together about their "promotion" into a daily radio show also being a way of weaning them off the Grantland branding.
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Basileus777 said:
Lowe benefits a lot from the access ESPN gives him. He could leave but I wonder if he really wants to.
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Does the NBA really whore out access like the NFL does? Seems like Woj does a pretty good job at Yahoo but I don't follow this stuff too closely. For some reason I kind of see most of these guys going their own different but successful ways.
 
T

tm24

Member
For the kind of work Lowe does, he doesn't really need that much access. He was doing similar work at SI before Bill picked him up
 
H

HIGH DEF JEFF

Banned
Episode 3 is up with Wesley Morris.

Wesley states he has seen Pulp Fiction 20 times and still doesn't know what the chronology of the story is. Movie critics...
 
M

mightynine

Member
AstroLad said:
Definitely do yourself a favor and don't listen to the just posted episode 3 with Wesley Morris -- goes in deep on what went down at Grantland. :D
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Oddly, I might be a little curious about inside baseball stuff from Grantland. I am wildly inconsistent on this, I know!
 
diffusionx

diffusionx

Gold Member
Ninja Scooter said:
ESPN will probably just ride out the top paid talent's contracts and absorb everyone else into their fold. They already pushed Jalen and Jacoby to ESPN Radio (and they can keep Jalen). Hopefully Zach Lowe can somehow/someway end up back with Simmons, provided he can still create some kind of written content somehow. He's brilliant. I do sometimes wonder if Lowe will end up like Hollinger though and snapped up by a front office in the next couple of years.
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Yea Grantland is done. I would love to see Simmons scoop up Barnwell, Mays, and Lowe. The thing with Lowe is that he isn't stat-oriented like Hollinger. That Kirk Goldsberry's beat. Lowe is an old-school basketball writer, just a great one.

I still miss Girls in Hoodies too.
 
G

Griss

Member
diffusionx said:
Yea Grantland is done. I would love to see Simmons scoop up Barnwell, Mays, and Lowe. The thing with Lowe is that he isn't stat-oriented like Hollinger. That Kirk Goldsberry's beat. Lowe is an old-school basketball writer, just a great one.

I still miss Girls in Hoodies too.
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I used to like Barnwell but not any more.

He's terrible on radio/podcast, he relies on the exact same statistical metrics year after year and he denies that psychological components really matter in sports, which to anyone who has ever played a contact sport is completely absurd.

"There's no such thing as momentum! Each play stands on its own!" Load of crap, tbh.
 
F

Fjordson

Member
Ninja Scooter said:
ESPN will probably just ride out the top paid talent's contracts and absorb everyone else into their fold. They already pushed Jalen and Jacoby to ESPN Radio (and they can keep Jalen). Hopefully Zach Lowe can somehow/someway end up back with Simmons, provided he can still create some kind of written content somehow. He's brilliant. I do sometimes wonder if Lowe will end up like Hollinger though and snapped up by a front office in the next couple of years.
Click to expand...
Never thought of Lowe going to a front office, but that would make sense.

He's great as a writer, maybe the best NBA media guy right now.
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Griss said:
I used to like Barnwell but not any more.

He's terrible on radio/podcast, he relies on the exact same statistical metrics year after year and he denies that psychological components really matter in sports, which to anyone who has ever played a contact sport is completely absurd.

"There's no such thing as momentum! Each play stands on its own!" Load of crap, tbh.
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I like Barnwell's writing but always found his podcast really boring. Not even that it was very statistical (it wasn't), just had an incredibly dull and sort of disengaged tone. Lowe is an all-rounder though. Really good writing, podcasts, and even shows. Wesley Morris I actually don't like his reviews (not really a film guy, so take it with a grain of salt, just find him deliberately contrarian in most cases) but he's good on the podcasts.
 
R

ryseing

Member
diffusionx said:
Yea Grantland is done. I would love to see Simmons scoop up Barnwell, Mays, and Lowe. The thing with Lowe is that he isn't stat-oriented like Hollinger. That Kirk Goldsberry's beat. Lowe is an old-school basketball writer, just a great one.

I still miss Girls in Hoodies too.
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Greenwald, Conception, Rubin, and Rembert. Plus Holly Anderson for college football.

Do it Simmons.

Glad to have him back. About to listen to the Wesley Morris pod.
 
T

tm24

Member
diffusionx said:
I can live without them. But I do get the broader point, which is that Simmons did a great job of assembling talent.
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Then did an excellent job of letting them do their shit and getting the hell out of the way. Seriously, have you guys read the deadspin articles on Jason Whitlock and his black grantland site?

But man, i missed Simmons on basketball. I wonder what the status of a updated Book of Basketball is since it was an ESPN books title
 
T

tm24

Member
I dont know man, the video where rembert watches stuff from the 80s were great. The Apache and Safety Dance ones were great
 
H

Hasphat'sAnts

Member
I'm not a big fan of rembert browne because he thinks himself funnier than he actaully is.

but wesley morris is a god. wonderful writer and thinker.

edit: o and alex pappademas is GOAT status forever for writing that takeout on Gambit. Ethering of epic proportions.
 
G

gazele

Banned
HIGH DEF JEFF said:
Episode 3 is up with Wesley Morris.

Wesley states he has seen Pulp Fiction 20 times and still doesn't know what the chronology of the story is. Movie critics...
Click to expand...

I seriously do not understand how this could possibly be true, it isn't that complicated, he must have been exaggerating

So glad to have Simmons back, can't wait til basketball season starts
 
8

80s Bad Guy

Banned
Lunar FC said:
Listening to the new Simmons podcast. Love how he is basically just shitting on ESPN left and right.
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The Mike and Mike impersonation was fantastic. So damn happy to have Simmons back and free of any filter. It's the best.

Just listened to the Wesley Morris one. The feels, man.
 
F

Faddy

Banned
Breaking news on twitter is that at least 4 Grantland staff have resigned from ESPN to join up with Bill. No names or details about a site but something is going to happen.

On my phone so can't link.
Reported by ESPN insider Jim Miller.
 
I

infiniteloop

Member
Faddy said:
Breaking news on twitter is that at least 4 Grantland staff have resigned from ESPN to join up with Bill. No names or details about a site but something is going to happen.
.
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Please don't be Jalen Rose.
Please don't be Jalen Rose.
Please don't be Jalen Rose.
Please don't be Jalen Rose.

(I guess he's not technically Grantland)
 
S

SodiumBenzoate

Member
Faddy said:
Breaking news on twitter is that at least 4 Grantland staff have resigned from ESPN to join up with Bill. No names or details about a site but something is going to happen.

On my phone so can't link.
Reported by ESPN insider Jim Miller.
Click to expand...

If 3-4 of them include Andy Greenwald, Zach Lowe, Jonah Keri, Alex Pappademas, and/or Bill Barnwell, Grantland is absolutely finished and they might as well shut it down.
 
F

Faddy

Banned
I think it will be mainly Pop Culture people. Rembert, Alex Papadimas, Andy Greenwald and Molly Lambert would be my guesses. ESPN should have tied down Barnwell, Lowe and Keri as soon as they stopped negotiating with Simmons.
 
P

pinsomniac

Member
Probably nothing, but a Reddit comment pointed out a tweet out from Serrano where he joined Lowe, Barnwell, & Concepcion on a trip to LA at the end of last month (none of them evidently live there?)

Tweet: @SheaSerrano: the thing i was most surprised to learn on this trip to LA is that @billbarnwell @netw3rk and @zachlowe_nba can all do the splits wow
 
M

Macadinho94

Member
Basileus777 said:
Lowe is better off on his own. Even when Simmons was still at Grantland it's not like those two interacted that often anyway.
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I don't care where Zach ends up, he's an awesome writer so if he's producing content I'm happy. But I need my monthly fix of Zach on Bill Simmons podcast.
 
C

Consequence

Member
pinsomniac said:
Probably nothing, but a Reddit comment pointed out a tweet out from Serrano where he joined Lowe, Barnwell, & Concepcion on a trip to LA at the end of last month (none of them evidently live there?)

Tweet: @SheaSerrano: the thing i was most surprised to learn on this trip to LA is that @billbarnwell @netw3rk and @zachlowe_nba can all do the splits wow
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They had the NBA planning meeting.
 
8

80s Bad Guy

Banned
I figured Jason Whitlock might be joining him as he also recently went scorched earth on ESPN, but maybe that's just how he rolls.

That conversation with Klosterman on Trump was one of the most fascinating conversations I've heard all year.
 
A

Alur

Member
From Richard Deitsch's latest SI column that just went up:

1b. On Friday writer James Andrew Miller tweeted that four members of Grantland’s staff have departed and will go to work for Bill Simmons. He did not name names. Based on my reporting, those staffers are Sean Fennessey, Juliet Litman, Mallory Rubin and Chris Ryan. I do not know the specific jobs they will have with Simmons. An ESPN spokesperson declined comment on any staff defections.

Miller also received a statement from an ESPN spokesperson that said the company had re-signed seven staffers in recent weeks. Asked who those staffers were by SI.com, an ESPN spokesperson declined comment. According to a Grantland source, the number ESPN PR put out regarding re-signings at this time was overstated.
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Gonna Watch the Thrones on HBO while you watch Game of Thrones.
 
J

JesseEwiak

Member
Makes sense. All of those people are more culture writers than sports, so continuing a connection with ESPN in the long run doesn't make any sense.

All in all, I expect Lowe, Mays, and Barnwell to stay put, while Greenwald might bolt to another non-ESPN non-Simmons outlet.

Edit: Also realized they're all LA people. Which makes complete sense.
 
C

CastleRybread

Member
jordan0386 said:
Lowe just had a baby, I don't see him leaving the financial security of ESPN.
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Turner could have uses for him if he leaves. I am sure that Simmons ends up on NBA TV in some capacity and they are going to want content. The two of them could work on a show together. You could also make Simmons new site linked in some way to bleacher report or SI. That way there is security.

That HBO deal Simmons got leaves the door open for a lot if Turner really wants to go all in.
 
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