you could hear him in the background during the lotto screaming and overacting any time something beneficial to the Knicks happened, most Ringer personalities sound like kids doing book report presentations on one hour prep when they discuss their "favorite teams" with Bill
I couldn’t fucking stand Chris Ryan laughing his shitty laugh during that pod. I’ll bet RR wants to push him into a locker. Even Russillo said of his own joke “ok it wasn’t that funny”
OConner has really become a good b-ball writer. His voice is whatever and being paired with Vernon is odd, but I’ve enjoyed his writing chops aging well, his draft stuff is really good. I hate player comps but BS must love them.
Have liked Tjarks stuff. Listen to more of their playoff/draft pods. Don’t give a shit what they have to say in February. Only listen to Lowe/Beck and occasionally Wojs pod during reg season
It's easy to see why Bill thinks he can hang comedically with people like Cousin Sal and RR (he can't) when every one of his Ringer lackeys belly-laughs at every thing he says
A 40 year old who would think about stuffing someone in a locker is a pretty accurate depiction of russillo.
BS starts the pod today about his mid-life crisis and getting in shape to play basketball before he turns 50. Then says KD was more of a sure-thing heading into the draft than LeBron.
Indeed. Would be like reliving their youths for RR and Ryan. Given the last few posts, Jason has a very obnoxious laugh. Also, Bill has been going out of his way to ride KD extra hard. Probably some chatter about KD to Boston.
Im pretty good at accepting Bill for what he is now, and I still really enjoy him. But him trying to downplay the Lebron hype when he was in HS and say Zion was more hyped was laughable. There were primetime games of Lebron in HIGH SCHOOL. The dude got paid 90 million before playing a game.
Lebron was on the cover of sports illustrated when he was like 17 with the headline "the chosen one" I'm not sure it gets more hyped than that
at a time when airing HS games in primetime on ESPN was unheard of. Also how was Durant more of a sure thing than LeBron when he didn't even go number 1 in his own draft
I think you can argue Zion is more hyped than LeBron was. I think LeBron was more hyped than any HS player in the history of the modern NBA, but Zion played at Duke and was a massive story over the full season during the social media era. I think people expected LeBron to be better than Zion at the same stage, but I think you can make a pretty good case that social media in 2019 compared to the internet in 2003 alone makes Zion more hyped than LeBron.
Hype is all relative though, thats part of what was frustrating to me. Yeah, Zion is more hyped on social media, but in 2003 SI was getting a lot more readership and Lebron was on covers etc.
was Zion even the #1 prospect in his HS class? He was a big story for 1 year, LeBron was pegged as the #1 pick in the draft as a sophomore in HS
I guess there is no way to quantify this, but I feel very strongly that if you asked a "non-basketball" fan who either of them were at the respective times before the draft a lot more people would know who Lebron was.
Bill Walton was calling Lebron's game as a junior http://a.espncdn.com/nba/news/2002/1212/1476103.html
LeBron James' performance on Thursday night helped his St. Vincent-St. Mary team beat the No. 1 team in the nation, but it also helped ESPN2 achieve its highest rating in almost two years. The network garnered a 1.97 rating, which is equivalent to about 1.67 million homes.
I'm not even sure I agree Zion is more hyped than Lebron in a vacuum, but if you adjust for hype inflation, as you should, this isn't even an discussion.
the NBA was not that popular in 2003. plus with social media, i'd have to think social media has made zion more well known now than when lebron was in HS despite lebron being a bigger deal for his generation.
I think you are agreeing with me that we need to take into account the time period and by doing so Lebron was more hyped?
People forget that Slam Magazine had more people reading it than Twitter does users. Spoiler that just feels right
also, Bill was losing his shit over Anthony Davis and player empowerment a few months ago and now he's disappointed that Zion didn't threaten to play in Europe or force a trade?
Bron Was a cultural phenom before high school blue chips could be cultural phenoms Was labeled un-ironically as the next MJ. Perhaps the highest bar to clear ever. Had sneaker companies throwing insane sums at him Had people tuning into HS games SI cover Clear #1 pick vs Melo, Bosh and Wade etc Zion 1 mil + ig followers in hs - tons of viral clips and posts Gained a massive following in an era where theres lots of hyped HS players competition Sportscenter coverage and made lots of people tune into duke games Clear #1 option alongside RJ Barrett and Reddish Im riding with Bron because of the bolded, but its a discussion at least
the thing that was outrageous was Bill putting KD as a more sure thing coming out of school than LeBron. But carry on with this Zion argument
I just know Chris Ryan has annoying tendencies on the rewatchables so I got confused. Makes sense though.
I heard about LeBron in 2003 (in Ireland) and the NBA gets no coverage and I wasn’t following US sports news. I imagine the number of people who knew who Zion Williamson was before March Madness was not that high relatively speaking. I would rate continued coverage of a high school career on ESPN and Sports Illustrated over a couple of million views of Zion’s high school career. People mistake a niche consuming more content that is available today with general interest in a topic. Bill is allowing recency bias to get in the way of reality here.
The hype for Lebron will probably never be matched. I mean people were asking if he could be the greatest player of all time as a sophomore in highschool. Zion isn't even in the same stratosphere. Zion is closer to the Wiggins/Davis/Oden hype level than he is to Lebron.