That's a really weird fucking thing to be annoyed at. Do people calling Shaquille O'neal "Shaq" bother you?
everyone is watching the Jordan doc so between social media that night and then what gets talked about on here, i'm pretty much set for any MJ/Bulls content by the time any pods come out. The docs are fun to watch and it's cool seeing MJ talk about stuff but I don't need to revisit the 90s that bad and I remember them fairly well. I'm surprised he said the re-draft pods did poorly, and scrapped doing more, but him rewatching old Bulls games is better content? Certainly more timely, but just not as interesting IMO
I really thought his bit on them not doing them anymore was a joke and figured he just wanted people to beg him for them. Can't believe they stopped, they were really enjoyable.
Same, when I listened to the first couple I completely forgot a lot of stuff like certain teams rosters and coaching staffs and the rationale behind some of the draft selections
Gladiator pod was pretty good and entertaining. Bill though thinking Commodus looming over Lucious was him wanting to have sex with him vs killing him was weird. Glad the other three clearly told him it was meant to make the audience assume he was considering killing him as a threat.
on the groundhog day rewatch, bill said the redraftables would come back after the MJ doc is done and that content has done. a rare moment of transparency where he said the ringer is struggling for content without sports (no shit) so they'll bring redraftables back and any other idea they have (e.g. re-pick the oscars)
Repick the Oscars will be good. When they did Gladiator brought up Phoenix was robbed that year. Del Toro won for Traffic.
Klosterman just running circles around Bill on this pod, Bill sounded like a fucking child "Jordan was an underrated passer!" gtfo
I've listened to a lot of their RewatchaBulls stuff the last day or two, and I like them. I hate how Bill constantly bitches about how stupid coaches are for not doing the stuff everyone does in 2020, though. It's fucking stupid. "Why didn't the Suns just run pick-and-roll with Johnson and Barkley and put shooters in the corners every time down?" Because no one fucking did that in 1993, Bill. It's like wondering why the Steelers ran the ball so much in the 70s when they had Bradshaw, Lynn and Stallworth. Because that's just what every team in that era did.
He said that in the Sunday pod with RR. I get why he said it because 92 on he was a much better passer than earlier in his career.
if someone asks you who was a better passer between LeBron and Jordan, the answer is never "Jordan was an underrated passer!"
Chuck Klosterman was asking Bill who does various things better. Chuck asked who was the better passer, and Bill responded that Jordan was underrated. It was a dumb answer from a guy who didn’t want to give Lebron any sort of edge.
The Lebron vs Jordan debate is annoying....but it's pretty wild that Bill has yet to give anything to Lebron. "Jordan just constantly stomped on people to remind him he was best. Clyde? Smoked. Barkley? Smoked." He casually forgets Rose being MVP and then Lebron destroying him every year in the playoffs before he got injured. He also forgets Durant/Westbook/Harden in their early years getting destroyed by Lebron. Or Steph winning the MVP and putting together the greatest regular-season record ever then Lebron averaging 29.7/11.3/8.9 with 2.6 steals and 2.3 blocks per game in the Finals. He speaks in these great-than-thou quips about Jordan but then completely ignores similar things that Lebron has done.
Jordan also never played a team like GSW in the finals. Nor did he ever have garbage on his teams like LeBron in Cleveland early on. I don’t enjoy the arguments. LeBron should have gone 3-1 with the heat. Not 2-2 in finals. But he has done some unbelievable things with Cleveland in the playoffs
Russilo and Bill powning tweens in video games and bragging about it is pretty on brand. Also i just learned for the first time Ryen is such a big UFC guy, although I should’ve known.
You think he doesn’t hit the gym in UFC apparel? Im shocked I haven’t heard him talking about starting jiu jitsu.
“If they had swept the Sonics, we’d look at them as the best team ever” as opposed to the 86 Celtics who won their Finals in 6 games against a 51 win team
After 5 minutes of deservedly showering Jordan with praise for being a maniac about working out in the offseason, even while filming Spacejam, after being eliminated by the Magic in ‘95... Simmons: “Yeah it’s the same with the stories you heard about Bird in Boston. Accept he would drink beer and mow his lawn in the summer and then play himself into shape once the season started.” Sooooooo, it’s the exact opposite of MJ then? Is he so conditioned to bringing up Boston athletes that he doesn’t even care to think of the comparison even makes sense? How does he not catch himself and say “Okay maybe it’s not the same.” And no he was not being facetious even though it very much reads that way. He was totally serious about the comparison.
I listened to the pod, and your take on the Bird thing is incorrect. He brought up Bird as an example of someone people used to say had an incredible work ethic, when in reality Bird was doing nothing in the summer and worked his way into shape during the season. Jordan actually had an incredible work ethic and his year-round stuff (at least in Bill's opinion) changed the league. I can't speak to the accuracy of that claim, but he didn't bring up Bird to suggest he was the same as Jordan in terms of work ethic. I'm not sure how he could have been more clear about it, honestly.
I think he was saying Bird was a dick to certain teammates the way Jordan was, which apparently they now love even though Bill slandered Kobe for doing the same exact thing his whole career
I may have tuned out at that point, but the Bird/work ethic convo definitely happened where he used it to say Jordan invented the idea of year-round training. Again, I have no clue how accurate that is, and even from this doc it's clear Jordan was doing that long before the Space Jam stuff. I think he likes the Jordan stuff now because Russillo loves it and coming out with "I don't like Jordan" takes for that reason would make Russillo think less of him.
Simmons has also stated multiple times that the Space Jam scrimmages were the start of guys coming out to LA to play in the summers, which sounds unlikely to me. Reggie Miller has talked for years about how he used to play Magic and a lot of pros in games at UCLA or elsewhere in LA during the summers. I have to think that wasn't just a local thing where other players weren't stopping by.
or that he hates LeBron with a passion and is going full tboon to make sure nobody ever says LeBron is the GOAT
i read a slam article....rico hines says there have been pickup runs at ucla since the days of magic Johnson doubt simmons knows who rico hines even is
Judging from the conversation here and on r/billsimmons (I know how to party, ladies), it seems Russillo is the alpha in that relationship.
It seems like, from what I gather, most of the chatter is about Bill altering/retro-fitting his opinions to match Ryen's, or piggybacking on his takes like it was his all along.
Maybe these aren't as different in reality as they seemed in my head when I read this and thought about it, but... - I think Russillo wants Simmons to like him because Simmons is more famous. - I think Simmons wants Russillo to think he's cool because Simmons is stuck in his college years and Russillo is basically the guy Bill wishes he could be if he could escape that era. The result is Russillo doesn't blow up on Simmons and call him an idiot when he says stupid shit, while Simmons eggs Russillo on in his gym corners and other rants because he wants to live vicariously through him. It would make more sense as a relationship if Russillo was much younger instead of 44 years old.
well that plus Bill is the one signing his paychecks, but yes your post is 100% spot on He certainly adopted Russillo's verbal tic of using the word "thing" every 15 seconds. Bill saying "Ali's Vietnam protest thing" was the apex mountain of thing-dom
Every Monday this thread turns into a whole page of breaking down ryen’s fealty to Bill and their relationship as heard on the pod. Pretty great