I am behind on podcasts because my interest just isn't there right now......did Simmons just read an article last week about Jordan for his podcast?
Yeah, he has done that on other Book of Basketball pods. I think it might have been an exerpt from his book on Jordan. Wish he wrote more. That was my favorite way to consume his spoprts takes.
so what happens after the MJ doc is over, does Bill just end the podcast altogether? He's beaten that dead horse more than I could've ever imagined. Perhaps we get a sequel to the top 25 Pats games ever with Hench
Holy shit haha Jacko is about to get into his zone on political coverage. Would love to (jk) hear him and Ryen talk politics.
Ryen saying a couple of weeks ago "It's like politics. People start on the extremes and I usually start in the middle and get it right" when they were talking about ranking all-time players or whatever was an all-timer
Bill’s justification of why MJ is forever the goat ten years ago (Lebron can’t do a, b, and c like MJ) seemed like a list of things lebron has done in the last ten years. Also the ‘06 All Star game story at the four seasons was fun. I spend a lot of time in that hotel and there are always nba players there.
Bills mj article in retrospect is really bad, that style of reductive subjective argument is just gone. I realize why he doesn't want to redo the book because the math requirements would be a lot higher for it to be taken seriously.
my eyes rolled so far back into my head when he went with “players these days are too buddy buddy” considering his boy Ainge was golfing with MJ between games in the fn 80s
Advanced metrics give you an empirical benchmark, but taking into account the conventions of how different eras coached the game and rules changes, it’s really challenging to come close to an apples to apples comparison. Bill could argue MJ > Lebron without sounding doofy, but for the general fan we should just accept no argument will be iron clad.
I’ve enjoyed all the MJ stuff. Not surprised a lot of you haven’t. The work he did to write the original BOB was insane. It’s more than just computing advance stats. Have a lot of you read it? Crimson Tide Rewatch Pod was great and Draft Diary might be might most enjoyable Mallory pod.
I've read it cover to cover. I don't think he had advanced stats in it. He was tallying all pro teams, all star teams, and arbitrarily selected counting stat thresholds.
yes such insane work to talk to Isiah Thomas and discover the "secret" to great teams is guys sacrificing individual glory for team success, mind blowing stuff
I’m not savvy on advanced metrics, and I didn’t read BOB. Truth be told I actually don’t like Simmons’ prose that much. However, it feels like awards that grade people against their peers helps even out the comparison across eras a bit. Simply: who dominated the game when everyone was playing by the same parameters
I don't disagree, and didn't really mean to diminish the pyramid section of BoB. Probably came out that way though. There are sections of the book that are VERY thoroughly and meticulously researched. There just aren't advanced stats in it IIRC
my point was advanced stats weren't really a big thing when he wrote it and if he redid it the book it would seem extremely dated and irrelevant if he didn't include them in his cases and that spending sections writing that Jordan had the most "room presence" and transcribing peer testimonials aren't really persuasive of anything
Simmons only cares about advanced stats if they back up what he wants to be true, plus he doesn't really understand them in the first place. Bill explaining usage rate to Steve Nash was a doozy
The book was well written with years of research. I get it you hate him. The book was much more than that. It’s not like you have a subjective opinion on the topic.
"advanced stats" are fundamentally at odds with who Simmons as a media personality is. his shtick is that he is the hardcore fan in the stands. i always liked that he had haralabob on but it was pretty clear who knew more about the nba within about 5 minutes of listening to them together
To be fair, that is true of pretty much everybody. I like that Simmons is a homer for his teams and his guys. It is only annoying that he pretends he is being objective. I will happily admit I will cherry pick whatever stat or argument that favors the guy or team I'm a fan of without remorse. Watch this (though his is soccer related): Jordan Henderson is better than Paul Pogba because of his leadership and is willingness to track back.
I think the percentage of NBA fans who truly understand basketball advanced stats is below 10%, and the percentage of people who quote advanced stats and understand than can't be over 20%. And, for the record, I wouldn't count myself in the 10% when it comes to a lot of the stuff I read or hear. That doesn't excuse Bill from being dumb when he quotes them incorrectly to try to sound smarter, but the group of people guilty of that sin is rather large.
This movie got me more excited than almost any announcements they’ve ever had for future episodes. Plus it decided what I’d be watching this weekend. Pumped.
Back to the future is incredibly underrated. It’s like the ‘68 Russell of Larry Bird seasons but for movies.
"Michael J Fox was really at the peak of his powers, I mean he was having a moment. You had the Family Ties thing, you had the Teen Wolf thing only a month later. He was just one of those guys you saw and you were like 'this guy just does stuff.' It's too bad later he had the Parkinson's thing."
I listened to Lowe's pod with Russillo about game 7 of the 98 ECF. Russillo makes things pretty awkward when they're talking about Miller not being ranked in the recent ESPN top 74 list where he goes "I don't know, maybe you get a 20 spot bump if you're on the The Jump," and Lowe just sits there not making a sound before saying "I'm not going to touch that one" and moves on. He also has a long story about his HS basketball career at the end that I'm sure people here would enjoy laughing at.
Bill giving portnoy a casual nod about attacking fauci for flattening the curve vs a cure. It was a throw away comment, but only a moron references portnoy in that way. Kinda sad that the last 3 years or so I’ve gradually learned Bill is not that smart, which is not a knock on his business acumen or anything media related.
the best way to get a job at a simmons media company is write literally anything about the Pats or Celtics
The fan behavior discussion is maybe the best example of what people criticize bill and ryen for that is basically a cliche now