I guess I can see some of that with the Pelnka thing, but it wasn't the entire second half of the pod. And I say this as a card carrying Danny Ainge hater (I was in that club before it was cool)... Pelinka has not accomplished what Ainge has. The only way you can even pretend it's close is if you're saying the only possible accomplishment for a GM is a championship. Come on, man.
why would I ever possibly care about anything other than a championship? I can't say I'm longing for a season like Executive of the Year Lawrence Frank had this year
Return to the top for the greatest franchise in the league and the best player of this generation in a year where the franchise’s best player ever died in a helicopter crash. Seems pretty feel good to me. Also many people picked the Lakers to lose in the first round and to the Rockets. On the Simmons thing, they didn’t make a big enough deal about everyone getting fired who was involved in the string of errors they mentioned. It’s true, they were a disaster but Pelinka built effectively around Lebron and AD through defense and got clowned by not having enough shooters.
This is absurd and you should be feel bad for caring this much about how much credit Rob fucking Pelinka is getting three days after your team won a title. What you're saying is the same thing the cave men in baseball did when they said Billy Beane accomplished nothing in Oakland because he didn't win a WS. Do you really think Andrew Friedman has accomplished nothing with the Dodgers because they haven't won a WS yet, regardless of them being the envy of the league and the team winning the division every year?
considering its the "greatest franchise in the league," y'all sure do make a lot of hay about a couple of media personalities saying portland and houston were threats. the lakers were the overwhelming favorite in both rounds (and, really, the entire playoffs). there's nothing they actually overcame. maybe i'm off base but kobe dying and the lakers winning feels very detached. part of it is probably the pandemic and the stoppage in play. part of it is that two top 5 players teaming up isn't actually that interesting (especially with Davis forcing his way to LA), and part of it is that the lakers were recently put together and their longest-tenured player is probably kyle kuzma or something. again, this could just be me.
So I just realized I didn't hear the whole Simmons pod. I only had the YouTube up of the Dudley portion. Didn't realize there was another hour there after that, and I don't have much interest in listening to that hour. I thought the Dudley stuff was the entire pod. So, ZeroPointZero, that's on me and you're probably right about the second half being what you said. I still think you're insane for your Pelinka/Ainge, thing, though.
this is one of the best pods i've ever listened to. JJ is probably the #1 basketball pods right now by a decent margin. and i only half listened to the back half of the simmons pod but it was largely just shitting on pelinka and jeannie, it was an airing of grievances for having to be nice with Dudley
Baseball isn't the best comparison given the drastic payroll disparity in teams and also the more random nature of the postseason. NBA is more of a you are what you are type sport since the best team almost always wins in the end. also the Dodgers are the envy of the league according to who? They are made fun of by every fanbase in MLB for being chokers. I like Friedman and think he is a great GM (who has every possible advantage at his disposal) but if someone wanted to say a GM with a World Series ring was better, I wouldn't think that's crazy.
agree on sports just being weird right now, nba is the most "normal" because it's largely been serious about everything so the kind of grossness of all of it is lessened. i can't really get into the rest whether it's cfb or nfl because its all so reckless and dumb. yes theres lots of shit going on in real life, but nba did a good job trying to bridge everything together. i don't really think the Davis forcing himself to LA thing hurts anything, their series might have been 5 games series until the Finals but they all had some competitive strategy shifts by coaches. quality of play was super high. Lebron for like the 3rd time getting written off for younger guys kind of snaps back the title of best player. game 5 of the finals is on the short list of best games i've ever seen, getting to see Butler kind of erase any doubt about him being a superstar was cool. enjoyed this year way more than the Durant Warriors titles that felt mostly automatic.
They're the envy of people in baseball. They're incredibly well run. They win the division every year. They have a great farm system. Fans of other teams are always going to talk shit. But everyone in the league is hiring people connected to Friedman and his front office tree in the same way people try to copy the Pats in the NFL. And I don't think the NBA postseason being less random helps your case here. The NBA is about having the best players. You either draft/develop them, or you sign/trade for players who want to play for your org. Pelinka was hired by a franchise LeBron and AD wanted to play for. He was the GM when LeBron signed, and was willing to pull the trigger on the AD trade even though it was a lot to give up. He deserves credit for that. But let's also not pretend like he wasn't starting on at least second base here compared to what other GMs have to do when trying to build a contending team. Good for him for getting it done, but even Dudley said it in the pod: they had 2 of the top 5 guys in the league, and Miami (or anyone else) wasn't beating that. I think it would be kind of crazy to suggest Pelnka's title was the same accomplishment as Ujiri's title last year. One of those GMs had to do a hell of a lot more, which is why saying winning a title is the only accomplishment is insane to me.
I'll just agree to disagree on the Dodgers being envied because I'm speaking from the perspective of fans only and not front offices. I think fans of most other playoff caliber teams would scoff if told the Dodgers were a team to envy given our 1990s Buffalo Bills tendencies thus far.
they will win the world series in like 10 days and still have the best players on contract in the game.
That isn't gonna happen and your team will win the World Series and I'll be envying you but I hope you speak it into reality
also MG2 in the social media/awful sports take TV era getting to rub a win in the faces of people is half of the fun and if Michigan ever wins a national title under Harbaugh I will personally buy your plane ticket to go heckle DBL in person
this can all be true but none of that means it's a feel good story. i think the lakers were really fucking good in the playoffs and i think beating houston in 5 or denver in 5 takes away from that; it adds to that. but it almost feels like you are creating this narrative where they overcame something. the lakers were right up there with LAC as the preseason title favorites (+425 for clips vs +450 for the lakers). they had the most projected wins in the conference (third overall behind the bucks and raptors). lebron had the second-best preseason odds for mvp. when the pandemic stopped worked, the lakers were looking incredible. they had a strong lead on the #1 seed. lebron was playing fantastic, too. who the hell had written the lakers or lebron off?! this feels like some sort of false narrative created to make the win look even better. the lakers were supposed to be really good. they were really good during the year and they were great during the playoffs. they were the favorites for the title (especially with the clippers' issues with guys out, etc. and then some shaky losses in the first round) and it was as automatic as some of the GS wins (even with the parallel of game 5 to game 1 of w/e year that was). there doesn't have to be anything more to their story to embellish the championship legacy.
Appreciate the offer, but I think this is just one of those things where my robot nature might be different from other people. If Harbaugh ever wins a title at UM, I will give zero fucks about dblplay1212, Pete Thamel, OSU TMBers or anyone else as I drunkenly stumble around the earth for 3 straight months.
I enjoyed Dudley but thought he spoke a little fast. Maybe nerves idk. Of course a team with LeBron and AD is gonna feel superior to almost anyone. That being said, had Goran and Bam not been injured at all, maybe it goes to game 7. Was it game two without either one where AD had to hit the game winner?
that was against Denver. Game 2 of the Finals was the one where Miami played zone and the Lakers attempted 400 threes.
He wanted to own his podcast. He was on the Barnes/Jackson pod a few weeks back and said he was still cool with Simmons.
im always curious how much he regrets telling the Pod Save America guys he doesn't want to build out their network within the Ringer, especially in light of his reversal on wanting political podcasts the PSA universe has to be worth a fortune
It was. He moved to his own platform 2-3 months ago. The old JJ pods are still on The Ringer site, I believe.
maybe russillo can host a politics podcast i'd love to hear for the 100th time about how the mj vs lebron thing is just like politics because he ignores anyone on "either extreme"
I remember Bill doing an interview after they left, I think with the Hollywood Reporter, where it got brought up. IIRC, they really wanted to lean into being activists but he didn't want that at the Ringer? I think he also said something about how he thought they should do TV. Odd decision at the moment but in hindsight it looks even worse.
yeah i remember him saying he didn't want to even have politics at all under the banner, that the ringer was kind of a reprieve from politics for people, etc. i kind of get it if he didn't want the overt activism under his site, but he went even beyond that in the moment. but now he has bakari doing the same type of shit they do after soft pedaling it over the years with letting the press box largely just become a political pod, Wilmore, etc
Bill is such an idiot about football. 1. Thinking Jameis is the backup on Indy 2. Thinking Jameis is better than Matt Ryan You cant Yada yada 30ints just because he threw for 5k yards last year.
was curious why NBA desktop was ending so looked up the ringer subreddit https://www.reddit.com/user/Abject-Judge/ this is pretty clearly Tates account he created after leaving, or at worst one of his close friends
This sounds similar to what Gallant Knight was saying Most of the staff sucks tbh. Bill is by far and away the biggest reason why most of these podcasts or articles get any traffic. Most of them are talentless millennial hacks riding his coattails, and then they bitch at him about diversity and not getting paid six figures when they have no real talent or resumé. It’s a joke. Nobody would know who most of these people are without Bill, yet they all love to shit on him. It’s laughable. Follow up from Abject Judge: The staff is terrible. BS let the nerds who aren’t fans of his take over his site, and run away the people like Sal, Tate, Titus who do fit. I don't really visit the Ringer site...only consume podcast content. I would guess I'm not in the minority. I do hate the reddit format
I'm listening as I'm working and I couldn't tell you one thing he's said so far...just kind of background noise.
i thought the posts about how he made 28k when producing the pod and drove for uber on the side to make ends meet, saying he left because during the sale process it was made clear he wouldn't be getting any extra money, crying that he built the whole podcast network and never got any credit, etc were interesting
there's no way in hell against all odds, one shining podcast, and jj reddick's podcast did big numbers.
Mookie Betts being involved means we'll at least get a passing mention of the World Series. 100% lock Bill would've never said a word about Braves-Rays other than baseball dying etc
This video isn't very funny, but they're doing a Binge Mode on the MCU. That's nice considering Bill will never let them do any MCU movies as Rewatchables.
Jackie MacMullin name drops more than Kevin Clark, what an awful signing. Lets reminisce on that POS Bob Ryan but not that time he spoke of wanting to assault a toddler
i used to like Jackie Mac in her periodic appearances on pods frequent appearances has completely ruined that, not a fan
"And the whole thing about LeBron not getting respect, cmon get outta here, who doesn't respect LeBron??" - the podcast with 2 people who don't respect LeBron