11/05/24
April 16, 2004
The Sports Guy's 20 Questions: about the NBA playoffs. He may be giving his "A" material to Jimmy Kimmel, but Simmons remains the most entertaining sportswriter in the business. BTW, he picks Spurs over Pistons in a GRUELING final.
posted by dzot to basketball at 12:42 PM - 8 comments
And with that said, I'm still taking the Kings, who are too big upfront for Dallas, just like last year. Um, the Mavs beat the Kings in the 2nd round last year. Pretty entertaining though. I like the fact that he gave some props to Odom and Miami. I saw them in a game early in the season and they were absolutely horrible. Yeah, Eddie Jones was injured, but they just did not play together. I'm glad to see them pick up the pieces. In a perfet world, there would be a consolation bracket where Miami played Houston and the Van Gundy bros. would wrestle at halftime. The NY/NJ series should be exciting. Could spark a rivalry that will last until the Nets move to Brooklyn. I hope it does. It'll be interesting to see how KG and the Wolves come out in the first round. This is the first time they're really expected to perform. I maintained that the final reg. season game at Memphis would show how much heart they have, as it was a must-win in order to keep the #1 seed. They played pretty damned well. I don't see Denver putting up much of a struggle after game 3, but I hope I'm wrong. A San Antonio/Detroit Final would get really boring after game 1.
posted by Ufez Jones at 01:12 PM on April 16, 2004
nothing against you, dzot, for posting this it was an enjoyable read but.... can people stop ridin' bill simmons dick like he's the last funny sportswriter in the world or somethin'. there's typically funnier stuff in the free rag i pick up at the bagel store. the guy is funny...but i'm jus' sayin'. he's played out. /rant.
posted by oliver_crunk at 01:21 PM on April 16, 2004
There's an excellent topic: Where is the humor in sportswriting? Now we're not talking about the mindless parody (read: about 90% of ESPN Page 2), we're talking about actual quality sportswriting that is laced with humor. Who's bringin' it?
posted by dzot at 02:24 PM on April 16, 2004
Mitch Albom used to be one of the funniest guys in sports writing...but he's gotten too serious/cynical since his "Tuesdays" hype...there was an article he wrote back in '87, about a tour through the Tigers clubhouse, and another about picking an office softball team...both comic genius. If I can find a link, I'll post it...
posted by MeatSaber at 02:59 PM on April 16, 2004
posted by MeatSaber at 03:04 PM on April 16, 2004
That was funny, meatsaber!
posted by dusted at 03:19 PM on April 16, 2004
but i'm jus' sayin'. he's played out. I blame ESPN entirely. Maybe LA some too. I still have fond memories of the citysearch days. He struggles some writing for a national audience. When it was just him and a few thousand of us in New England, those were the days. I wish I could find an archive for you to see the brilliance, but he had an ugly falling out (I think) when he left for ESPN and I cannot find anything on the 'net. What made the columns was the consistent level of brilliance and what made the consistency was the fact the readers were (almost) as funny as he was (e.g., the person who wrote in saying they were going to start calling Paul Pierce "Chewbacca" because "Bob Cousy keeps saying he's 'Wookie of the Year'." You can see where that wouldn't translate.).
posted by yerfatma at 03:24 PM on April 16, 2004
I had just finished reading the article before heading over here. Yes, he is the funniest, but the over/under on his schtick getting completely stale is +250 / -10. Can anyone tell me it's not? Anyone?