OT Simmons leaving ESPN

[Candyman]

With all of the strife surrounding his suspensions and what not, he's been expecting and planning for the inevitability of this for a while.

On leaving ESPN, if he ever did:

I need to not deal with Bristol as much. Nothing against Bristol, but I do worry that it becomes a little cultish after a while. ... At the cafeteria, there's Mike and Mike getting a sandwich and there's Matthew Berry and, hey, there's Mark Schlereth. ... I am not afraid to leave. If it happens, I will kill myself trying to haunt them somewhere else.

ESPN.com is the be all end all of sports sites. Their the number one sports site, channel etc. He can go elsewhere but i highly doubt that they would miss him. He could always start his own podcast show like his buddy Carolla and do his own Youtube channel but i think he gets on with another big corp like Yahoo, FOX, HBO, Showtime etc.

 

[auror]

A lot of "Used to..."'s in here. I get it, it's cool to hate on Simmons since he's gotten so big and well known.

Grantland is awesome, 30 for 30 is awesome, his podcasts are a pretty nice mix of entertaining and informative (guest dependent, of course, but finding good guests is a talent), and he still bangs out the occasional very entertaining mailbag or seminal column. And this is all achieved within the corporate structured and creatively restricting world of Disney, which may be the biggest accomplishment of all.

 

[champs99and04]

I'm sort of indifferent on Simmons. There are definitely times when he becomes far too infatuated with his own celebrity status, and the sports guy moniker became a joke a long time ago. I don't expect everybody to be as well-versed on college sports as the people on this board, but I remember a couple years ago on his podcast he admitted to having no idea the Big East was broken up. You don't have to like college sports, but somebody of his stature should have at least a general awareness of this stuff.

He's still an excellent writer when he wants to be, and although I agree he's way behind Lowe and others when it comes to the actual anatomy of the game, he's somewhat of a historian who offers some great perspectives on certain players and teams. His recent column on Tim Duncan I thought was great.

In regards to actual content, I think the writers on average at Grantland are more talented than the ones at ESPN. He deserves props for giving some of that talent a platform.

 

[whaler11]

ESPN.com is the be all end all of sports sites. Their the number one sports site, channel etc. He can go elsewhere but i highly doubt that they would miss him. He could always start his own podcast show like his buddy Carolla and do his own Youtube channel but i think he gets on with another big corp like Yahoo, FOX, HBO, Showtime etc.

Yahoo gets 50% more traffic.

 

[whaler11]

On the bright side maybe this horrific version of 538 goes away.

 

[Lefty2one]

Similar to the saying, "he has a face for radio"....Simmons had a face/voice/appearance for a writer. He's similar to Mike Lupica, who I can't believe has had a show on ESPN Radio for a few years now. Amazing that ESPN can't find a better radio guy in NYC. Both are annoying to listen to/watch.

Back to Simmons, he was okay in his earlier days with the whole "fan blog perspective" stuff but once he got on TV/radio more he was tough to take. His Book of Basketball was pretty good despite his blatant Celtic homerism, it was entertaining at least. His stint as the studio guy on ESPN's NBA coverage was so brutal. I haven't read his stuff in years either, his shtick got old to me. I imagine he'll fall off the map where ever he happens to land. He doesn't move the needle enough to survive without The Mothership.

 

[Candyman]

Yahoo gets 50% more traffic.

Referring more to Yahoo sports then to the main page. ESPN is where more sports centric minds go to.

 

[whaler11]

Referring more to Yahoo sports then to the main page. ESPN is where more sports centric minds go to.

Yahoo Sports gets 50% more pageviews than ESPN.

 

[WillMadsDad]

Thank God! Simmons sucks a fatty!

 

[Candyman]

Yahoo Sports gets 50% more pageviews than ESPN.

Still feel based on your hard evidence that ESPN.com is premium sports webiste. Basically my point is if he got hired by Yahoo it would be a downgrade compared to ESPN.

 

[UConn990411]

Apparently ESPN didn't even tell Simmons about this before making the news public.

Regardless of how you feel about Simmons, it shows how petty and pathetic ESPN's higher ups are.

 

[UConn990411]

Yahoo Sports gets 50% more pageviews than ESPN.

Pageviews aren't really indicative of popularity. A lot more people use Yahoo for fantasy than ESPN and CBS, which will artificially spike up pageviews.

 

[PcketknfNiels]

A lot of "Used to..."'s in here. I get it, it's cool to hate on Simmons since he's gotten so big and well known.

Grantland is awesome, 30 for 30 is awesome, his podcasts are a pretty nice mix of entertaining and informative (guest dependent, of course, but finding good guests is a talent), and he still bangs out the occasional very entertaining mailbag or seminal column. And this is all achieved within the corporate structured and creatively restricting world of Disney, which may be the biggest accomplishment of all.

The "used to" fits in his case. Somewhere in the 2008-2010 range he became an EXCEEDINGLY NBA-centric, boring, lazy, PC version of his former self. There was a time when his pop culture references made sense, however the past few years they're clearly forced, template, insert-recent-movie/show/event-here.

Also, while he's always been more about the NBA than anything else, prior to his empty calorie basketball book, he would at least make an effort to talk about sports outside of the NFL (from Sept thru Jan) and the NBA (year round). These days he just vacillates between taking pot shots at every other league and Adam Silver/whoever the 27th best player in the NBA is at any given time (all while being too much of an NBA ass kisser to admit that unless team 'x' has one of 4-6 players at any given time, they are ultimately irrelevant and won't factor into the title scene).

His writing these days is so uninspiring that I'd even say his podcasts are the best thing he does now, and I don't even think he's that great at that medium. And he's obviously truly awful and doesn't have the charisma for TV.

 

[johnhuskies95]

He is so bad on TV, it's basically cringe worthy. I really hope he doesn't go to Turner.

 

[whaler11]

Pageviews aren't really indicative of popularity. A lot more people use Yahoo for fantasy than ESPN and CBS, which will artificially spike up pageviews.

I'm sorry that the numbers don't fit y'alls worldviews.

It's 45,000,000 more pageviews a month that Yahoo gets.

How exactly do you measure webpage popularity if not pageviews? Your opinion?

 

[UConn990411]

I'm sorry that the numbers don't fit y'alls worldviews.

It's 45,000,000 more pageviews a month that Yahoo gets.

How exactly do you measure webpage popularity if not pageviews? Your opinion?

How about toning down the douchiness a notch?

I didn't make the argument for ESPN over Yahoo Sports, or vice versa. I just don't think pageviews - without context - necessarily means one site is more popular.

For instance, you may have 1,000 Yahoo fantasy users who visit 10 pages per day, compared to 5,000 people who visit ESPN.com, check out one article, and leave. In that instance, both sites would have the same number of pageviews.

That's the only point I was making, so no need to get all defensive.

 

[whaler11]

How about toning down the douchiness a notch?

I didn't make the argument for ESPN over Yahoo Sports, or vice versa. I just don't think pageviews - without context - necessarily means one site is more popular.

For instance, you may have 1,000 Yahoo fantasy users who visit 10 pages per day, compared to 5,000 people who visit ESPN.com, check out one article, and leave. In that instance, both sites would have the same number of pageviews.

That's the only point I was making, so no need to get all defensive.

Well I went back and looked at the numbers: Yahoo Sports actually has 50% more unique visitors.

I'm not being defensive I'm trying to figure out how with actual data on which is more popular you wouldn't just accept that your assumption was wrong rather than try to dream up ways it could still be right.

 

[Johnny Mac]

A lot of "Used to..."'s in here. I get it, it's cool to hate on Simmons since he's gotten so big and well known.

Grantland is awesome, 30 for 30 is awesome, his podcasts are a pretty nice mix of entertaining and informative (guest dependent, of course, but finding good guests is a talent), and he still bangs out the occasional very entertaining mailbag or seminal column. And this is all achieved within the corporate structured and creatively restricting world of Disney, which may be the biggest accomplishment of all.

You're right, auror. Nearly 4 million twitter followers...but nobody pays attention to him anymore.

 

[UConn990411]

Well I went back and looked at the numbers: Yahoo Sports actually has 50% more unique visitors.

I'm not being defensive I'm trying to figure out how with actual data on which is more popular you wouldn't just accept that your assumption was wrong rather than try to dream up ways it could still be right.

Still being defensive.

I wasn't the one who said ESPN's more popular - only that pageviews isn't the be all, end all.

 

[UconnOhNiner]

How about toning down the douchiness a notch?

I didn't make the argument for ESPN over Yahoo Sports, or vice versa. I just don't think pageviews - without context - necessarily means one site is more popular.

For instance, you may have 1,000 Yahoo fantasy users who visit 10 pages per day, compared to 5,000 people who visit ESPN.com, check out one article, and leave. In that instance, both sites would have the same number of pageviews.

That's the only point I was making, so no need to get all defensive.

1,000 x 10 visits per day is 10,000 page views
10,000 > 5,000

 

[Northbound]

Connor Schell was the originator of 30 for 30. I know Bill gets the credit, but it was Connor's idea.

 

[nyhusky89]

I'm sorry that the numbers don't fit y'alls worldviews.

It's 45,000,000 more pageviews a month that Yahoo gets.

How exactly do you measure webpage popularity if not pageviews? Your opinion?

Their point, I believe, is that much YahooSports' traffic comes from being a link on the Yahoo front page, which is probably the driver of the vast majority of their traffic-not to mention Yahoo's status as the top fantasy site. ESPN on the other hand is no doubt the biggest brand in sports, both on online and on television, even though it may not average more monthly page views than YSports or as many viewers as a cable network (which receive a Yahoo-esque boost for sports programming compared to sports-only channels by virtue of the fact that they are delivered to far more households).

I am sure Yahoo pays its top writers well and it has some big names, include Woj. Even Forde, annoying as he might be, has a huge platform at Yahoo and was successfully poached from a great gig at ESPN to boot. The problem for them is that ESPN turns people into personalities and has 24/7 sports only programming running on at least five networks. YSports can support a decent number of high profile writers, but ESPN is a behemoth with unlimited room for advancement into whatever medium you fancy.

 

[whaler11]

Their point, I believe, is that much YahooSports' traffic comes from being a link on the Yahoo front page, which is probably the driver of the vast majority of their traffic-not to mention Yahoo's status as the top fantasy site. ESPN on the other hand is no doubt the biggest brand in sports, both on online and on television, even though it may not average more monthly page views than YSports or as many viewers as a cable network (which receive a Yahoo-esque boost for sports programming compared to sports-only channels by virtue of the fact that they are delivered to far more households).

I am sure Yahoo pays its top writers well and it has some big names, include Woj. Even Forde, annoying as he might be, has a huge platform at Yahoo and was successfully poached from a great gig at ESPN to boot. The problem for them is that ESPN turns people into personalities and has 24/7 sports only programming running on at least five networks. YSports can support a decent number of high profile writers, but ESPN is a behemoth with unlimited room for advancement into whatever medium you fancy.

Doesn't matter how they get there.

You can't be end all be all with 45 million fewer unique users a month.

Also ESPN clearly edits their site and their voices to their television partner's desires - part of the reason we are having this conversation.

Hard to take someone seriously as the end all be all when they will suspend you if you say something mean about Goddell.

 

[UConn990411]

1,000 x 10 visits per day is 10,000 page views
10,000 > 5,000

Visit ESPN.com (the homepage) then view one article=2 pageviews.

5,000 x 2=10,000

 

[auror]

Connor Schell was the originator of 30 for 30. I know Bill gets the credit, but it was Connor's idea.

In anticipation, ESPN Films’ executive producer Connor Schell spoke to Forbes about the 30 for 30 series from inception to fruition and the surprises along the way.

Forbes: How does what the series creator, Bill Simmons, and you initially envisioned differ from what viewers are seeing on screen today?

Schell: We had been doing documentaries for several years at ESPN, but on more of a one-off basis. Bill’s e-mail and Bill helping advance the conversation allowed us to all get together...."

Paste: Tell me a little bit about the origin of the idea; I know that columnist Bill Simmons was a big part of it. How did such an audacious idea get started?

Connor Schell: Going back to 2007, we were looking for a way to celebrate 30 years in sports, going into ESPN’s 30 year anniversary. And we thought, what better way than to reach out to the creative community and find 30 compelling, original stories that were a cross-section of where sports had intersected culture over the last three decades.

Connor doesn't dispute the Bill Simmons creator thing in the Forbes article, and definitely gives him credit for being the driving force in it getting made. In Paste, he only says "we". Maybe he's just being modest, but either way it seems fair to give Simmons a lot of credit for 30 for 30.