The r/BillSimmons Podcast The r/BillSimmons Podcast

Welcome to Episode 78! We bring on Ty from Pyramid the Podcast (yes, inspired by Bill) to talk Bill from the early days.

Ty and his group of friends in Boston first discovered and then frequently emailed Bill in the late-90s as his column was on the rise. We discuss Bill at that time and Ty notes how part of what made Bill endearing was his aggressive calling out of the Boston media. Ty tells us why Bill was such a revelation at the time.

We then go through the various stages of his career, and hear a fun story about Ty hanging out with Bill at a Clippers game. We discuss how Bill, and his content, has and hasn't changed since he started so long ago.

We finish up with some Bill Simmons current events before discussing Ty's "Pyramid The Podcast" inspired by Bill's love of Pyramids for rankings.

If you enjoyed the show, check out Ty on his pod: https://pyramidthepodcast.podbean.com

Welcome to Episode 77! The WSJ dropped a long article today revealing many more details of the upcoming NBA rights deal. For all intents and purposes and barring a hail mary by Warner Bros. Discovery, this is a done deal.

In this show I assess why the Peacock exclusives are such a big deal, what this means for the future of streaming on NBC, why the NBA loves NBC (not just about the money), possible future media M&A due to this NBA deal, and I predict where Inside the NBA will land.

I finish up the pod laughing about today's BS Pod episode including Bill reigniting his feud with Pat McAfee.

Welcome to Episode #76! Andy (@AndyKHLiu) from the Light Years pod (https://linktr.ee/LightYearsPodcast) comes on for a fast-moving show covering several Bill Simmons and sports media topics.

We start off with Andy's background becoming a Bill Simmons fan, and reminisce about Grantland and old Bill tweets. He really used to have no filter!

Since Andy is a Warriors fan we get his take on Bill's view of KD - he agrees Bill overrated him because of the BS Pod appearances. And why didn't Bill - a "Steph guy" - include him in his NBA Belt holders?

We then discuss the ongoing Bill-Russillo relationship and conclude that anyone doing 2 hours of weekly pods for several years will get sick of each other. We also laugh at how Bill acts like a host when he goes on Zach Lowe's pod and how Zach must be annoyed but grits his teeth.

Next we take on the Inside the NBA takes and discuss how Draymond can improve enough to be good on TV. And Andy explains why he feels the JJ-Doris booth with Mike Breen isn't working.

We finish up discussing how the recent Stephen A and Pat McAfee segments on the WNBA are emblematic of sports media in 2024 and, channeling our inner Bill, where we think sports media, as well as the NBA, is going.

If you enjoyed the show, follow Andy on Twitter and check out the Light Years Pod.

Welcome to Episode 75! We bring on Chenny from Twitter (@ChennyBritt) for a classic r/BS Pod episode talking Bill, Russillo, sports media and more.

We start off discussing the interesting dynamic of Bill having long-time fans who know he's overreacting with extreme bias vs. the newer fans and NBA Twitter who actually take his words seriously; it's happening like never before this NBA playoffs with Bill's hilarious flip flops every podcast. We then take a look back at Bill on NBA Countdown, and think Bill could do well once again on an NBA show and that it would actually improve his takes.

Next we discuss Russillo's tenure at The Ringer and assess potential next moves. Chenny brings excellent insight into the discussion on why, with Russillo's interests in screenwriting coupled with the lack of video at The Ringer, we see better homes for him going forward than his current one. Also, we assess how the Russillo-Bill pods have improved in 2024 vs 2023.

Continuing on sports media, we discuss Colin Cowherd's sports media company and why what he's doing there makes more sense to us than what The Ringer's doing. Why did Bill miss the video paradigm shift after calling so many previous ones?

We finish up discussing our enjoyment of Bill's pop culture takes and how we think Vintage Bill shows up in those segments as opposed to his current First Take-esque sports discussion.

If you liked the show, check out Chenny on Twitter and on YouTube where he does analysis of top TV shows and movies: https://www.youtube.com/@winterhillwarriors

In this episode I break down why we’re about to see such a massive shift in the NBA rights deals. I discuss:

— What went wrong with the formation of TNT’s parent Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD)

— Why WBD’s recent financials have been disastrous

— The highly negative impact of WBD signing a new NBA deal at double the cost of the previous one

— Why the deal makes much more sense for NBC and Amazon

— Why the NBA prefers NBC and Amazon over WBD

Welcome to Episode 73! We bring on Mike from Twitter (@PokerPolitics) for a deeper look into the evolution of Bill Simmons, as Mike's been reading Bill since the Page 2 ESPN days in the early 2000s.

First we start with Bill Simmons current events. His flip flops on the Wolves-Nuggets series have been legendary. Plus, we react to the embarrassing Justin Termine appearance defending Bill's outrageous takes.

Next we go back to Mike's origins finding Bill and wonder whether he'd be as successful if he were the "Seattle Sports Guy" or the "Cleveland Sports Guy." We agree that Boston played a large role in his success.

Next we revisit some classic Page 2 columns and try to get to the bottom of why Bill turned into 2024 Full Parody Hot Take Artist Bill Simmons. Was it inevitable after being in sports media for so long? Was it a conscious choice? Is he simply following the trends of what media has become these days?

We finish up discussing how Bill's refusal to take an L on his takes has made his listeners more than ever root aggressively against his Boston teams.

Hope you enjoyed! Thank you to Wiser Times for the intro song and Zach Blatter for the cover art.