ESPN lays off Ford and Stein, now hires the Woj

5,449 Views | 35 Replies | Last: 6 yr ago by Iowaggie
Guitarsoup
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Intersting they are spending big bucks to bring in the best in the business after laying off 100 people.
Matsui
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Head Ninja In Charge
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With Lowe and now Woj, ESPN has the two best basketball writers on the planet on staff.
Hickory High
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Head Ninja In Charge said:

With Lowe and now Woj, ESPN has the two best basketball writers on the planet on staff.
Definitely the two best...below Bill Simmons.
Guitarsoup
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NBA not Boston Celtics


Simmons is hit and miss.
Hickory High
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I'll agree to disagree.
ATM9000
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Simmons is a really talented columnist and writer... But he's too much of a fan boy and jocksniffer for me to ever consider him one of the best NBA writers.
Ulrich
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Lowe is definitely the best out there. After that it doesn't really matter.
Guitarsoup
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Simmons voted for Austin Rivers for all defense.

Austin Rivers over Chris Paul, Danny Green, Jimmy Butler, Tony Allen, Paul George, LeBron James, John Wall, etc

Pure fanboy all the time.
Hickory High
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Guitarsoup said:

Simmons voted for Austin Rivers for all defense.

Austin Rivers over Chris Paul, Danny Green, Jimmy Butler, Tony Allen, Paul George, LeBron James, John Wall, etc

Pure fanboy all the time.

Why does that say fanboy to you?
Head Ninja In Charge
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Hickory High said:

Guitarsoup said:

Simmons voted for Austin Rivers for all defense.

Austin Rivers over Chris Paul, Danny Green, Jimmy Butler, Tony Allen, Paul George, LeBron James, John Wall, etc

Pure fanboy all the time.

Why does that say fanboy to you?
Doc plus isn't he a Clippers season ticket holder?
Head Ninja In Charge
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Either way, I thought you were joking about Simmons earlier. He really hasn't been good since 2010-11. Shtick got old and really stopped trying after Grantland got up and running.
Guitarsoup
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Head Ninja In Charge said:

Hickory High said:

Guitarsoup said:

Simmons voted for Austin Rivers for all defense.

Austin Rivers over Chris Paul, Danny Green, Jimmy Butler, Tony Allen, Paul George, LeBron James, John Wall, etc

Pure fanboy all the time.

Why does that say fanboy to you?
Doc plus isn't he a Clippers season ticket holder?
Exactly. Simmons is all over Doc Rivers nuts and has been a Clippers season ticket holder for over a decade.

No one would take Austin Rivers as s shut down wing over Danny Green, Jimmy Butler, LeBron, etc.

It's a ridiculous choice based solely on his fanboydom.

Agree with Ninja about Simmons' downfall.
2008and1
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He said "writer"
Guitarsoup
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2008and1 said:

He said "writer"
Good point. Not podcast talker.
Hickory High
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Wow. If you think Bill LIKES Doc, you haven't listened to him in years. He constantly criticizes both him and Austin Rivers.
Hickory High
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Yeah but he has zero attachment to the Clippers. I mean come on, that's the Clippers' thing: they don't have any real, loyal fans.
Iowaggie
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(Written in the Bill Simmons style of using 300 words when 50 would have been sufficient)


I was talking to my dad and buddy Sal about the best NBA sports columnists the other day, and Sal* suggested a tournament with Woj, Simmons, Lowe, and Ethan Strauss. Before we get into the details, we tried to matchup each of the writers with a Saved by the Bell character. We all thought Woj as Belding was the easy call because of the way they are both friendly authoritative figures. Zach Lowe was the Mario Lopez character who through grit and determination was able to get the scholarship to Iowa for wrestling**. I think Ethan Strauss fits perfectly as Kelly Kapowski***, the hottie who you always want to read, but there really isn't much substance. We could never decide on Simmons though. I love my dad, but he thought of him as Screech-the clever guy who disappears after leaving the show at ESPN. I said, "Hey, this isn't Antoine Walker were referring to here." Simmons to me is of course the Zach Morris talk to the camera guy. Not because he's cool, but his embarrassingly long staring down of the camera on his HBO show is like (finish your own hobbled Bill Buckner/Red Sox analogy). We grudgingly went with Sal's choice of Brenda Walsh (Shannon Doherty) to be Simmons. Sure, she's from 90210, and she left the show, but all reports were she was a ***** to work with, in love with herself, and way overestimated her value, and that pretty much nails Simmons.





*Sal once sat by Patrick Ewing at a Marc's Big Boy in Boston on St. Patrick's day. He always call's Ewing Big Boy, but we always believe he likes to humble brag about meeting the patron saint of the Knicks, named Patrick, on St. Patrick's Day.

**No way does AC Slater earn a scholarship at Iowa. Iowa wrestling won 15 wrestling titles under Dan Gable between 1978 and 1991. Dan Gable would be a #1 seed in the All College Coaches bracket tournament suggested by the Sports Gal.

***New Psychological test: What does it say if you prefer Kelly Bundy over Kelly Kapowski for hottest 90s character?

Sports Guy wants to Know who you choose?
Hickory High
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I prefer that stand-up comedy style of writing though. Sure Jerry Seinfeld could go up on stage and bluntly state his jokes, but he adds all sorts of nuance to it. That's how Bill writes.
Deputy Travis Junior
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I'm not sure how you even weigh Simmons against Lowe because they're trying to accomplish completely different things. Lowe wants to get into the nuance of the game and breakdown matchups in a way that readers can understand, while Simmons' primary goal is to entertain while interjecting comedy and commentary into his 30k foot level writing.

To say that one is better than the other is similar to comparing the writings of Sun Tzu and Tom Clancy simply because both wrote about military action.
hph6203
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Read all of Simmons' Big Book of Basketball and his column on ESPN for years.... He's not a great writer.

He's a stream of consciousness writer, which is fine if you're trying to be funny/entertaining, but not really ok if you're trying to inform or convince an audience.
Hickory High
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hph6203 said:

Read all of Simmons' Big Book of Basketball and his column on ESPN for years.... He's not a great writer.

He's a stream of consciousness writer, which is fine if you're trying to be funny/entertaining, but not really ok if you're trying to inform or convince an audience.

I mean, I read the book and his column for years as well, and it was what made me think of him as a great writer. It goes both ways. These are all subjective terms.
Ag Natural
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Interesting move. I guess ESPN has decided to go with primarily national guys and go away from the plugged in beat writer types. At least for the NBA. What about Windhorst? That guys claim to fame is being plugged into the Cavs. He just published a book about last year's team.
Furlock Bones
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Simmons sucks donkey peen.
Hickory High
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Why?
Olsen
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I like Woj. He's the NBA equivalent to Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport in the NFL.
Olsen
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Pumpkinhead
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Simmons is talented. And he has parlayed that talent to build up a listed net worth of around $20 million, including a huge contract with HBO. Now whether he is literally the 'best NBA writer' as another poster said is subjective and depends on what your own personal interests are. Difference strokes for different folks.
Iowaggie
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Olsen
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Woj will officially join ESPN on July 1st. Bobby Marks from The Vertical will join Woj's move to ESPN.

http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-releases/2017/06/adrian-wojnarowski-joins-espn-as-nba-insider/
Texags is garbage
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Guess I can unsubscribe from his Podcast I just downloaded with his former company today.
Ulrich
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I read the Book of Basketball, and that is what made me realize that Bill Simmons is amusing but only in small doses. He has a good sense of the history of the game and the personalities, but his understanding of strategy and ability to comment on the present day is pretty poor.
Texags is garbage
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Ulrich said:

I read the Book of Basketball, and that is what made me realize that Bill Simmons is amusing but only in small doses. He has a good sense of the history of the game and the personalities, but his understanding of strategy and ability to comment on the present day is pretty poor.
I really like Simmons, but that is one dude that loves to hear himself talk. Think he's one of those guys that just gets caught up in his own world at times.
Texags is garbage
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Head Ninja In Charge said:

Hickory High said:

Guitarsoup said:

Simmons voted for Austin Rivers for all defense.

Austin Rivers over Chris Paul, Danny Green, Jimmy Butler, Tony Allen, Paul George, LeBron James, John Wall, etc

Pure fanboy all the time.

Why does that say fanboy to you?
Doc plus isn't he a Clippers season ticket holder?
Think he got their season tickets since he somewhat recently moved to LA and they're easier to secure than Lakers tickets. He's pretty open about being a die-hard Celts fan. Definitely seems like he got too close to the Clippers organization since his move though to be objective.

Kind of gathered all of this from various podcasts I listen to that he has appeared on, so could be wrong.
Matsui
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He has been a clippers season ticket holder for a while now. Even before his move to la.
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