Bill Simmons is NOT A Bad Guy

Yesterday, while Bill Simmons was talking with Joe House and Jalen Rose on the weekly podcast called The B.S. Report, Bill had said some interesting things about Memphis. Just to get this clear, Bill Simmons is getting all the bad publicity right now, even though he shouldn't.

The podcast, which I was actually listening to (like I always do) was just a normal podcast in which Bill was discussing the NBA Playoffs with Jalen and Joe. Because Jalen and Bill are on the NBA countdown crew, they were in Memphis to cover the Western Conference Finals. For almost the whole show, Jalen and Bill were raving about how amazing the city was and how pleasantly surprised they were by it. They loved the food, the geography, the feel, and especially the nice people. But the part that got everyone talking about is the history aspect of Memphis. In fact, Jalen Rose ranked Memphis #1 on his "Black Guy Best City Power Rankings", so you know that Bill and Jalen have immense respect for the wonderful city of Memphis.

Bill and Jalen had gone to the Lorraine Hotel in their 4 day stay in Memphis. They said it was a great experience. Bill Simmons is a sports analyst, sports-caster, and sports writer. His job is to talk about sports and to relate or connect anything that he's talking about back to sports;  whether it's Game of Thrones, Football, Life, or even Martin Luther King Jr. and his impact on the city of Memphis and their sports.

"I didn’t realize the effect [the King assassination] had on that city. [...] I think from people we talk to and stuff we’ve read, the shooting kind of sets the tone for how the city thinks about stuff. We were at Game 3. Great crowd, they fall behind and the whole crowd got tense. It as like, ‘Oh no, something bad is going to happen.’ And it starts from that shooting and it’s just that mind-set they have."

Throughout the whole podcast, and in most of his podcasts, Bill jokes about his "Don't get fired" rants. He says "This is one of those don't get fired moments" around 10 times in Wednesday's podcast, so I think he knew what he was getting into or what he was started. I'm sure he didn't know how blown up it would get though...

It doesn't matter how ridiculous this quote might be, he's just trying to do his job and entertain the guys (or girls) listening. Nobody's view should change of Bill Simmons by this tiny quote, especially if you have heard some of his other podcasts, which are sensationally entertaining. Plus, it's not even like he hasn't done anything like this before.

Bill Simmons fought publicly with his company over his podcast in May of 2008. After that interview, there has been a disclaimer at the beginning of each of his podcasts: "The B.S report is a free-flowing conversation that occasionally touches on mature subjects". He hasn't exactly feuded with ESPN since then, but you can tell by listening that he is not perfectly happy with management there. Hopefully this podcast wasn't a "Don't get fired" moment because he's my favorite sports writer, caster, etc. and I wouldn't stand not seeing him on NBA countdown every day.