Less than a month back from a three-week suspension, Grantland founder and editor-in-chief Bill Simmons seems poised to ruffle more feathers with network executives at ESPN. This time, however, the target of his revile was not NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, though his stance on Goodell hasn’t changed.
No, this time, the target is ESPN’s most-beloved radio show hosts, Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic, who had sharp criticism for Simmons’ comments on LeBron James’ early season struggles on their morning radio show, Mike & Mike.
Simmons was a guest on Colin Cowherd’s ESPN Radio show, The Herd, to discuss the sports topics ranging from basketball to Adrien Peterson, Ray Rice and Roger Goodell. They opened the segment discussing Kobe Bryant—whether or not he is unhappy with the Los Angeles Lakers and would entertain being traded. Then, they began discussing James and the new-look Cleveland Cavaliers.
Cowherd questioned shooting guard Dion Waiters ability, “Mario Chalmers moved north, his name is Dion Waiters.” He concluded that he’d likely be traded, to which Simmons asserted that it is far too early in the season to make such conclusions. He, then, went on to discuss how, through the preseason and the first few games of the year, James does not look the same.
LeBron doesn’t look the same. Anyone who thinks LeBron looks the same is fooling themselves. He doesn’t have the same impulsiveness. He looks 20 pounds lighter physically. Just his general force-of-natureness capacity — whatever you want to say — it’s not there. And he’s driving to the basket, and he’s under the rim now, and I don’t know what that means.
“I don’t know if he’s hurt, I don’t know if the big weight loss has affected his game or whatever. This is not a jump-to-conclusion thing. I have been watching this Cavs team since the preseason games started, and he does not look the same. He does not look the same as he looked in June, and I don’t understand it.”
Needless to say, Mike & Mike were opportunistic in taking a short snippet of his comments out of context to generate a buzz-worthy segment.
What Mike and Mike did today was absolute garbage. I would say I lost respect for that show, but I never had it. http://t.co/LRd8YzFfO8
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) November 6, 2014
For an ESPN Radio show to pull an interview out of context from another ESPN Radio show, then play the moral authority card, is disgusting.
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) November 6, 2014
Have the balls to call me to discuss it on the show. Don’t pull it out of context just because you need fodder for a segment. Pathetic.
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) November 6, 2014
But hey – I’m just a guy who can’t evolve, right? http://t.co/XJ0GWbc5gJ
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) November 6, 2014
Whether he is right or not, speaking out against ESPN’s most respected and loved radio hosts may have been bad enough, but ending his Twitter rant by taking a jab at the ESPN Ombudsman, Robert Lipsyte, might just be the tipping point that sees Simmons “evolve” into a show unto himself.
Simmons certainly has a large enough fan base to find success on his own. And, perhaps, that may be what he has been building too ever since his earlier criticisms against Roger Goodell. We’ll have to stay tuned to see how things develop from this point.
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Michael Brumagin writes the Tweet of the Day for SheridanHoops.com and is also a correspondent for BleacherReport.com. Follow @mbrumagin