Bill Simmons and the Kiss of Death

I must have misread the prior Bruins Nation entries which showed KL as Pac-10 player of the year, and the only freshman to score at least 10 in every game this season.  I like the conclusion by Simmons, but I don't understand the logic.

And met him at a Clippers game twice (sadly), and he's a sports nerd originally from Boston, just like me.

What I appreciate about his writing is that he is an unabashed homer and doesn't try to cover this up with tons of faux-factual data with a huge agenda; rather, he loads up with pop-culture references like The OC, Real World, and...Macgyver?

I take this for what it is: an article about how the UCLA Basketball Program has returned to form and giving respect where it's due.

I find the "jinx" tagline to be in his self-deprecating style of humor, which I love as an easy read.

Long time lurker first time poster....

I'm a long time UCLA fan who grew up in Westwood and ended up at school in the Boston area. Therefore, believe it or not, I'm both a UCLA and Red Sox fan. I've been reading Bruins Nation for a couple of years now, and I really appreciate all the time and effort you guys put into the site. But I'm here to read about UCLA. So it's kind of disturbing to see you write "fuck the Red Sox" in bold on a front page post. I'm sure that amongst all the readers here there is a probably a fan of every team in MLB, even the Devil Rays (or now, the Rays). And I don't see any reason to attack any other reader's life choices outside of being a UCLA fan. I'm more than happy to see us say fuck SC in every post, but otherwise can we please stick to the topic of the Bruins?

Thanks.

Is that he's a huge Kareem hater.  He comes by it naturally, of course.  He worships Larry Bird.  Magic was a worthy antagonist for Bird.  He loves Walton, and even had a good podcast with him this season.  Simmons was concerned with getting into all of the details of the 86 championship from Walton's perspective, while BW did his usual Wooden-inspired cosmic song and dance.  So Kareem takes the hit, and Simmons likes to call the NBA's greatest scorer and the player who both revolutionized and dominated the college game a "ninny."  It's possible to understand where he's coming from, and it's equal parts prejudice and ignorance.

I'm a huge fan of Simmons and his work.  He's a gifted writer with a great voice, and he's always fun to read.  Sometimes he gets in over his head (he seemed to be particularly off the mark about the recent writers strike), but I don't blame him for being passionate about Boston.

The article is a fun read.  It's a bit annoying for him to think he was the only person who knew about Westbrook or saw his potential.  He makes up for it, however, with his appreciation of Kevin Love.  He has realized that there is a very special team and coach and group of players in his own backyard.  

He wants to be a UCLA fan.  He knows how it would pay dividends.  He doesn't get specific, but you can tell that when he went to Pauley Pavilion this seaon (probably for the first time), he realized that just as his Dad had Celtics season tickets and took him to the Boston Garden and he saw Larry Bird win a few rings, there are guys like me who went with their dads to Pauley and got to see 10 championship teams.

You have to feel a little bit sorry for Simmons.  He mentions how he was too young to know the Wooden years.  That's why his appreciation of Kareem is skewed, and he'll never really "get" Bill Walton completely.  But if he's too young for Wooden, you realize that his appreciation of the Bill Russell Celtics is all second hand, and it comes through his dad.  My dad can tell me about Red Sanders, but that's completely different from my vague early memory of Gary Beban and the Bruins winning a Rose Bowl, or having my own heart broken by OJ Simpson, or by Bill Russell beating Baylor and West year after year.  Or finishing the season cutting down the nets, year after year.

It's good to see Simmons' appreciation of Howland and the fellas.  He needs to do a study of Kareem, however, and show some understanding and appreciation, before we should give him any genuine acceptance around here.  He can start by asking his buddy Walton--no one has a deeper and better appreciation of the greatest UCLA basketball player of all time than the man who walked down the exact same path to glory.  The same path that Kevin Love will follow tomorrow.              

He equates us with Celtic fans now when last season he was equating us with Raptor ones (i.e. tons of them you don't notice until you have the "audacity" to say something bad about their team).

Bill Simmons is like every other blow hard in the sports journalism industry. He talks out of his rear and expects none of us to remember some of the ludicrous stuff he's said in the past because hey they're only human right?

He can go take a long walk off a short cliff.

and go bruins

... with everything that Bill Simmons writes, but I do typically enjoy his work, even though he can be a raving Laker hater.  

However, probably the best, funniest piece written by him is his LEGENDARY Venegance Scale.

Basically, he comes up with a scale, from 0.0 to 10.0, of great acts of vengeance in pop-culture history.  (Granted, it was prompted by Shaq's venom toward Kobe after getting traded, but still...)  

For example, Juice's relentless search for the real killers merits something like a, oh, 0.1.  Rocky kicking Tommy Gunn's *ss in Rocky 5 only gets a 0.0, as, well, Rocky 5 just doesn't count.  EVER.

The funniest bit, IMO, was what he had checked in at Level 8.0 on the Vengeance Scale:

Good stuff.  Check out the list if you get a chance.

M