Bill Simmons Leaving ESPN

[ACisKING]

No problem with Simmons as a whole. I actually really like him. Although I vehemently disagree with things he says sometimes.

But the Grantland thing.... I adore that site, and I'm just so bummed about it possibly crumbling or getting watered down.

If I never hear from Simmons himself ever again, i won't cry myself to sleep. But! Two things I'm super, extra bummed about possibly losing:

1) Grantland - Whether they stay together as a whole, or a bunch of the staff jump ship along with Simmons, I need Zach Lowe, Jason Concepcion, Andy Greenwald, and all the others to keep going. I read them all on a daily basis, and at least at Grantland, they are allowed a much longer and more creative rope than other sites seem to allow.

2) Simmons' podcast guests. What Simmons says himself is whatever. But he has consistently great guests with consistently great conversations. Now that I will miss.

I one hundred percent agree with all of this. I'm terrified that ESPN will water down Grantland and try and make it appeal to the lowest common denominator like the rest of ESPN does. And I will miss the BS Report, though I suspect he will still have a podcast hosted by some other site.

 

[col63onel]

The two main reasons I go to Grantland, Lowe and Barnwell, could effectively pick their next job, though. You think Yahoo or CBS wouldn't jump at the chance to sign a contract with either guy? Sure, some of Grantland's writers would certainly value stability, but the best ones know they can walk into another job if they really want to. It just depends on whether they like working for Simmons or not, and if the site can maintain steady readership without him.

I wonder if there is some sort of non-compete clause with ESPN journalists. Especially if Simmons joins Fox or Yahoo or CBS or NBC or something. I am sure ESPN would hate losing their Grantland writers to Simmons.

 

[Jack Brickman]

I wonder if there is some sort of non-compete clause with ESPN journalists. Especially if Simmons joins Fox or Yahoo or CBS or NBC or something. I am sure ESPN would hate losing their Grantland writers to Simmons.

I could see Simmons having something in his contract that forbids him from creating another site similar to Grantland, but I highly doubt any writer would sign a contract that prohibits them from going somewhere else to write since that's their profession. I guess I could see it being possible that there's a non-compete clause if they break their contract with ESPN, but even then I doubt any writer would sign that.

 

[shoes22]

I wonder if there is some sort of non-compete clause with ESPN journalists. Especially if Simmons joins Fox or Yahoo or CBS or NBC or something. I am sure ESPN would hate losing their Grantland writers to Simmons.

I would not be surprised if ESPN had something like that in their contracts.

 

[col63onel]

I could see Simmons having something in his contract that forbids him from creating another site similar to Grantland, but I highly doubt any writer would sign a contract that prohibits them from going somewhere else to write since that's their profession. I guess I could see it being possible that there's a non-compete clause if they break their contract with ESPN, but even then I doubt any writer would sign that.

Maybe in their next contract there is something like "If you leave ESPN, you can't go to a media outlet that employs Bill Simmons" or something like that.

 

[Douglar]

I'm sure the all have a non-compete clauses of some sort, but all that those non-compete clauses do is make people feel guilty. They don't hold up in court. You can't sign away your right to find a new job.

After 12 years, I'm finally letting my ESPN insider subscription expire. Can't justify the paying them money when they now make me dig like crazy to find a few useful peanuts of basketball info they baked into in their steaming pile of social media pie. I'd probably keep paying if insider access meant no ads, but if anything, the ads got worse with the site redesign while the professionally and coherently written basketball pieces, like Simmons, moved else where.

 

[czvo]

Good riddance. I enjoyed Simmons when I was in middle/high school... then I grew up, and his sense of humor stayed the same. And the pop culture references made me want to shoot myself. I can put up with a few here and there, acknowledging that other people like things I don't. But there was a stretch there where he tried to compare Real World/Road Rules, whatever you want to call it, to actual sports. Who gives a fuck about that show when talking about basketball/football/whatever.

When I started reading basketball writers that actually knew what they were talking about, I couldn't go back to Simmons. He jumped the shark, to me, when he tried to pass off Isiah's "secret to basketball" as some crazy mindfuck. The secret to basketball is that its not about basketball? How the fuck is that so hard to figure out? Simmons acted like he had just found the missing link or something. Guys with big egos have to check those egos at the door and learn to sacrifice. No fucking shit.

That's what Simmons is though. He makes basic observations and tries to treat them as if they were groundbreaking discoveries.

 

[spydy13]

http://awfulannouncing.com/2015/bill-simmons-will-not-appear-on-espn-platforms-get-a-farewell.html

Bill Simmons has been put on ice for the rest of his contract.

I'm sure he's kinda pissed that he won't have a platform to talk about the end of the playoffs.

 

[gourimoko]

http://awfulannouncing.com/2015/bill-simmons-will-not-appear-on-espn-platforms-get-a-farewell.html

Bill Simmons has been put on ice for the rest of his contract.

I'm sure he's kinda pissed that he won't have a platform to talk about the end of the playoffs.

He initiated the hiatus not ESPN.

 

[KB]

He initiated the hiatus not ESPN.

Here is a run down of the issue from the New Turks, can't get this to embed

https://youtu.be/1bN3-bZIWQg

 

[mrbeaks]

And Whitlock gets the heave-ho. Nice Friday news dump, ESPN!

http://deadspin.com/jason-whitlock-out-as-head-of-the-undefeated-1710977185

 

[Simon]

And Whitlock gets the heave-ho. Nice Friday news dump, ESPN!

http://deadspin.com/jason-whitlock-out-as-head-of-the-undefeated-1710977185

Maybe clearing the way for Wojnarowski? His contract with Y! expires this summer.

 

[Man Called X]

Whitlock isn't being fired, just removed as editor in charge at The Undefeated.

Basically, he was so bad at his job creating his own website, they demoted his ass back to writing random shit instead of getting his own website to claim everyone is a racist.

 

[theSTEREO.]

Nate Silver sweating bullets now?

 

[NorthCoastBias]

Didn't know if this had been posted anywhere, but this would be awesome...


Sources: Adrian Wojnarowski Is Pitching His Own Vanity Site

The one truly indispensable basketball reporter is making moves. According to multiple sources, Yahoo reporter Adrian Wojnarowski has approached a number of basketball writers over the past few weeks and pitched them on joining a new personality-driven basketball website that he is contemplating. It’s unclear what the website would look like or who would fund it—one source described Wojnarowski’s pitch as “peddling” the site—but it sounds like it is being modeled on Sports Illustrated’s MMQB, the extremely successful football-only standalone site led by Peter King, which has a staff of around 10.

The Big Lead’s Jason McIntyre, a former colleague of Wojnarowski’s at The Record (Bergen County, NJ), reports that FOX, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated are all courting Wojnarowski, but our sources say Mcintyre has the story backwards: that Wojnarowski is pitching a website to them. It is also highly unlikely that ESPN, who had conversations with Wojnarowski’s agent when his contract was up in 2012, would pursue Wojnarowski, given the many problems with their own personality-driven websites. For his part, Wojnarowski has a well-known disdain for ESPN.

Wojnarowski signed a contract with Yahoo in 2012, and according to a source it expires during this coming offseason. If Wojnarowski is looking for writers, this summer is as good of a time as any to find them. The contracts of the four basketball writers Bleacher Report hired two years ago in their push for increased quality—Howard Beck, Kevin Ding, Ethan Skolnick, Jared Zwerling—are up soon. Meanwhile, Grantland’s basketball crew—Jonathan Abrams, Zach Lowe, Kirk Goldsberry, and assorted others—are said to be hesitant of their future at ESPN after Bill Simmons’s unceremonious ouster.

While MMQB has been a success for Sports Illustrated, it remains to be seen whether there is an audience appetite for a basketball-only site. Wojnarowski seems ready to find out, though—according to a source, he’s approached Ding, Goldsberry, and CBS Sports’ Ken Berger. (None of them returned emails seeking comment, and Wojnarowski didn’t return an email or phone call.)