Bill Simmons in disbelief A screengrab of The Ringer’s Bill Simmons in disbelief.
NBAThe RingerBy Sean Keeley on

We can usually depend on The Ringer’s Bill Simmons to offer up a hot take or breaking news tidbit that fails to materialize every few weeks. Seems like he decided to push things to Ludicrous Speed this week with a bunch of successive takes that have put him in a lot of people’s crosshairs.

The biggest one came last week when he said on The Bill Simmons Podcast that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are  “****ing grifters” after they exited their deal with Spotify without much to show for it.

“The ****ing grifters,” said Simmons. “That’s the podcast we shoulda launched with them. I gotta get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea. It’s one of my best stories.”

Simmons’ status as a high-up executive at Spotify helped that quote go viral and way beyond the sports and pop culture world that The Sports Guy usually occupies.

Still, The Ringer CEO had some good red meat to offer up to sports fans as well.

One another episode of his podcast, Simmons implied that Bradley Beal, who was traded to the Phoenix Suns over the weekend, wouldn’t have made any difference over Landry Shamet (who was included in the deal) in the recent NBA Playoffs series against the Denver Nuggets (Denver won 4-2).

“Are we sure Bradley Beal instead of Landry Shamet makes any difference in the Nuggets series?” Simmons asked.

That question was answered by a lot of annoyed NBA fans on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/EasySunnySniper/status/1670633741646176256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1670633741646176256%7Ctwgr%5Eb8247c711c96d4c3e51bf307503466ad040dd36b%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.azcentral.com%2Fstory%2Fsports%2Fnba%2Fsuns%2F2023%2F06%2F19%2Fphoenix-suns-bradley-beal-trade-take-bill-simmons-slammed%2F70335633007%2F

https://twitter.com/Akaseipm/status/1670666507901181952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1670666507901181952%7Ctwgr%5Eb8247c711c96d4c3e51bf307503466ad040dd36b%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.azcentral.com%2Fstory%2Fsports%2Fnba%2Fsuns%2F2023%2F06%2F19%2Fphoenix-suns-bradley-beal-trade-take-bill-simmons-slammed%2F70335633007%2F

That brings us to Monday when Simmons, recently burned by his sources on the Phoenix Suns’ head coaching buzz, dropped a big nugget about a potential Zion Williamson trade by Thursday’s NBA Draft.

“The Zion thing is a real, real, real, subplot. I had somebody tell me yesterday—that I trust—that he will not be on [the Pelicans] by Thursday,” said Simmons. 

Now, Simmons can claim that he wasn’t breaking news about a potential Williamson trade and was just passing along something he heard, but given his status and his clear desire to be seen as a news-breaker, it was bound to get aggregated and noticed.

And given his track record, NBA fans remain suspect that this major development will happen for now.

Tomorrow is a new day and look forward to finding out who Bill Simmons can piss off next.

[Jon Phipps, AZCentral, NBACentral]

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Editorial Strategy Director for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.

View all posts by Sean Keeley