Bill Simmons delivered a vintage rant on his podcast Wednesday night, mocking the perpetually disappointing New Orleans Pelicans and newly welcomed-back general manager Joe Dumars for a short-sighted trade in the NBA Draft, which Simmons called “one of the five dumbest trades of this decade.”
While Simmons wasn’t the only one to rip the Pels (Nick Wright jumped in a short time later), The Sports Guy helped push an overlooked trade in the teens to the top of the news cycle Thursday with his rant. When ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania joined The Pat McAfee Show to debrief on the draft in the morning, he was asked about the Pelicans trade.
Charania cautioned patience, acknowledging that New Orleans — which traded an unprotected first-round pick next year just to move up ten spots — could be proven right in betting on Maryland forward Derik Queen in due time.
The Pelicans’ social media team, eager for a fight, quickly endorsed Charania’s take. Not content to leave it at that, the Pelicans’ account on X teased that being so “rational” would not earn Charania a podcast at Simmons’ company, The Ringer.
This rational take won’t get you a Ringer pod, Shams https://t.co/G4PBfbeLTl
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) June 26, 2025
It was a roundabout, sarcastic way of getting back at Simmons, given that Charania works at ESPN and would never be in line for a podcast at The Ringer anyway.
Never one to shy away from a chance to rag on a woeful NBA decision-maker like Dumars, Simmons quickly responded.
“Bookmarking this,” he wrote.
Bookmarking this https://t.co/SxWkllKBRD
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) June 26, 2025
By giving up a precious pick in 2026 for the chance to select Queen, the Pelicans are betting on themselves. And they are doing so after a summer in which they fired their general manager and watched an alarming lawsuit drop against their franchise player, Zion Williamson.
New Orleans’ social media staff is only defending the franchise, but Simmons seems fairly confident he will be right in the long term.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.