Unless you live in New England or the surrounding areas, you were probably rooting for the Miami Heat to win Game 7 of the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals. For better or worse, when a Boston-area sports team loses, the rest of the sports world rejoices. And Monday night was no exception.
There, the Celtics lost 103-84 at home in that conference finals-deciding game. And it was never particularly close. After erasing a 3-0 deficit and winning three straight games to force a Game 7, Boston came up short. And their supporters, including some media superfans, couldn’t believe it. A screengrab of Spotify/The Ringer’s Bill Simmons in utter disbelief has since gone viral on Twitter.
Bill Simmons was in disbelief pic.twitter.com/aL4e4MgNYp
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) May 30, 2023
The photo of a sad Simmons has already taken on a life of its own. Chris Cote of Meadowlark Media and the Dan Le Batard Show has already printed and cut out the picture of Simmons and has since turned it into a badge of honor. To start off Tuesday morning, Cote has pinned Bill Simmons to a Florida Marlins hat, as the Miami Heat fan revels in not only Boston losing, but Simmons losing as well.
Should be a fun one pic.twitter.com/l11xc3ujEI
— Chris Cote (@__ChrisCote) May 30, 2023
To Simmons’ credit, he seemed to take it in stride, claiming a few hours later that the now-viral meme of him on Twitter, “about sums it up.” Naturally, he recorded a podcast with his father directly after leaving TD Garden to discuss the Heat eliminating the Celtics in such dominating fashion.
This about sums it up. (Podcast coming shortly.) https://t.co/moVPOXiJLM
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) May 30, 2023
“I’m in Boston with my dad. I wish we had a sadder song to play. But, whatever, here we go,” Simmons said as an introduction to a Monday night edition of The Bill Simmons Podcast.
NBA Central posted the viral photo of Simmons on Twitter at 10:52 p.m. ET. Nearly 20 minutes later, Simmons was recording a reaction podcast with his father.
“It did not turn out the way we thought,” Simmons said. “There was a lot of 2004 Red Sox in the air…Goddamn, that Miami team was tough. They beat us three times in Boston. And by the way, my dad and I are gonna talk like fans. I’m not Bill the media member for this podcast. I’m Bill, the guy that’s been going to Celtics games since the mid-70s.”
Thanks for clarifying, Bill.
“We were feeling good,” he continued. “There were 2004 Red Sox vibes and [Jayson] Tatum turned his ankle on the first play and it just felt like the game went to **** almost immediately.”
It seems like Simmons, like most Boston sports fans, is not handling the Game 7 loss particularly well. However, that doesn’t seem to matter to many fans like Cote, who are reveling in his sadness on social media.
[Bill Simmons on Twitter, The Bill Simmons Podcast; photo from NBA Central on Twitter]
