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A little note today on Deadspin (H/t) how the Bad Tooth (aka Bill Simmons) is... wait for it... unhappy with how the World Wide Lemur has been treating him!
I'll wait here while you go get your Shadenfraude on. (Or become convinced that the whole thing is a fraud, since Simmons got a big push on his Celtics Under Bus fan fiction today.)
Now, what could have possibly happened to make Masstermind #1 so unhappy, and actually talk to the banned by Bristol bullhorn of the punky side of the sports blogosphere?
I don't know and don't much care, other than to make the following small point. If and when the Lemur decides to take Simmy Boy's SNL-esque access away (in that it doesn't really matter if either is good or not, because the location guarantees eyeballs), it will not be a happy day here at the Tool, despite my growing distaste for the man and his work.
Why not? Because, well, what evidence do we have that they'll make a good hire? Name me another Lemur Scribe that you read now, really. Jim Caple or Tim Keown are OK, I suppose... but they aren't Whitlock, or Wiley, or even Thompson on those rare moments when he remembered to try to throw the fastball. Dan Shanoff got bounced, while the anti-Semitic Bush apologist and column diarrheist (a word? probably not) Gregg Easterbrook gets run. You're not reading Jemele Hill, I'm not reading Jemele Hill... hell, some times I wonder if Jemele Hill is reading Jemele Hill. And you also aren't reading the Bad Tooth the same way anymore, I'll wager.
If the Tooth is smart, he'll claim he was misquoted and scurry back to his Prime Concubine status. Because, well, a little snip and he'll discover that podcast traffic and extraordinary access could be gone, gone, gone... and then he'd just be out here in the world, having to stack up his relatively minimal amount of original thoughts against the rest of the great unwatched. Sure, he'll get to curse a little, and might even be fun to read for a few months as he remembers what it's like to hustle. But in the long run, no one, sad to say, will be better for it.
Here's the problem; the Lemur itself. If they asked me? I'd turn them down, honestly. I like my day job, it's a hell of a lot more stable, and I've got the Shooter Family to feed. Besides, they'd turn me Toothless within a month, just like they do everyone else. That's the problem with the Lemur, after all... they are what they are. And what the are, um, sucks. A lot.
2 comments:
First of all, are you kidding me on this:
1.) "I'll wait here while you go get your Shadenfraude on. (Or become convinced that the whole thing is a fraud, since Simmons got a big push on his Celtics Under Bus fan fiction today.)"
Come on dude, do you honestly think that Simmons needs the couple thousand hits that Deadspin pushes his way? He works for ESPN, he's on the front page, Deadspin gets a fraction of the traffic the World Wide Leader gets.
The other thing, the passive aggressive Simmons haters all read his work. To hate someone you had to once be a fan, and to continue to actively hate someone you have to pay attention to what they do. With the bloggers, who Simmons inspired to start a blog, yes each and everyone of you were inspired by him, there is no middle ground. They all read him, because either A.) They love him, or B.) they hate him.
2.) I guarantee that if ESPN offered you a job you'd pack up your bags and take the job. You'd be stupid not too.
I didn't say that Simmons needed the Deadspin hit. You did.
I never said I didn't read Simmons. He used to be great. Now he mostly just grates. This blog doesn't take Jemele Hill to the woodshed, because there's no point. Simmons can be good, which is why he gets grief.
Your omniscience of knowing what inspires me to write, and my salary vis a vis a writing job with the Lemur, is impressive. It's also bull.
A Lemur job would be a pay cut from my day job, and wouldn't be part of a 15-year career arc to get me where I am today. So, actually, no; stupidity would be taking a job that many people can do well. It'd be fun, but the Shooter Family doesn't get fed on fun. (I'm also assuming the Lemur wouldn't be interested in me part-time, which is actually what blogging us.) Moving on...
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