Larry Bird on Bill Simmons B.S. Report

 

Larry Legend was on Bill Simmons' BS Report podcast today. I am a huge fan of Bill Simmons and I have read both his book and mentioned his work on here in the past. He is from the Boston area and went to school at Holy Cross. His hilarious writing style and gambling references can be seen at Grantland, and definitely worth checking out.

It must have been special for Bill to be able to chat with his idol Larry, and you can clearly sense how genuinely excited he is to pick the Legend's brain about Indianapolis and the Celtics' history. Larry mentions how he thinks that the Colts and Peyton Manning should try to make it work, so that Manning is a Colt for life. Larry relishes his experience and believes that elite players should stay in their market, unless a trade is made. Bird is a bit of a parallel to Peyton, both are loved in their respective cities by sports fans and are transcendent athletes.

I also found that it was interesting that Bird said that he would have retired after they drafted Len Bias, had Len not passed away. I never watched the Bird, I was a baby when he was a champion, but my parents and grandparents speak of him reverently. I love that he was a reknowned trash talker, which I think is hilarious. I also admire that he is still passionate about basketball, and is still a GM for the Pacers. It seems that they are having a ton of success, relatively speaking, and Bird's strategic acquisition of talent is the genesis of that success.

Here is a link to the podcast.

Bill Simmons rolls out Grantland.com

Bill Simmons has launched his new website today Grantland.com named after Grantland Rice, a writer known for his elegant prose. For those who aren't familiar with Simmons, he is arguably the most popular personality in the ESPN stable, at least in my neck of the woods. Simmons was born in raised in New England, went to college at Holy Cross, and is one of the most vocal Boston sports fans of all time. His columns, podcasts, and twitter are account are among the most read throughout the internet. His writing style is often crude and he is not known for conciseness, but he is really funny and he hits on a lot of topics that I am interested in. I think he overdoes the popular culture aspect, but I can't really blame him, as that is his passion, especially living in Los Angeles.

Grantland is supposed to be an outlet for more creative, unfettered sports and pop culture writing. It has been advertised as free from the corporate overlords, which means everything will be a little more raw. This will not be Sportscenter, and if you have read anything by Simmons, you know there will be mentions of betting on sports, Simmon's friends, and certainly never less than 1000 words per article. I am actually currently reading his book on basketball, which I do recommend if you are as big of a basketball fan as I am. I look forward to following this site, and its promise of podcasts in addition to the B.S. Report is very appealing for me, as I listen to podcasts regularly during the day job and working out.

In other matters, Bruins are going to need to continue the offensive effort of Game 3 tonight. I am looking forward to Tyler Seguin being effective, in replacement of the injured Nathan Horton.