i guess if it's bill it goes some way to explaining comments like 'huh? what's the rodgers belt celebration??'

Schatz's shtick every time he appears anywhere public is selling DVOA. He calls every game 50-50--or, if one team is heavily favored, 60-40--because that's mostly what DVOA says when playoff teams are matching up. DVOA is very interesting and even useful for the way it systematically evaluates football, but it has some pretty obvious flaws, too. But it in no way benefits Aaron Schatz's bank account to admit as such.

So yeah, pretty much what Dids said.

As for Simmons, he is a bona fide super-expert on basketball and a J. Random Casual Fan with a voice on football and baseball. On those sports he believes all the dumb things 90% of the casual fans do.

And fwiw Simmons, like myself, is irrational about the Steelers and hasn't picked them to win an important game since sometime before he got an internet connection. I mean, the Packers are favorites for good reasons here, but Simmons comes out every week with loopy stuff on why the Steelers are definitely going to lose THIS time

Why people gotta be blowing up the sg's spot

I'm guessing Joe Mead is going to go on "vacation" for a couple of weeks

I'm confused. What would you expect out of a prediction system? Do you think DVOA saying games between playoff teams are close is a flaw?

Also, what are the obvious flaws of DVOA Aaron has not admitted to?

Theres a few things that tilts me about simmons, that I want to say here, but there are probably other things.

1. He's part of the "its hip to like the clippers" fanbase in LA. These are the people who listen to bad unheardof bands and watch terrible tv shows because they want to distinguish themselves or something.

2. He made a big deal about being into EPL but he never ****ing talks about soccer anymore, so he's like a gazillion other americans who every year claim that they will follow soccer abroad and then quit.

the setup of the soccer leagues is not appealing to merican philosophy. theres no clearly defined apex for the season. theres like 5 different trophies a team can win so its baffling what to focus on.

also, the way the teams are formed isnt appreciated by mericans, where we expect our stars to slave away in obscure places with crappy teammates so we can laugh at them for not having wim, while petulant entitled chuckers luckbox goatish bigment and get lauded for their clutchness.

Simmons is by no means an NBA expert, but ever since the Red Sox won in 2004 he's been unable to devote himself thoroughly to any topic other than basketball. It's clearly his passion and when he throws himself into some of his NBA-related columns he's a very good columnist. The man knows basketball.

very true. but it also makes you realize how ****ing arbitrary american sports are. about the only one that somewhat gives me the same feeling as soccer abroad is college football... but even there people are yammering for a playoff.

That's an impressive string of memes.

Can't compare Euro Soccer with CFB. The reason people clamor for a playoff in football is that year in and year out some of the best teams never play each other. At least in the Premiership you play each team home and away. They are very similar in that in both you can buy players to win your league, amirite Cecil?

We're (Americans) just into something being "the best." It's an American mindset. That's why we get on board for the WC. Because someone will be the sole winner. Nobody in any American pro sports league gets great recognition for being the single season leader. Playoffs are a lot of fun because they emphasize matchups and clutch performances. Sure they're governed heavily by variance, and a large part of the time the best team doesn't always win. But they're a fun culmination to each season and it raises the intensity of games. Of course the argument can be made that they cheapen the regular season games, but that's a whole other can of worms.

Having said that, the relegation system is awesome imo, and I would love to see it in the NBA and MLB.


Also, ****in LOL at the bong hit!

Read this thread then listened to part 1 of the podcast.

LOL @ the bong hit.

Clippers hipsters are real annoying, i have a couple friends who are clips "fans" because hey, one of these years they will be above .500 and then they'll say hey I was a clips fan before it was cool! Then sometime they'll make the playoffs and people will jump on the bandwagon and the clippers hipsters have to cheer for the grizzlies or bucks or something cuz its not cool to be a clips fan anymore.

i became a clipper fan after like 5 games of blake griffin and eric jordan gordon.

He's a Clips season ticket holder because he likes basketball and doesn't want to pay for Lakers tickets.

There's a difference between knowing a lot about the league and knowing a lot about basketball. Every jack dick and Tom knows everything about the NFL because they watch sportscenter, that doesn't mean they know anything about football.

this.

plus he's a Celtics homer, so he probably doesn't want to give a bunch of money to the Lakers. i don't think he's trying to be some kind of hipster or anything.

as for his EPL fandom, it seems like from his tweets that he still watches at least some Spurs matches (if not all of them). i just think it's probably a lost cause for him to write about it, as he likely gets a million emails yelling at him to talk about THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE instead. then on the other side he probably gets emails for being an EPL donk, every time he inevitably makes a mistake or says something dumb. plus his bosses probably might rather have him write/talk about American sports.

he's gotten a lot better over the last 2 or so years imo, he used to be pretty donkish at times but these days he does a better job of acknowledging that stats and stat guys are worth paying attention to

and obv still entertaining, loool at the bong hit, zero doubt that's what it was. not that his whole demeanor didn't scream happy stoner already haha

Wow it really does sound like it at 4:45-ish. Also right after it sounds like he's putting it back on a table or something.

"Bill Simmons reads TZ" has plummeted to -2000 on pinnacle

lol, Simmons can afford Lakers tickets, he just loathes the Lakers

and fwiw I was prob out of line calling him a super expert but he knows his basketball. If you know any better basketball writers please do point them out to me

Simmons is quite interesting when talking about basketball, but he still has a lot of wrong-headed ideas. At the very least, he knows a lot of stuff, even when he misapplies it you can't deny that he obviously follows the NBA super closely. I have to give him credit for a rather obvious improvement in his awareness of advanced stats over the last couple of years. At least he's trying, for all his other faults.

With other sports, he seems like a disaster. I usually find him funny, but for instance his NFL picks are just brutal. Ass-backwards "This team is 4-1 below 25 degrees when facing a left handed odd-numbered quarterback in november" or "LOL GUYS NEVER BET FOR X QB ON THE ROAD LOLZORS" type of stuff. It's terrible, and then the subsequent column three days later reverse engineering more ******ed reasons why his pet theories did or didn't work.

Yeah... but does anybody open a Bill Simmons article hoping to gain new insight into sports? I read them hoping to be entertained. And he rarely disappoints me on that count, really only when he tries to write some kind of serious analysis like that rolling train wreck of a Manning-Brady column last month. Hello and welcome to 2006! In 2010 it's not even clear those are the two best quarterbacks anymore. You'll find lots of unbiased people that will argue for Rodgers or Rivers or Brees or Roethlisberger

Edit: actually I'm pretty sure that if the Packers win Sunday, there will be a general consensus Rodgers is the best QB in the world

Afford them, yes, but he wouldn't be sitting in like the sixth row like he is now for the Clips.


Dude has had the tix for like 7 years, its pretty lol to think he does it to be hip. He just wants to go to basketball games and is the biggest Celtic homer of all time.

Bong rip was incredible.

I believe it all started with him just wanting to see basketball games and not liking the Lakers. But he's definitely absorbed the Clipps and is on their little bandwagon now.