The Bill Simmons Typo That Insulted an Entire City

and i’m checking out. haha. i’m actually rolling right now at that.

But I seriously can’t stand the guy and would never, ever, EVER buy garbage written by him. I gag when I stumble upon his online Boston leaning writings, I sure wouldn’t pay for it.

I won’t be reading this book, because not only am I now offended that he said “Drexler’s Pistons”, but I think he has something personal about the Blazers and he doesn’t deserve any of my money.

think that typo was a mistake? I don’t. Simmons clearly hates Portland for some petty reason, or he is trying to stir up controversy from Portland fans just for the publicity. Either way, it’s bad journalism in my opinion. I’ll pass.

Brilliant post, I think it’s clear that Bill doesn’t actually know anything about Portland or the team.

I had no plans to read his book and you pretty much confirmed my bias. I figured it would be mostly Celtics, stupid lists, and smack talk. I still listen to his podcasts though.

with signs saying “Drexler’s Pistons?”

Ben spits hot fire! Simmons is a witty guy, but he is nothing if not formulaic. The world revolves around Boston sports, and once he has an opinion, all other facts to the contrary go out the window. He has his talent, but the more national prominence he’s gianed, the more his writing has devolved into the equivalent sports junk food – familiar, comforting, but not that filling or good for you. Of course, he’s laughing all the way to the bank, so maybe he’s crazy like a fox. Still, this was a very funny way to start the day, thanks Ben.

the history of the NBA – read the book. Check it out at the library when it shows up where its free (do they still have those?)

take your Blazer hats off and enjoy.

…forty-one and forty-one.

and can’t wait to see if they find Simmons in the crowd and put his mug on the big screen – and then see what the RG reaction will be – cheer? Boos?

LOL…

Let’s hope beyond hope that Oden just dominates and he writes about it on ESPN. that would be nice. :)

If you did, I hope you kept your receipt.

Simmons doesn’t deserve my attention or money.

I hope his stay in PDX is a short one.

Then he cursed out my grandma.

……….the book is actually pretty good.

oh wait…
oh wait on the oh wait…

Maybe it’s because they came into the Celtics’ Arena and gave them their only home loss of that fantasitic year (1985?). I don’t really care what his motives are. I think we should all just ignore him. As my mother would say, just ignore him and he’ll go away.

Mr. Simmons,

You state that Portlanders will love your new book, and I have been looking forward to it for quite some time, but I cannot forgive the typo, “Drexler’s Pistons” on page 609.

This is from my new book, ‘The Dangers of Riding in the Milk Truck’; “It was great watching Bill Russell’s Delaware Destroyers beat the Albuquerque Silvers in the finals all those years.”

Unlike your book, this will never be published, but like your book, it hasn’t been proofread.

And unlike Detroit, which hasn’t had a basketball team since the Cobo Arena in 1968, Portland does, and always has had a basketball team in their designated city, and Clyde was there.

I hate you,
Graham McConnell

What. A. Douche.

During the 1984–85 season, the Silverdome’s roof collapsed, causing the team to temporarily relocate back to Joe Louis Arena (for 15 home games) and Cobo Arena (for one game).

Ben, thanks so much for this piece. You put voice to what the real problem with Simmons is—namely, that he will never be rigorous or driven enough to be the writer he imagines himself to be. In a way, it’s almost sad to witness the gap between his opinion of his work and the quality of the work he actually produces. Yes, Bill, you wrote a seven-hundred page book on basketball. But the amount of research you put into the book supports maybe three-hundred of those pages. I am convinced that I could turn my basketball opinions into four-hundred pages as well (and if anyone doubts that, please check out my fanpost history), but I would at least have the decency to recognize those opinions as fallible. Simmons seems to take his own subjective judgments to be the only truth—and that is a frightening thing for the future of Drexler’s Pistons.

but any time he talks about the blazers i skip to the next page, he hates the blazers, its easy to see why everybody on the east coast hates boston, and their sports fans.

… But I think that the city of Portland was one toss away to be called “Boston”, right?

(sorry for my english)

I have no desire to buy this book and feel confident that I am missing nothing by making this decision.

Every time they show a Republican who has made the news for behaving badly (a stretch, I know), they put a “D” next to their name, rather than the more appropriate “R”… Typo, my arse…

The issue with Simmons is that he tries to have it both ways; while he wants to be taken seriously in the media, he takes cheap shots, notably at Oden and Mike Dunleavy. A credentialed media member would never refer to a team’s coach as “Dumbleavy,” even on twitter.

Even in trying to be a respected member of the media, he doesn’t have the attention to detail to make his writing accurate or the humility to admit inaccuracy. Chuck Klosterman was right to call him out on his juvenile mindset.

and Drexler knew it. As much as I liked Drexler as a player, you could tell when he got that “I’m as good as MJ” look in his eye and started tossing up long distance clankers late in close games. Used to drive me nuts.

I’ll buy the book and get it signed on Thursday.

Simmons is from the east coast. If there’s one thing Oregonian’s don’t relate to well it’s unapolgetic, in your face, brash humor and criticism from our sports writers. Canzano is about as close as we get to genuine ranting and I don’t really like the guy. We’re generally nice people here in Portland. We forgive and forget bad Blazers seasons. We can do the whole “maybe next year” thing. Folks over there hold grudges, call their players bums, and generally expect greatness every year. By “over there” I’m talking about Boston, one of America’s sports meccas. Home of 17 championship NBA seasons.

We’re a one sport town. There’s no Red Sox, Patriots or Bruins here. In our little world all we know is the Portland Trail Blazers way out here on the “left coast” as they call it. So I’m not surprised that he barely mentions us. He’s probably right about Drexler. If Jordan didn’t play baseball he might have 8 rings right now. But that’s not a painful thing to hear is it? We did very well in the early 90s. But the Portland Trail Blazers aren’t exactly a storied franchise with a rich history of success at the top. All we have to hang our hats on is a championship 32 years ago and mixed playoff success since. Our rival, the Lakers, are MUCH bigger rivals with the Celtics. It’s not even close. He just doesn’t have a whole lot of reason to write about us. We made some noise for 3 seasons in the 90s and then basically vanished.

Over Drexler’s 10 year career he had:

7 First Round Eliminations
1 Second Round Elimination
1 Conference Finals Elimination (90/91)
2 NBA Finals Eliminations (89/90 and 91/92)

That’s a pretty decent career as a Blazer. But we did get knocked out of the playoffs in the first round for 70% of Clyde’s tenure here. We have one single championship from 32 years ago. A championship that we claimed one single season after not even making the playoffs the year before. Not calling it a fluke but it’s not exactly like the Blazers were a powerhouse in the 70s. We were the NBA’s darlings for one year.

(As a personal note I know full well that our team’s history is far richer than Simmons gives proper credit for. But bear in mind where he’s from and what IMPACT our club has made on the NBA as a whole since 1977.)

But more than anything else I like Bill Simmons because he’s Bill Simmons. He doesn’t write for ESPN exclusively. He writes for Bill Simmons. He’s big enough that he can say whatever he wants with minimal supervision. When you’re interested in self promotion sometimes a writer is able to express his opinion more clearly and honestly. I like that his personality comes out in everything he writes. You can agree or disagree with what he says but he’s a very, very smart man and knows basketball. I’m always willing to hear someone else’s story. Particularly when it’s biased from his own history. I figure I’ll have something to learn from the “right coast” perspective in his book.

maybe I’ll pick it up.

I’m not going to rip on him for a typo, although it’s funny. I’m not going to rip on him for not putting my city with one championship up on a pedestal. I’ll appreciate his book and understand that he loves his Celtics as much as we love our Blazers and that influences his book and writing much like us writing a book would be influenced by our love.

If this was Blazer centric we’d be cheering it on. Really, this is a lot to do about nothing. The Bullet points read as correct to me, for the most part.

I disagree about the blazers going 41-41 this year, but his logic for it makes sense. We over achieved one year, why not come down to earth the next? It’s hard to sustain high level of play particularly when that level of play is your 100% and not 80% like the Lakers or Spurs over the years.

I’m not always a fan of his writing, but I think it’s cool that he’s here to watch a game and I almost want to read this because so many turn their nose up at it. Plus Ben said it was good.

During his formative years, the 1980s, the Blazers were only making one trip a year to Boston and they weren’t a true league power

This explains much. Bill is probably still bitter about the young Blazer team (Drexler, Kersey, etc) who came into the Gahden and spoiled the Celtic’s perfect home record

That game was replayed on Comcast this summer, it was nice to see Sam Bowie “in action” again, after all of these years

.
.“Bill…Simmons speaks…the..tr…u…th.” -Ben Golliver, BlazersEdge.
.
.

Just a side note, I love the fact that he had Malcolm Gladwell write the intro, he had to get an economist to say that BS knew basketball. That’s like getting Barkely to write an intro to my economics book.

I went to Powells looking specifically to buy this book, but the first thing I opened the book up to was ‘what if the Blazers had drafted Durant instead of Oden?’. And the second was the Jordan hero worship. And realized this book would just kind of piss me off. And so instead bought the new WOT book (don’t judge I got hooked when I was like 12).

and show Greg (assuming he hasn’t read/heard half of them). Then tell Greg that Simmons will be in attendance at the Pistons game.

I’d expect to see a 30/15/10 game (ok not really, but its still good motivation).

Typical Simmons…

A REAL author would have set up at Powell’s…you know…the one in Portland???

I read all his posts and listen to his podcasts religiously. That being said, the “Drexler’s Pistons” typo makes me ill. I am sure he will come clean in an upcoming mailbag, but it’s still inexcusable. I need to go take a shower, I feel used.

That is all…

who’s handing out the pitchforks and torches?

and where we meeting?

Oh god, please, everyone go to that signing and ask him to autograph that page. UNDERLINE IT. Just for the look on his face. Then take a picture and post it on here for all of us to see.

He’s Selfish.

along with many others, so no one will be catching him by surprise. http://sportsguy.blogspot.com/

I especially enjoyed the comparison of Kobe to Teen Wolf…..

But I missed “Drexler’s Pistons” – sure hope that the typo gets pointed out at the signing…..

Folks – it’s a book, not a declaration of war. You don’t have to agree with all of Simmons’ conclusions (I certainly don’t) to enjoy the spirit of the book. Does he gush on the Celtics too much? Of course he does. I wouldn’t expect any different. When Dave writes his book, I fully expect that the Blazers will get a disproportionate percentage of focus, which will help bring balance to the literary scheme.

The Shot was against the ‘89 Cavs, Cleveland’s best team ever. Not ’88.

“I worry about Portland a little because it’s a league where you’re only as good as your three best guys. They’re paying LaMarcus Aldridge as the second best guy. The question is can he be the second best guy on a team that wins the title. I personally don’t think so.”

We play Detroit tomorrow, and Bill’s gonna be there at the Rose Garden? Someone who’s going and is reading this HAS to take advantage of this chance.

it’s acknowledged in this blog.

I will not be buying your book because you bored me, and I quit reading you years ago.

I like the Simmons articles and podcasts.

But jesus, it was such a boston-fanboy masturbatory exercise that I was shocked it wasn’t getting raked over the coals. The ’68 Celtics, the greatest team of all time? This is after several pages discussing why he downgraded older-era teams (like the ’67 Philly teams). I was incredulous

FAIL

This was a terrific book. Yeah I cringed at a few of his Blazer slams and yes he is biased towards the Celtics but I think it’s wrong to accuse him of writing a “Celtic book”. Lots of great stuff that I never realized before (and I have read a lot of basketball books), and interesting takes on a variety of issues.

One section was on his best "What if’ scenarios in basketball where he theorizes what would have happened if something turned out differently. I think an interesting “What if” would have been “What if the Blazers didn’t choke away game 7 of the WCF?” In my opinion, this would have probably caused LA to get rid of one of their stars, and it would have had a profound impact on many franchises that were thwarted by Lakers’ early 2000’s dynasty.

P.S. – Whiners, get over your insecurities (when you have Portland’s history of selecting injured and/or bust centers with the #1 pick in the draft, you deserve to get teased for it). That or go join your brethren Jazz fans.

Just seemed like sloppy ramblings from an exceptionally long, disjointed column. Frankly, it seemed amateurish and desperately in need of an editor. I used to be a big fan, but I rarely read his stuff anymore. I don’t know if I’m just getting bored with his style (the reports above of even more Teen Wolf references in the book seem too lame to possibly be true), or if he’s mailing it in. I don’t mind him offering blunt opinions with not much backing-that’s the stock in trade of talk radio hosts and opinion columnists all over the country, and it seems silly to take it personally. Of course he doesn’t know as much about Portland as a Blazer fan does-why should he? It doesn’t make me appreciate my memories of ‘77 anymore to know that Bill Simmons liked them (in retrospect), just like it doesn’t decrease my pleasant memories of the Drexler teams to read the shocking contention that Jordan was better than Clyde. Simmons brings the fan perspective to his writing, and sometimes fans are blowhards.

sports journalists. David Halberstam would be rolling over in his grave if he heard the things this clown says.

I bet he was at the only game they lost in the BG that year. It was against us and it was a double digit win and he hasn’t forgiven the blazers since. He just rips on them and acts like he didn’t know any better.