Those who have been around since October 2009 will remember that ESPN's Bill Simmons was not a fan of the 5-year extension that the Portland Trail Blazers gave to power forward LaMarcus Aldridge.
At the time, he wrote...
Any time you can lock up a non All-Star like LaMarcus Aldridge for $65 million, you have to do it. Fyi: I wouldn't give any NBA megaextension except for a Durant type. Market swung too drastically. Aldridge worth 65m 3 yrs ago but not now.
Rip City Project first pointed it out on Twitter and then a number of readers sent in the link to the most recent episode of the B.S. Report. On the episode, Simmons and co-host Joe House praise Aldridge extensively, backing his All-Star credentials, and Simmons almost admits that he was wrong about the Aldridge contract.
The segment begins around the 30 minute mark as part of their discussion of "borderline franchise" players. Here's a transcript of the Aldridge praise, which was taped prior to the NBA's announcement that Kevin Love would replace Yao Ming on the NBA's Western Conference All-Star team last night.
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House: "I feel like he's shown the capacity for this, just hasn't been asked to do it on this kind of sustained basis because of the type of team over the last couple of years."
Simmons: "I think he's a center and they never wanted to play him at center. [Before] he was a power forward, and now he's effectively a center. And now he's down on the low block. He has to be double-teamed."
House: "He's got a really nice array of skills."
Simmons: "Playing hard."
House: "Has he ever not played hard? I feel like he's been... he strikes me as kind of a glue guy."
Simmons: "He's one of the worst All-Star snubs of all time. I don't think he's going to make it. The Yao Ming -- It's going to be either him or Love. Either one of them is a travesty but what can you do? It's a 13-player team."
House: "You can't have the league-leading rebounder off the team. That's my opinion."
Simmons: "Can't say enough about Aldridge. I never thought he was going to be this good. I actually thought when they signed him to that extension, I thought it was stupid. I thought they gave him too much money. I didn't think he'd be this good."
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-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter