There was a lot of discussion about this during the second part of the Chuck Klosterman podcast...what's funny is that during the first part I was actually thinking "man. they need to do this a lot more often than they do" and I guess now they will.

I guess there was some random press about it a couple of weeks ago and they haven't announced many writers (Klosterman, Katie Baker and one other guy who's name escapes me) yet, but I endorse this idea. At any rate, I guess ESPN is "letting" Bill do this as a reward for being successful for them...so their money and PR is going into it but it will not be ESPN branded.

Pretty cool. I'm looking forward to it.

Nice work if you can get it. Did they indicate how much content will be written v. How much will be podcasts? Because despite my constant need for affirmation through radio and television appearances, I fucking hate his podcasts.

I'm thinking a lot of it will be writing. One thing he mentioned is that he wants to give Klosterman a regular home where people can find him and a place where he can blog or write about things more current than he would with, say, a magazine piece. He also talked about the influence of things like Spy magazine and creating a place for good writers to write.

They didn't mention his name (from the sound of it there are a good number of people who are "on board" but not on paper yet) but I'm guessing that Malcom Gladwell will be involved.

i listened to this kloserman/simmons podcast today and hope the reverse. prefer more podcasts. i dont have much time to read and would rather spend what limited time I do have on books and not on magazine articles (in general). i do have some free time at work or in the car or working out where I can listen to podcasts.

I would prefer they read the articles to me.

that needs to be an app for the i-Pad. just call it "Read to Me"

its just really hard to read my kindle, feed a baby a bottle, and wrestle a three year old.

I know my FiL's Kindle will read whatever book you have on there outloud. I wonder if the iPad app does that?

Our former music (now books/film) writer here has a friend in D.C. who's been brought into this. Name escapes me now.

I'm openly jealous. I hit up Jemele Hill to see about getting some stuff to Simmons, but she said she knows very little about it and that everyone's knocking on her door about it.

& if Katie Bakes does anything even half as cringe-worthily awesome as this, for this Simmons joint, I'll eat my shoe.

Found some decent information on the project from Dan Shanoff: http://www.quickish.com/articles/why-bi ... -to-thrive

Missed this before, but man what an incredible takedown of Simmons, Klosterman, Gladwell, Grantland.com et al

Some fair and inarguable points to be sure, but I spent most of the piece wondering if this fella used the Black Crowes "Jealous Again" or Lennon's "Jealous Guy" for his writing music that day.

Or maybe he only liked the Sports Guy's unreleased debut EP.

At any rate, the piece was linked from Tom Scocca's blog at Slate--a blog he is apparently leaving to become the managing editor at Deadspin. Wheels on the bus...

Yeah, having that photo caption of "Face for radio. Voice for text. Thoughts for semaphore." is a pretty good indicator of excess haterade.

Here's another quote from this guy

"Let's be honest, Drive-By Truckers is modern music for the type of Southern male who thinks Kid Rock is "too black," and Kings of Leon "too ragingly homosexual." That said, they're a serviceable replacement for Lynyrd Skynyrd, who have steadily lost fans in that demographic since releasing "The Ballad of Curtis Loew." Drive-By Truckers are yet another band that features a lineup of at least one extra person whose purpose you can only guess at — unless, in this case, the extra person is the second guitarist, whose job seems to be to try to play melodic rock solos that end up sounding like Sonny Sharrock's Space Ghost theme. Expect great things for them, especially since they'll probably never be rich enough to charter a plane.
• Optional Delight: having a name that co-opts both urban gangs and southern people/southern vehicles."

As ridiculously off-base as that write-up is, I can't say I didn't laugh several times while reading it.

Best Grantland takedown was Deadspin's pink gorilla at a fancy restaurant "sabotaging" of Tommy Craggs's interview for a writing gig there. That pompous Northwestern alum -- Craggs as the SpadeKitty of sports blogging? -- was in on it with the Deadspin editor, Daulerio.

Is it really that "incredible"? The guy certainly reaches his fist way back to take a big swing but he really only glances Simmons on the chin.

I'll agree with him that the summer movie piece Grantland hung out there for a sampling was a bunch of mommy blogger-level garbage, and that the site's mission (beyond "stuff Bill Simmons likes to read") hasn't been well defined. On that site I'll have faith in the people behind it, the talent involved and hope it metabolizes into something great.

But all the shots he takes at Simmons' career arc and how he writes, well, the numbers don't lie. He's the marquee writer for one of the biggest media companies (all media, not just sports) on the planet. I don't doubt there are sports writers out there who are more reasoned, have deeper insights and have done things that will better stand the test of time. I do know that Rick Reilly - who this jackass somehow holds up as the antidote to all the literary sins Simmons has committed - damn sure isn't one of them and for that point alone he loses me.

Haters gonna hate.

i kind of got the impression that daulerio intentionally sabotaged craggs on that

Craggs -- not known for his equanimity -- did not resign at DS in a huff. Sure, his remark at the end ("I enjoy working for an editor who sends pink gorillas to fancy restaurants") seems tossed off and insincere, but to say otherwise would raise liability issues AND pull back the curtain on the demeaning TWWL schtick that became DS's stock in trade after they denied the Steve Philips adultery scoop to Daulerio. (That said, Will Leitch -- no saint himself -- made plenty of hay of ESPN, in the pre-Daulerio days, but he was not quite so obvious in his malice, i.e. "Midwestern nice" vs. Philadelphia coarseness.)

I thought the movie preview was fine. Ive also come around a bit on the podcasts. It's all about the guests. The other thing that really comes through is that pre-fame Simmons probably never interacted with, much less was friends with, black people. There's several times when they're discussing things where the answer is obvious, but they just can't bring themselves to criticize black culture.

I love Klosterman, though. I hope this is a ParisbReview esque home for him.

What do we think of the site as it launches?

Site looks really nice. I thought they were going to have more podcasts besides the BS report though. Probably forthcoming.

Simmons' article on the "Lebrondown" was spot on.

looks pretty cool visually, and they seem to have quite a few quality writers signed on.

however, i thought most of the stories they opened up the site with were pretty bland and not particularly well-written.

I liked the LeBronDown piece a lot, but Klosterman's story about the 3-on-5 hoops game was missing some crucial passages to convey how the game played out and why it was so compelling. Great exposition and background to set the stage, and he wrapped it up well enough but (for me) the details of the game's crucial moments are a blurry mess.

I haven't read anything else yet - will probably gorge this weekend - but he's got Chris Jones in the mix and that's nothing but good. That guy is one of the best long-form journalistic writers we have right now. He did Esquire's Roger Ebert profile last year and a 2008 piece called "The Things That Carried Him" about a fallen soldier's journey back home. Dude is major.
http://www.esquire.com/features/things-that-carried-him

yeah you have to hand it to simmons, he got quite a few big timers to write for this thing

I just don't know why people Want Lebron to be the next Jordan, when Lebron clearly doesn't want that. Didn't we learn from Jordan's hall of fame speech that he's still a miserable person, consumed by real and imagined slights, 10 years after his career ended? Lebron's just the first Lebron, a 6'8" point guard stronger and faster than the biggest guy on the other team. The Heat were rolling for most of that game, and for better or worse, Lebron was facilitating and staying out of Dwayne's way. In the end they didn't lose because they didn't score enough points, they lost because they couldn't get a stop on Dallas. Who gets the blame for that?