I gave up on Bill Simmons last year when he tossed his Boston brethren aside and vehemently proclaimed the Lakers were unbeatable.
I haven’t read a column since… but others have. The good folks at Perk Is A Beast found this gem in his fantasy hoops preview:
Rajon Rondo
Anything less than a 12-5-7 with 49 percent FG shooting and two-plus steals per game would be disappointing. By the way, after spending $21 million on a Doc Rivers extension and making Tom Thibodeau one of the league’s richest assistants, the Celtics still had to bring Sam Cassell back because Cassell and Ray Allen are the only two people who can get through to Rondo. I thought that was funny.
Follow the link for a very appropriate reaction. I will agree with PIAB: I think Simmons is full of it on this one… but they already said it as well as can be said.
This town has 4 major television media outlets, 2 major newspapers, and a bazillion blogs with people who not only scour the web for information, but who have been to games and practices… and NOT ONCE have we heard a shred of anything that even hints at Rondo being that type of player. You don’t see hints of it on the court. You don’t see hints of it on the bench. You don’t see hints of it anywhere. Probably because it’s not true.
Moving on… the blogger NBA previews continue. Here are the Northwest and Southeast Previews:
Denver Nuggets
Jeremy: Pickaxe and Roll
Nick Sclafani: The Nugg Doctor
Minnesota Timberwolves
Derek Hanson & Staff: TWolves Blog
Andrew Thell: Empty the Bench
wyn: Canis Hoopus
Oklahoma City
xphoenix87: BallerBlogger
Zorgon: Blue Blitz
Royce: The Thunderworld
Portland Trail Blazers
Mookie: …a stern warning
Benjamin Golliver: Blazers Edge
Coup and SJ: Rip City Project
Utah Jazz
UtesFan89: The Utah Jazz
Basketball John: SLC Dunk
Atlanta Hawks
Matt McHale: Basketbawful
Hoopinion: Peachtree Hoops
Charlotte Bobcats
BrettL: Queen City Hoops
Ziggy: BobcatsPlanet
Miami Heat
Darren Heitner: SportsAgentBlog.com
Gregory Broome: The Peninsula is Mightier
Orlando Magic
Ben: Third Quarter Collapse
Washington Wizards
Rashad: Hoops Addict
HoopsAvenue: HoopsAvenue
Mike Prada: Bullets Forever
Truth: Truth About It Dot Net
Also see links to all the previews at CelticsBlog.com
RedsArmy.com: The Voice Of Celtics Fans 
If Bill Simmons wants to be a crummy reporter, that is one thing. But he presents himself as a real fan as well as a reporter. He may be a crummy reporter, but as a fan he is absolutely despicable. The way he publicly threw KG under the bus when the Celts were going through tough times in the playoffs last year made me sick. He wrote that if the Celts didn’t win the championship it would be KG’s fault. That was ridiculous and it clearly shows that Simmons is an idiot. Even before the Celts won number 17, Celts fans should have been praising the day that KG came to Boston. If BS wants to be a reporter and criticize Celtics players and their coach, fine. And as a fan, there is a time and place to criticize your team and its coach. But real fans don’t public launch a viscous attack on their the character of its team’s leader, especially a great guy like KG. Real fans support their team and its players, especially during the hard times. After KG screwed up on offense a few times in crunch time, real Celts fans had his back and encouraged him. Ever since that article I have boycotted Bill Simmons when before I had been an avid reader. BS is fond of writing “my beloved C’s” but as a fan he willfully let the team down when real C’s fans were encouraging the team. As sweet as it was for KG and the Celts to demolish the Lakers in Game 6, it was all the sweeter that it was in BS’s two faces, as was the Game 4 comeback. Boycott the BS! That Benedict Arnold doesn’t deserve to call himself a Celtics fan. Since I’ve been boycotting BS, so I don’t know what he wrote after KG and the Celts proved him wrong. But if BS has been trying to bask in the glory of number 17, as is the right of all true Celts fans, that is wrong. He doesn’t deserve it.
Oops. In my haste to slam that traitor Simmons I forgot that the Celts have multiple leaders, not just KG, including Paul Pierce, the Captain, who certainly deserves his Captain-ship.
I should also add that Simmons owes his success largely to the popularity of the Red Sox. He has profited greatly from being a Sox fan and writing about it. Fair enough on that, but I think a little humility is in order. If it wasn’t for the Red Sox and Red Sox Nation he wouldn’t be getting paid to sit on his ass and watch sports all day. He might have to get a real job like the rest of us.
And I don’t buy Simmons’ argument that he wrote his KG-bashing article to create a reverse-jinx. The article was too mean-spirited.
The whole “reverse jinx” thing is infuriating. Maybe it’s becasue I don’t believe in jinxes… but I just find the whole concept to be overly egotistical.
Does BS think his words are SOOOOO powerful, that what he writes influences the outcome of major events? Really?
I think that KG article was overboard. Even if you take him at his word that it was a reverse jinx attempt. Maybe he’s just falling into that LA/Hollywood kind of crazy.
Whatever. I’ll be happy on this one to let someone else read his stuff and I’ll link to that later.
On the Rondo thing…
I’ve heard the same thing from a few other people about Rondo, that he can be flat-out stubborn at times ….
Now that being said, I’m sure that Simmons is exaggerating the situation, as he does with basically every situation.
And a stubborn point-guard isn’t always a bad thing.
Simmons makes it sound like Rondo is uncoachable… which is crap.
The PIAB guys mentioned Simmons’ “source”… I wonder who it is. They won’t out him because they like him… but I wonder who would say something like that.
I heard a few “friend of a friend” things recently and they made me wonder a little about what goes on. I wouldn’t even repeat them because who knows how true they are–though if they’re not totally true, I’m pretty confident they’re not coming from nowhere or are pure fiction.
Doc has said publicly Rondo is stubborn, so who knows what that means. I don’t really trust Simmons though so it’s not worth much to me; I peak in on an article every once in a while and always come out asking why I didn’t learn my lesson and stay abstinent.