Let me preface this by saying that I respect Bill Simmons and generally enjoy his podcast. Also this was a quote from the NBA trade deadline pod, so I am a few days behind on listening. But I have some beef with this statement. About an hour and 25 minutes into the podcast, Bill goes on a little tangent about how cliche LeBron is. Now in some aspects, thats certainly a valid point. Everyone is cliche in some ways. However, LeBron called our president a bum on social media. Id say thats pretty profound. So this comment as well as the surrounding context got under my skin. Ive grown up with LeBron and as far as I can tell, hes "used his platform" more maturely and effectively than maybe any other athlete ever. Not to mention hes a great role model just by example as a father, as a young black male, and as a successful person. Id argue hes done much more with his platform to impact players, children, the African American community, and much more than Bill has ever done with his platform. So this true just seemed incredibly unwarranted and just seems like a meritless jab at LeBron for no good reason. Its probably not a big deal and even if this gets traction he, perhaps Im overreacting. But I just listened to that and was somewhat appalled that someone like Bill, whos very smart, successful, and has a big platform of his own, would throw out a diss like that without much supporting evidence. Okay rant over, sorry folks. Just wanted to at least share my thoughts on that. Thanks for taking the time to read for you those of you who did.
>Everyone is cliche in some ways. However, LeBron called our president a bum on social media. Id say thats pretty profound I think Trump is a bum, but are you sure you know what "profound" means?
My exact reaction when reading this point. Seems like standard for what profound is getting lower and lower because these nephews are so easy to impress
Lebron can say what he wants. Its his right. But he cant be saying Trump is a bum, or Ohio voters are uneducated, or NFL Owners act like slave owners, etc. and then say we live in a divisive country and that are President is dividing our country. That is
LeBron has used his influence to do a ton of great stuff. But I hate that we live in a society where calling someone a bum on twitter is called "pretty profound."
Id say its fairly normal right now but at the time it was a kind of a big moment. Arguably the biggest name in American sports calls the president of the United States a bum. Spicy.
Its not just someone though. Its literally most powerful man in the world.
It still doesn’t make it profound. Millions of people rip trump every single day. It’s not a controversial stance.
That just makes it worse. The level of dialogue in this country has gotten silly.
I mean youre really underselling it there. He said it to one of the most powerful people in the world on one of the largest and most public stages in the world. Its a bit different than you calling some random person a bum.
Celebs daily like every week make fun of trump and call him names on Twitter the same place lebron called him a bum. People on talk shows every weekend make fun of trump. Making fun of trump has become a daily part of people’s days in the us.
Ill repeat what I said to the other person who responded this: That just makes it worse. The level of dialogue in this country has gotten silly.
And 30,000 people already do it to every single tweet he ever posts. He could post a tweet saying hes been a secret socialist the whole time and the Krassensteins would still be there telling us how thats bad.
He’s kinda right. We shouldn’t be looking to LeBron as an authority on social justice, politics or race relations when he’s yet to offer any nuance to his positions that separates him from the group think. Why was him calling Trump a bum on Twitter
I think youre right in that James doesnt necessarily say anything *bad* (for the most part), but the substance of what he does say is milquetoast PR-speak which is designed to protect his fandom and his brand. Not that those opinions are wrong, or even de
lol how is calling the president on twitter a bum "profound" when 20,000 people reply to every tweet he makes doing the same thing? Yes Simmons is salty bc he predicted 67 wins for the Celtics but I fail to see anything profound about having the same poli
Its not, but its Bill Simmons talking about LeBron so weve gotta hate on him for it.
Theres been a very strong "stick to sports" mentality in broader American culture for many years now, bucking that trend openly and directly may not be "profound" per se but lets not act like LeBron doing it is the same as reply guy culture.
Sure, but the comparisons to Russell and Ali are over-the-top. Funnily enough, Melo is the modern NBA star who has actually been the most politically active imo.
In the past I could see this, but literally everything is political now. Every awards show is a trump bashing circlejerk, same with every late night "comedy" show. Its not like everyone else was "sticking to sports" and he somehow led the charge in breaki
Maybe you dont remember the context. He called DT a bum after Golden State was uninvited from the white house after wining the finals. It would have been pretty easy for LeBron to have said nothing, but to have spoken up for Steph -- the guy who just 4-0d
They were uninvited because half of them werent coming anyway though, not because Trump had some vendetta against them... Steph didnt need anyone to speak up for him when he already spoke up for himself by declining the invitation in the first place.
So I am not arguing its profound, but I found it kind of refreshing. Im not a huge LeBron follower but I remember at the time it seemed pretty surprising to me because he had seemed to avoid controversy/politics. So to see him jump in and do it in such
He never avoided politics, he openly campaigned for both Obama and Hillary... how is someone who fundraised and openly campaigned for the opposing candidate calling Trump a bum surprising, refreshing, or profound?
>when 20,000 people rely to every tweet he makes doing the same thing Because its LeBron James, one of the most influential black people in the world.
Right, but african americans already vote more as a bloc than any other demographic group, and despite trump getting the most support among them for a Republican since Reagan won 49 states, who is he actually influencing? Black support didnt swing any imp
Something doesn’t become profound because of who you are lol. Why is it profound just because he’s Lebron? Y’all are just slobbing on his balls rn to be outraged over nothing
Shit like this is why we hate LeBron stans so much. >Used his platform more maturely and effectively than any other athlete ever What the hell does that even mean? People like Arthur Ashe, Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens, Muhammed Ali, Billie Jean Kin
Youre right that those guys are way more meaningful in the grand scheme of things, but my counter-argument would be that using your voice shouldnt HAVE to be controversial to be powerful. Lebrons best contribution to society and social justice is that hes
But you also celebrated him calling the president a bum on Twitter. Thats just classless low rent behavior. The other side of this was that guys like Arthur Ashe we called uncle tom and heavily criticized from their own community for not being vocal eno
Im torn between upvoting because I agree with Simmons, and downvoting because OPs take on it is awful.
Bill hates LeBron can someone tell me why other than getting daddy dicked Every year
I’m guessing because he won’t give Bill the time of day when it comes to access/interviews
Does he give anyone the time of day to do it? I know he was on Ellen a little bit ago, but that was for some movie.
He’s a more respected Cowherd who we can relate to because he’s a fan, but his takes are consistently terrible and the whole Kyrie thing makes him look so terrible
LeBron has done more for youth in America than Bill Simmons could ever dream of. Seriously, fuck Bill Simmons. I honestly think he is a bad person for this. This goes beyond basketball.
He’s really not, lebron doesn’t say profound things. That doesn’t make him a bad guy or take away from the good things he does.
What would make it more profound exactly? I hate when people call everything cliche, cliche shit is said a lot because its usually the most important and accurate shit. Trying to go against the grain for the sake of not sounding cliche makes you looks fuc
I actually agree with him. Saying “trump is bad” or “college athletes should get paid” really isn’t profound. There is no doubt athletes in the past who care more about their marketing than anything else would not wade into even those waters,
Spot on. The most controversial thing lebron has ever said was about the nfl’s slave mentality and I’m not even sure if he was totally right about it.
Exactly. Oh wow he said something super edgy about the nfl players that was entirely heavy handed
He was pretty much entirely wrong about it. A private business owner has always had the right to police his employees behavior. People can argue the positives/negatives of kneeling for the anthem, but the owners absolutely have the right to prevent it if
Well if Bills criticism is that his takes are too conformatory then why does he criticise Skip Bayless or Stephen A for being contrarian?
Counter point: It is better to risk stating the obvious then go off half cocked and trying to sound profound on all sorts of subjects when you don’t know what you’re talking about ie Kyrie.
Sure. My point is... a guy like jaylen brown has pretty much said all the things lebron has, the only difference in the amount of credit they get is only based on their difference in fame.
Bullshit. Dave Chappelle had a great joke ‘If Martin Luther king had a sneaker deal, we never would have had a civil rights movement’ It’s not just Jordan. Kobe, Shaq, Russell Wilson, cam Newton, go right down the list, players in that position s
Since it was the trade deadline podcast, wonder if he was more talking about LeBrons Super Bowl commentary towards Woj and basically live-tweeting/Instagramming while drunk on wine or whatever he was doing got to Bill for some reason. Seems like people
yeah the whole thing was a joke on how lebron delivering messages sounds like hes saying something meaningful when in reality he says a lot of obvious stuff like "good player is good"
Bill Simmons is worthy of being ignored when he discusses lebron and Kobe... anything else he’s decent.
Add Sixers to that list, his takes on our team have basically been concern trolling for 5 straight years. Agreed that for non-Celtics or Celtics-related takes, hes usually good. I still listen.
Yeah I loved his new take that the Sixers don’t have a crunch time 5 after the trade deadline... like what dude? You think we should have been rolling out Chandler or Muscala over Tobi?
I think you’re kind of misinterpreting what he was saying. First off it was pretty tounge in cheek. And I think he just meant that Lebron can give off r/iamverysmart vibes where things he says are obvious or cliche but Lebron seems to think they’re ve
Calling President Trump a, "bum," is not profound in any way. I am sure about three quarters of our country agree with that statement. Durant has done the same thing too, but just isnt as vocal about it. Also with the Warriors declining to visit the Presi
i love how he gargles kds nut, but criticizes lebron for the same exact things.
Can someone outline when exactly lebron went against the grain in terms of social justice?
Why would anyone have to go "against the grain"? Nobody is claiming he is heading civil rights movements or anything. Standing up for a peer and standing up to a racist president publicly *~~is about as profound as it gets.~~ I honestly thought profoun
His point is everything lebron has said is just what most people in lebrons situation believe. He has not done something to the level of a Colin kaepernick or someone like that to actually sacrifice anything. He sacrificed a small number of his fans who
> Nobody is claiming he is heading civil rights movements or anything. Except they have. They were even trying to compare him to Mohammed Ali and how he was this generation jim brown.
To be fair to Bill, that was a pretty “Thanks, Magic” kind of tweet. To be fair to LeBron, he has definitely earned the benefit of the doubt on shit like this. So, sorry Bill - you’re wrong.
Exactly, well said. Bill is quick to dismiss Lebron’s body of work while missing the bigger picture. Dude is terrible
Simmons also doesn’t understand the difficulties of making statements public statements like that as a minority. LeBron doesn’t need a bigger target on his back. Can he handle it? Sure. But he doesn’t need to. Classic reddit thinking their white m
Remember when Lebron tried to assassinate Phil Jacksons character over the word "posse"? Using ones platform to try and bring someone down who isnt fond of you isnt noble, its indicative of ugliness inside. Funny that Phil was talking about Lebron enabli
I dont follow any of LeBrons social media does he really make himself look profound? I always thought of LeBron as being kinda corny like dad jokes and stuff in a good way. Obviously he has done a lot in Akron and other charitable stuff, but he can still
People who find buzzfeed informative and instagram comments insightful probably believe him to be pretty profound.
Profound: "(of a person or statement) having or showing great knowledge or insight." Called a reviled dude "a bum" on twitter lets pump those brakes
Im a long time admirer of Bill Simmons and have read him going back to the Page2 days. I love what hes doing at The Ringer and he seems like the type of person Id like to work for. That said, this take of his on LeBron bothered me and was misguided. Ill
people ITT seem so hurt that someone dared say something bad about their king. simmons isnt even criticizing lebron. hes making a joke about how lebron sounds authoritative on a topic when he speaks but in reality a lot of what he says has little substanc
Bill Simmons is an imbecile and frankly annoying. At least personalities like Bayless and Stephen A own up to their caricature, Simmons lacks basic self awareness and is an angry hypocrite in 90% of what he puts out
. . . Was the Shop not about this very thing? LeBron bringing up issues and discussing them with a manner and sincerity that a simple tweet simply could not convey? He wasnt kidding about being held to another standard I guess.
Who the fuck cares what Bill Simmons says? Hes the biggest Celtics nut hugger alive.
I mean doesnt he have the I Promise School? That seems pretty profound
Exactly. A lot of LeBron’s “profound” statements are him putting his money where his mouth is. LeBron does make statements or tackle big issues, but he doesn’t just use his words. LeBron is incredibly generous with his wealth. He says we as a co
Theres no actual proof Jordan ever said that shoes thing. Some guy trying to sell a book used that quote based on what an anonymous friend of MJ supposedly told him. Just gets parroted around to make MJ look bad at this point
Bill referred to the pelicans owner as "the widow" more than once on this podcast. Anyone else find this offensive?