I just listened to local Milwaukee sports talker Steve “The Homer” True interview ESPN sportswriter Bill Simmons for 25 minutes, and it was interesting how Mr. Simmons seemed to be completely serious about his candidacy for the next Bucks GM (assuming Larry Harris gets fired, which he will at the end of the season). Homer appears to believe (probably correctly) that such a thing would never happen, and that kept coming out in the slightly tense interview. But how did an idea like “ESPN Sports Guy for GM” grow enough legs to warrant an interview with the Homer? A little timeline is in order:
Before the NBA trading deadline last week, Bill Simmons writes his annual “Trade Machine” column, in which he speculates about several trade deadline deals he thinks teams should make. The Bucks are mentioned a couple of times, and after each possible Bucks trade he pretends to (or does he?) be campaigning for the Bucks GM job. For example, he says:
“By the way, I’d like to officially apply for Larry Harris’ job — a job we knew would be open three years ago after his deer-in-the-headlights performance after winning the 2005 lottery. Bucks fans, lemme remind you that I pushed long and hard for Chris Paul as the No. 1 pick of that draft. Do you think you’d enjoy rooting for Chris Paul right now? I bet you would. I love the good city of Milwaukee, I’d love to live there, and I’d love to run the Bucks. Come on, you couldn’t do worse! Start bugging Herb Kohl right now and vote Simmons for Bucks GM in 2008! YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN!”
At this point it’s probably just typical sportswriter hyperbole. He can’t be serious, right? He knows he’ll never get the job, but the idea got in his head that he should be the Bucks’ GM, and it makes too much sense for him not to mention. It’s either a vocalized pipe dream or a trial balloon, I can’t decide which.
After this column, the (dozens of?) people who live inside the overlap of the ven diagrams named “Sports Guy readers” and “Bucks fans” used this national mention as an opportunity to vent their frustration via e-mail. There were so many e-mails, in fact, and so passionate were they about the idea of the Sports Guy as GM, that Mr. Simmons followed his trade deadline column with an ESPN Magazine piece that openly campaigned for the position. It’s almost as if he realized he may have stumbled into his one-in-a-million shot to put down the fantasy sports league and engage in real live sports management, and by golly, he wasn’t going to waste that shot.
Of course, fans of the hapless, mediocre, and boring Bucks are just glad to see a major national sports columnist do a column on the franchise. It’s only natural to see the Sports Guy’s candidacy as either a breath of non-stale air or a potential savior in the making. Not only that, but the Sports Guy talks openly of wanting to live in Milwaukee. This whole thing seems like a dream come true for both sides.
After minutes of thinking, This is Epth Nation 2.6 would like to declare its endorsement of Mr. Simmons for the Bucks GM job. There are many reasons why it’s a great idea:
1) They can’t, and I do mean can’t, do any worse than they have the last 20 years.
2) He would be the most scrutinized GM in sports history, due to the nature of his hiring, and therefore the Bucks would be in the sports news constantly. This would be big.
3) He appreciates the greatness that is Brewtown, and wants to live there. That alone should get him an interview. Also, he could be a tremendous ambassador for a city and state that needs a neutral (read: didn’t grow up there) ambassador in the worst way.
4) He would pick Chris Paul instead of Andrew Bogut. He said so before the draft.
5) In listening to him, he rightly understands the problem with overpaying role players, the fact that Bogut’s the only guy on the Bucks who’s untradable, and the fact that fans don’t mind a bad team if you have a clear plan to get better.
6) With no experience and his dream job standing in front of him, he’ll probably work relatively cheap.
Those are six good reasons right there, no? I’m going to keep on saying this will never happen in the perverse hope that it does. This idea has legs now; it’s time we Bucks fans invested in a tank to help it along.
Maybe Mr. Simmons would like to OWN the Bucks?
Yeah…we’ll see how he likes the job when Kohl and his cronies veto the first five trades he wants to do. His chant will change from “yes we can” to “please fire me”. Plus I’d worry about a guy who in his trade blog said that we should trade for Drew Gooden because he would be a “much needed banger”. And the Cleveland should trade for Villanueva because “he can shoot three pointers”. Trust me Bill…he can’t, and he proves it every game.
Well, having seen them both play over the course of a month, I can definitely say I’d rather have Gooden than Villanueva. At least Gooden gets in the way of offensive players.
True…but Gooden has that nasty beard thing going on…must we be bad and ugly???
Bogut and Gooden could both bring back their “bald-except-for-a tiny-ponytail-in-the-back” look. It would be like a bunch of Jet Li’s out there!
Yes, we must be bad and ugly, to answer your question. Bring back Cassell!
Yeah…how funny is it that Cassell and Allen are back together??? Irony is a beautiful thing…if they call Big Dog out of retirement I am totally on board as a Celtics fan for the rest of the year. Actually I am looking most forward to Cassell playing ole defense on a play, and then watching Garrnet glare a hole in Cassell’s stomach with laser beams.
This also reunites Garnett and Cassell, remember? It helps that Sam has now played on nearly every team.
Yeah… good recall…is Sprewell far behind from joining the Celtics along with Big Dog????