FOOT IN MOUTH
Bill Simmons claims NFL ‘more fun’ than NBA in divisive take as fans claim ‘football is going to be unwatchable soon’
Simmons pointed the finger at league bosses
ACCLAIMED sportswriter Bill Simmons thinks the NBA is in bad shape.
The media personality watched his beloved Boston Celtics secure an 18th championship last month.
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But despite his love for the sport, Simmons believes the new NBA collective bargaining agreement and a lack of vision have made the NFL a better product.
“The playoffs weren’t good,” he said to open the latest episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast.
“We had a lot of injuries, and I think people were more unhappy than happy with it.
"And I love basketball the most, and I was like, ‘I’m ready for football. I’m ready to throw myself in. I’m ready for Week 1 NFL.’
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"Football’s more fun, it’s a more smartly put-together sport at this point than basketball.”
Simmons, 54, has been around long enough to know that his comments will stir the pot just a little.
After all, this year has already seen former basketball star Austin Rivers start a frenzied debate over where NBA players could compete more in the NFL than in the opposite scenario.
And fans were quick to disagree with Simmons' take.
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"The NFL is becoming a soft league that penalizes tackling. It’s going to be unwatchable soon," commented one fan.
"I actually disagree. The nfl product is awful," another added.
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"NFL season 17 games and play-off system win 3 games your in Superbowl You can't compare NBA long season 82 games and longer playoff," a third argued.
Some fans thought Simmons' claim was correct.
"This isn’t a new development. Been that way for a long time. NBA regular season product is absolutely atrocious," said one.
"This is extremely obvious," another reply suggested.
Simmons says NBA bosses chased competitive balance at the expense of the offering on the court.
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“Ultimately, the league should care about good basketball,” he added.
“Basically what they’ve done with this whole system is they’re so desperate to create parity and to not have that bottom half of teams that suck that they’re penalizing the teams that are smart.
“What the league should actually want if they really cared about this s**t, which I’m not positive they do.
"If they cared about the overall health of the league, the schedule wouldn’t be 82 games, we wouldn’t be in this situation where it’s roulette every summer with guys just jumping around and 15 teams that are unhappy and 20 superstars and stars who are unhappy.
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“One of the things we should fix is the continuity piece, and rewarding franchises for continuity, for drafting players correctly, for keeping nucleuses together.
"That should be what the league wants.”
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