Popular NBA analyst for ESPN and founder of Grantland, Bill Simmons, was suspended earlier this week for tweets criticizing one of the network’s flagship shows, First Take.
Last week on March 8th, Simmons tweeted his displeasure with a segment that took place between Seahawks Pro Bowl cornerback, Richard Sherman and First Take host Skip Bayless. The segment, which you can see on the bottom, became an insult tossing contest between the two in which Sherman told Bayless he was “better at life than him.”
Simmons then tweeted to his over 2 million followers the segment embedded stating “I am not defending this segment. I thought it was awful and embarrassing to everyone involved. Seriously. It’s amazing to me that people get so worked up about First Take,” Simmons continued. “Who cares? Just don’t watch it. There are like 800 TV channels. But what bothers me about the reaction to that segment is people saying Richard Sherman ‘won.’ Nobody won. Everyone lost. Including ESPN.”
Deadspin reports that Simmons was expected to make a trip out to New York this week for a sort of Grantland East brainstorming session, but he backed out over the weekend. He also didn’t appear on NBA Countdown last night, though that was apparently previously scheduled.
Simmons was told to lie low for a few days and he hasn’t tweeted since Monday. He’ll apparently be allowed to return to Twitter tomorrow.
—
Photo: NYTimes
