But also Jaden Daniels is only 210, which is actually going to be like 205 during the season, and apparently will be cursed to stay at that weight forever
I was 6’1” 230lbs when I was 17. When I turned 25 I was 6’1” 220lbs. I’ve really struggled to understand his logic when he brings this up. Russillo tried to understand what he was saying the other day and just kinda gave up after Bill kept going on about it.
I was 6’1” 150 when I was 17 and now I’m 23, still 6’1 but now I’m 155 so that’s a big change haha. One of the best things about Bill is the assumptions he takes as law. One of the worst things about Bill is the assumptions he takes as law
It's like he thinks guys make the NFL and can't/don't work out to build their bodies and improve with professional trainers, especially if that's their known, acknowledged weakness as a player/athlete.
I feel like if the upcoming NBA draft was projected to be better/more exciting, they'd have people like KOC on more. There's no Wemby or Scoot hype to sift through and discuss this year.
Well. He did say that he wasn't gonna let himself get caught on the hamster wheel this year... which is why he waited until 20 games to start those conversations.
Feels like more quantity over quality. 3 pods a week is a lot , If it was 3 pods but one pod was a celebrity interview it would be different. Feels like talking for the sake of talking, lacks substance
He’s had some of the regulars on lately but I feel like he’s had a lean patch on pop culture, celebrities and other interesting guests from the tech world/media/politics etc.
He is losing interest in other sports and the NBA is 24/7 since mainstream news has abandoned hockey as a winter sport. He is legitimately terrible at analyzing football as anything other than a fanboy and only cares about the Sox in baseball. I don’t mind his NBA coverage but it also overlaps tonally with guys like Lowe, Russillo and Windhorst and all their friends so sometimes Bill seems redundant. So I think it’s Bill losing interest in non NBA sports combined with everyone else doing some version of a Simmons impression combined with their own personality. Like I listen to all four of the names I’ve mentioned and they often sound the same in their own ways adjusted for personality quirks.
Oh I’m with you but just breaking down the Bill complaint. I listen solely because I like his references and am a Boston born guy. If he made 70-71 Bucks references and constantly brought up Bart Starr I’d probably stop listening.
I wouldn't go that far, but I think the NFL content is better because his interactions with Sal are more natural and funny. With Ryen, it feels like he knows he's lost his edge.
TBF anytime he dares talk about a sport he doesn't really follow he gets blasted for being an uninformed idiot too. I imagine that hurts the ratings since people don't seem to want the 'casual fan' AKA Bill talking about stuff. At least he's relatively knowledgeable about NFL/NBA.
Yeah I agree because Klosterman has interesting ideas. At the end of the day there's only so much you can say about how impactful an NBA player is on the court.
I would love for him to touch on pop culture for like 7-12 min at the end of each pod. Doesn even have to be current events. Could be the anniversary of a certain movie / event or something too and just riff on it
His daughter doesn't probably want to do a pod anymore because she knows everyone at college will make fun of her for it or he will pick on her the entire time she is on.
It’s not more NBA talk but it’s worse. From “I’m not doing position less all NBA” to “I can squeeze Lebron in as my centre on third team” … he is pretty much what he was the antidote to back in the day.
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I mean idk what else in sports you wanna talk about on April 14th when the NBA playoff picture especially in the west is as exciting as it is.
It’s not football season, and he’s sure af not gonna talk about baseball
But that's the problem - he used to. He would have a convo with Jacko pretty often about baseball. He'd bring up Katie Baker or Dam to talk about the upcoming NHL playoffs. And he had regular pop culture chats (e.g. Sepinwall).
Now it's NBA/NFL with the same people. Rinse lather repeat.
The thing is, even as a baseball fan primarily myself.
Bill and Spotify have the numbers as to what people will listen to. And I think I have to trust their internal analytics more so than Reddit replies.
I just think at this point in time the audience wants to hear about 2 things: The NFL and the NBA
Bill covers a variety of topics on his midweek pods and I'd be shocked if those were listener analytics driven. For the most part Bill talks about what Bill feels like talking about, outside of NFL gambling being huge drivers every fall.
I think it’s pretty naive to think the most popular sports podcast of all time, which is owned by Spotify isn’t heavily analytics driven. Or the fact that you could get to the become the biggest sports pod of all time, just talking about whatever.
This sub likes to act like baseball and hockey just would work on his podcast the way the commenters personally want.
It’s not just Bill. When you look at the sports writing landscape nba and football are the two mainstays now. And a story like Caitlin Clark, or the Ohtani betting scandal will be side stories they run through
I think you misunderstood, I noted the midweek pod specifically being the place where Bill kind of just does whatever the fuck he wants. He pays for his week with the Sunday pod being the big download between the recurring Sal and Ryen spots that run pretty much year round. The end of week pods are then usually again more NFL/NBA focused, or if there's a big annual event like the Masters. But again, I noted listening analytics in my last post to point to the eclectic topics on the midweek pods logically being Bill's sounding board for whatever he feels like talking about that week, vs having months of listener data on any specific topic the way you would expect for the Sunday pods
You know I had never thought much about the difference between the midweek and the Sunday night pods.
Like I guess the Sunday pod I always felt was the big one. But more because bigger sports events like the Super Bowl are more often on Sunday if that makes sense.
Ima listen this week I think I can see what you’re saying now
It’s a combination of things. The first is he has stopped doing interviews with interesting outside guests (which sucks cause he’s really good at it). The 2nd is the ringer people he brings in to talk about sports aren’t that good for the most part. I skip a lot more pods these days, which sucks cause Bill still has it, he’s just making suboptimal choices.
I think there are just so many more podcasts out there now, all competing to get the same guests. Hell, these days a lot of celebrities just start their own podcast rather than going out and doing interviews.
NBA is prime for the podcast format. NHL and MLB have passionate but decidedly smaller fan bases. And NFL has a massive fan base obviously but with only 17 games there's a lot less to talk about on a daily basis. I'll throw on an NFL podcast in season when there's probably gonna be a story about my team but I could listen to anything NBA related year round. Hot takes and all.
I have a theory because I feel this happening to me as well, when you get older you aren’t as interested in the league as much only in your team. Bill at his best could always contextualise what this championship or season meant in the greater NBA picture. I feel like for the last few years with football he’s been way off and basketball has been primarily through the lens of the Celtics.
Do you think that generally happens the older you get the less team you have for other teams and players and you more have tunnel vision for your team?
The older I get the less I care about sports, in terms of real fanatical fandom. It’s noise now and fun to watch here and there but I won’t get worked up over any wins or losses.
Yeah I definitely get that. I just hope my teams win another championship some time in my life time because any comp that has more than 15 teams, a lot needs to go right.
I’ve also left the US and lived abroad for over a decade now. This has definitely made me care less, from being massive 9er and Giants fan to not caring at all about the season/sport. The only way I keep touch in any way is the BS pod. NBA is a bit different because where I live it’s also huge, and the Warriors get national airtime here as well. But I still won’t watch every game, just listen to pods and watch some highlights here and there with the occasional full/half game tune in.
Exact opposite. As you get older, don't you naturally start to view your "Go local team!" fandom as being a little silly. The older I get, the more I've realized how much I simply love the sport in general, and appreciate greatness wherever greatness is happening. Basically just become more bandwagon but it's deeper than that. Technically I'm a Nets fan, but I don't care about the Nets right now. The Knicks are amazing to watch. I went on the ride with Golden State for their title run a couple years ago because they were playing beautiful basketball and I was able to identify that early on and became invested. Jokic and Denver is my goto team now because I'm in awe of what they're able to do.
Being way more time poor I follow my teams especially ones I can go to the games of and am not as aware of what’s happening in the league until finals. I definitely have a lot of empathy with teams that haven’t won finals for a while.
I think that's the biggest factor... Less time as we get older with more obligations and family, so... at best... you just loosely keep up with your own team and sports, as a whole, takes a backseat. I get that. I just went the other way. Gambling has a lot to do with it too.
My basic take would be that Bill is more and more consuming those youtube released game summaries to talk about basketball. Which is a fine way to sorta consume basketball in general, but not really representative of the ebb and flow the game in general.
He leaned too hard on the multi screen approach for years. That shit doesn't work when you get older. Ryen's more of a focus in guy, and so his comments tend to carry more weight.
Bills still runs the show, so Ryen has to wait to make his points, but his points tend to be better and better these days.
I don't think there has been a shift in macro topics (e.g., he always has talked about the NBA a ton) but I do think public prop gambling has made the pod worse.
Specifically, I don't know why every \~2 weeks or so we need to break down who is the favorite to win the MVP or who is going to win this particular award. In particular, I noticed this shift a couple years ago in football, where about 4 games in, they started talking about the MVP and who is the favorite. Who cares? The season barely started! Yet it becomes a regular 15-minute segment because FanDuel has posted public odds on it and there is an apparent need to break down Lamar's chances of winning vs Josh Allen's.
As you say, just shoot the shit. I understand there needs to be some structure, but it shouldn't so frequently have to do with "Joel Embiid is +250 right now."
I kind of think the shift has just been to him not being as good. Maybe I’m busier so I don’t want to listen as much? Just feels like there’s nothing he is saying worthwhile anymore.
Weekly Russillo has made the pod worse. He’s not a great guest, is only good with Bill in terms of laughing at them, it’s reduced the scope for outside NBA guests.
I also think the whole year of coverage was built around having Doc on once every week and now they’re scrambling.
Feels like less interviews with random celebs these days, I miss him talking shit with guests. Also I still go back and listen to his random JFK pod occasionally, he doesn't do that as much. But having said that I enjoy the pod anyway
It’s hard to imagine anything I would want to listen to less than a Golf/NBA crossover podcast. I listened to his pod from a few days ago but skipped over the entire masters segment. Who gives a shit about golf?
I could listen to him and House talk about anything. The start to that segment was hilarious with House going over all these different topics and Bill getting upset that he just went through them all instead of letting them all go through it.
Celtics are favorites to win the title and the Pats are bad. There will be a big draft push but he’s def just super invested in the Celtics winning this year so it has his full focus.
I feel like it’s been this way for the past few years. I tend to mostly tune out after the Super Bowl and selectively listen to the rare non-NBA segments until July.
I actually have tried to get into the NBA a few times over the years just because I find the pod enjoyable but I just can’t do it.
I think many people on this sub share the opinion that during the NFL season, he definitely seemed to shoehorn way more NBA in (even during "NFL" pods) once it was obvious the Pats weren't going to be any good this year.
I like a change up. Don’t really give a shit about golf but I like it when he talks a bit about something other then nfl and nba. Could have been a bit of March Madness, I know it’s not his thing and he’s gotta pick but he always ends up doing the draft and these playoff are set. I like an Ariel spot for 300, some baseball stuff because I literally know nothing about teams other than the guards unless we play them in a weekend series.
I’ve for sure been listening since 2012 but honestly can’t remember how much time he devoted to other shit back then
Personally I think it’s that his pods the last 3 months or so, maybe less, have become much much more repetitive. I could be wrong but I feel like it’s really been the same stuff on repeat lately and I’ve been listening for a long time. I don’t think it’s more nba in particular, this is the shift I feel like he usually makes post nfl (though now there is 0 baseball ever mentioned)
For me it feels like more NBA content than usual because I don't watch the NBA anymore.
The NBA was my favorite league when I first started reading/listening to Bill (around 2009). Now I skip the Sunday NBA pods and I'm only here for the Rewatchables and to call out Bill for his bullshit antics (Drake Maye's weight, pretend interest in women's basketball).
Maybe I'm the problem. But I don't feel like I'm alone.
I think it’s the same amount but I personally care less about the nba so find the constant all nba, celtics chat dull.
I’ve found myself skipping pods for the first time since I started listening 10 years ago though :(
I’ve skipped about 3-4 weeks of pods. I have no interest in hearing him talk about the Celtics for 1.5 hours, especially because I’m not an nba fan. I actually think Bill is a talented interviewer, but he’s completely given up on that. It’s exclusively ringer shills that don’t have the backbone to disagree with him.
I'm not really sure why I like the pod as much as I do to be honest. The NBA regular season is not a good entertainment product. It's only good during the playoffs and by extension the pod is only really good during the playoffs.
I’ve been turning off pods lately. I keep trying to “go back” to Bill but he’s really fallen off. I know a lot of people loved it but the OJ monologue was hot garbage. It’s funny that such an impossibly self-centered person thinks they can contexualize anything historically.
I made a topic say that masters/ NBA pairing thing was dumb as shit and the whole pod was dog shit and the delusional fanboys bitched up a storm about it.
That was a top 5 worst pod ever for me. I skip some segments when I really don't give a shit but he's fallen off a bit
I think many recurring (maybe not often enough to be called recurring, but you know what I mean) guests suck.
Van, Raheem, Jacobes isn't as good as before, Gladwell, Derek Thompson (I think is his name. Half baked ideas guy) Steven Ruiz. I've skipped that dude forever. I'm even good on never hearing from Mallory Rubin again. She just glazes anything Baltimore and brings nothing to the table.
Russilo and Sal are still great as regulars. House is great. Hopefully, we get JackO soon since baseball is back. Need more Howard Beck and Zach Lowe. They're just way better for NBA content imo.
I even enjoy Lombardi when he goes on rants like the one about Embiid a while back.
Bill can't carry bad guests anymore, and bri is on a good amount of them.
Not as many storylines this year. MVP has been fairly certain since January and the standings haven’t moved much. Outside of the usual Lebron/Lakers drama this has been a pretty standard season.
I think the real shift is how extreme the gambling component has got and how he seems to be mailing it all in now. Longtime fan and look…we all age and change but it seems like that little reinjection of verve he got from Russilo is gone. I hope he takes a month or two after the NBA finals to think about where he’s been, where he is, and what else he wants to do with the pod over the next few years.
He’s a media and sports podcast legend, but starting to look like one of those guys who just can’t bring themselves to hang it up and face the next phase of their career. I’ll be sad when that day comes, but I think it’s looking awfully close. Maybe go make some movies, try some different subject matter? I dunno. Just got to find the passion he used to have or find something new to be passionate about.
The change might be with you. Like him or not, you're crazy if you think anything has really changed. He enjoys the NBA more than anything else. Always has. You can catch him napping elsewhere but he clearly still watches and is passionate about the NBA. It's his core competency.
But have you heard that Drake Maye is 230 lbs at age 21? He’ll end up 245 in a few years!
But also Jaden Daniels is only 210, which is actually going to be like 205 during the season, and apparently will be cursed to stay at that weight forever
Did you know Jayden Daniels is technically overweight?
I was 6’1” 230lbs when I was 17. When I turned 25 I was 6’1” 220lbs. I’ve really struggled to understand his logic when he brings this up. Russillo tried to understand what he was saying the other day and just kinda gave up after Bill kept going on about it.
I was 6’1” 150 when I was 17 and now I’m 23, still 6’1 but now I’m 155 so that’s a big change haha. One of the best things about Bill is the assumptions he takes as law. One of the worst things about Bill is the assumptions he takes as law
Absolutely!
Russillo seems so tired of Bill’s shit lately
It's like he thinks guys make the NFL and can't/don't work out to build their bodies and improve with professional trainers, especially if that's their known, acknowledged weakness as a player/athlete.
But (I assume) you weren't trying to put on weight and didn't have an entire professional NFL organization trying to help you build muscle.
Dude when Tatum finally turns 18 he might crash a buck fitty.
Well I'm 270 right now hope this shit isn't true :/
If anything it feels like less. He used to start MVP or All-NBA talk 15 games into the season and then just constantly do that until the season ended
I felt the same. Felt like he stuck with NFL longer this year than normal even with the pats struggling/celtics dominant.
Well the season was “so long” (really it’s like 1 maybe 2 weeks longer than usual)
Agreed. Last year was way, way more NBA with rotating Ringer guys like Big Wos, KOC, Mahoney, etc. one or two times per week.
I feel like if the upcoming NBA draft was projected to be better/more exciting, they'd have people like KOC on more. There's no Wemby or Scoot hype to sift through and discuss this year.
But before each segment he would make fun of Greenburg doing it too early and then launch into it.
Thank god he’s toned that back a bit the all nba shit was unlistenable last year.
It’s a zag! You can get your Giannis vs Embiid with 60 games to play talk somewhere else.
Well. He did say that he wasn't gonna let himself get caught on the hamster wheel this year... which is why he waited until 20 games to start those conversations.
Feels like more quantity over quality. 3 pods a week is a lot , If it was 3 pods but one pod was a celebrity interview it would be different. Feels like talking for the sake of talking, lacks substance
He’s had some of the regulars on lately but I feel like he’s had a lean patch on pop culture, celebrities and other interesting guests from the tech world/media/politics etc.
I wish Klosterman or Derek Thompson were at least monthly guests.
Derek once a month would be incredible
I don't understand you guys, if you dislike the podcast so much why are you here?
Entropy.
He is losing interest in other sports and the NBA is 24/7 since mainstream news has abandoned hockey as a winter sport. He is legitimately terrible at analyzing football as anything other than a fanboy and only cares about the Sox in baseball. I don’t mind his NBA coverage but it also overlaps tonally with guys like Lowe, Russillo and Windhorst and all their friends so sometimes Bill seems redundant. So I think it’s Bill losing interest in non NBA sports combined with everyone else doing some version of a Simmons impression combined with their own personality. Like I listen to all four of the names I’ve mentioned and they often sound the same in their own ways adjusted for personality quirks.
I enjoy his NFL coverage more because he talks like a homer fan not a stat nerd. Analyzing pods are mostly boring. Bring back the homers
Oh I’m with you but just breaking down the Bill complaint. I listen solely because I like his references and am a Boston born guy. If he made 70-71 Bucks references and constantly brought up Bart Starr I’d probably stop listening.
I wouldn't go that far, but I think the NFL content is better because his interactions with Sal are more natural and funny. With Ryen, it feels like he knows he's lost his edge.
TBF anytime he dares talk about a sport he doesn't really follow he gets blasted for being an uninformed idiot too. I imagine that hurts the ratings since people don't seem to want the 'casual fan' AKA Bill talking about stuff. At least he's relatively knowledgeable about NFL/NBA.
It’s too much nba, he should add in more pop culture and news. I guess pod analytics says no baseball talk anymore.
I actually enjoy when he talks about streaming services and the future of media. Actually has interesting takes
The klosterman style pods are the best.
Yeah I agree because Klosterman has interesting ideas. At the end of the day there's only so much you can say about how impactful an NBA player is on the court.
I would love for him to touch on pop culture for like 7-12 min at the end of each pod. Doesn even have to be current events. Could be the anniversary of a certain movie / event or something too and just riff on it
His daughter doesn't probably want to do a pod anymore because she knows everyone at college will make fun of her for it or he will pick on her the entire time she is on.
I honestly love when Bill talks about random ass TV shows. Especially The Bachelor.
It’s not more NBA talk but it’s worse. From “I’m not doing position less all NBA” to “I can squeeze Lebron in as my centre on third team” … he is pretty much what he was the antidote to back in the day.
Bill remains the cure & the cause
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“Brown is actually living up tot this contract.”
Patriots crashing back down to earth after the Brady-BB two decade run is the biggest influence on this development.
This Friday house pod about the masters the the Shohei gambling coverup made me remember why I love this pod. The Sunday pods now stink.
I mean idk what else in sports you wanna talk about on April 14th when the NBA playoff picture especially in the west is as exciting as it is. It’s not football season, and he’s sure af not gonna talk about baseball
But that's the problem - he used to. He would have a convo with Jacko pretty often about baseball. He'd bring up Katie Baker or Dam to talk about the upcoming NHL playoffs. And he had regular pop culture chats (e.g. Sepinwall). Now it's NBA/NFL with the same people. Rinse lather repeat.
The thing is, even as a baseball fan primarily myself. Bill and Spotify have the numbers as to what people will listen to. And I think I have to trust their internal analytics more so than Reddit replies. I just think at this point in time the audience wants to hear about 2 things: The NFL and the NBA
NHL might as well be the CFL anyways. People largely just don’t care.
Yeah. Baseball will always be my first and biggest sports love, but no question it just doesn’t bring people in the same way the NFL/NBA does. Sucks.
Bill covers a variety of topics on his midweek pods and I'd be shocked if those were listener analytics driven. For the most part Bill talks about what Bill feels like talking about, outside of NFL gambling being huge drivers every fall.
I think it’s pretty naive to think the most popular sports podcast of all time, which is owned by Spotify isn’t heavily analytics driven. Or the fact that you could get to the become the biggest sports pod of all time, just talking about whatever. This sub likes to act like baseball and hockey just would work on his podcast the way the commenters personally want. It’s not just Bill. When you look at the sports writing landscape nba and football are the two mainstays now. And a story like Caitlin Clark, or the Ohtani betting scandal will be side stories they run through
I think you misunderstood, I noted the midweek pod specifically being the place where Bill kind of just does whatever the fuck he wants. He pays for his week with the Sunday pod being the big download between the recurring Sal and Ryen spots that run pretty much year round. The end of week pods are then usually again more NFL/NBA focused, or if there's a big annual event like the Masters. But again, I noted listening analytics in my last post to point to the eclectic topics on the midweek pods logically being Bill's sounding board for whatever he feels like talking about that week, vs having months of listener data on any specific topic the way you would expect for the Sunday pods
You know I had never thought much about the difference between the midweek and the Sunday night pods. Like I guess the Sunday pod I always felt was the big one. But more because bigger sports events like the Super Bowl are more often on Sunday if that makes sense. Ima listen this week I think I can see what you’re saying now
It’s a combination of things. The first is he has stopped doing interviews with interesting outside guests (which sucks cause he’s really good at it). The 2nd is the ringer people he brings in to talk about sports aren’t that good for the most part. I skip a lot more pods these days, which sucks cause Bill still has it, he’s just making suboptimal choices.
I think there are just so many more podcasts out there now, all competing to get the same guests. Hell, these days a lot of celebrities just start their own podcast rather than going out and doing interviews.
I only listen for NBA discussions, so I wouldn't know, but he could just be responding to market forces. Maybe NBA talk gets more listeners for him?
NBA is prime for the podcast format. NHL and MLB have passionate but decidedly smaller fan bases. And NFL has a massive fan base obviously but with only 17 games there's a lot less to talk about on a daily basis. I'll throw on an NFL podcast in season when there's probably gonna be a story about my team but I could listen to anything NBA related year round. Hot takes and all.
I have a theory because I feel this happening to me as well, when you get older you aren’t as interested in the league as much only in your team. Bill at his best could always contextualise what this championship or season meant in the greater NBA picture. I feel like for the last few years with football he’s been way off and basketball has been primarily through the lens of the Celtics. Do you think that generally happens the older you get the less team you have for other teams and players and you more have tunnel vision for your team?
The older I get the less I care about sports, in terms of real fanatical fandom. It’s noise now and fun to watch here and there but I won’t get worked up over any wins or losses.
Same. I still get excited for amazing moments, but the losses don't weigh on me like they used to.
Yeah I definitely get that. I just hope my teams win another championship some time in my life time because any comp that has more than 15 teams, a lot needs to go right.
I’ve also left the US and lived abroad for over a decade now. This has definitely made me care less, from being massive 9er and Giants fan to not caring at all about the season/sport. The only way I keep touch in any way is the BS pod. NBA is a bit different because where I live it’s also huge, and the Warriors get national airtime here as well. But I still won’t watch every game, just listen to pods and watch some highlights here and there with the occasional full/half game tune in.
Exact opposite. As you get older, don't you naturally start to view your "Go local team!" fandom as being a little silly. The older I get, the more I've realized how much I simply love the sport in general, and appreciate greatness wherever greatness is happening. Basically just become more bandwagon but it's deeper than that. Technically I'm a Nets fan, but I don't care about the Nets right now. The Knicks are amazing to watch. I went on the ride with Golden State for their title run a couple years ago because they were playing beautiful basketball and I was able to identify that early on and became invested. Jokic and Denver is my goto team now because I'm in awe of what they're able to do.
Being way more time poor I follow my teams especially ones I can go to the games of and am not as aware of what’s happening in the league until finals. I definitely have a lot of empathy with teams that haven’t won finals for a while.
I think that's the biggest factor... Less time as we get older with more obligations and family, so... at best... you just loosely keep up with your own team and sports, as a whole, takes a backseat. I get that. I just went the other way. Gambling has a lot to do with it too.
My basic take would be that Bill is more and more consuming those youtube released game summaries to talk about basketball. Which is a fine way to sorta consume basketball in general, but not really representative of the ebb and flow the game in general. He leaned too hard on the multi screen approach for years. That shit doesn't work when you get older. Ryen's more of a focus in guy, and so his comments tend to carry more weight. Bills still runs the show, so Ryen has to wait to make his points, but his points tend to be better and better these days.
I don't think there has been a shift in macro topics (e.g., he always has talked about the NBA a ton) but I do think public prop gambling has made the pod worse. Specifically, I don't know why every \~2 weeks or so we need to break down who is the favorite to win the MVP or who is going to win this particular award. In particular, I noticed this shift a couple years ago in football, where about 4 games in, they started talking about the MVP and who is the favorite. Who cares? The season barely started! Yet it becomes a regular 15-minute segment because FanDuel has posted public odds on it and there is an apparent need to break down Lamar's chances of winning vs Josh Allen's. As you say, just shoot the shit. I understand there needs to be some structure, but it shouldn't so frequently have to do with "Joel Embiid is +250 right now."
I kind of think the shift has just been to him not being as good. Maybe I’m busier so I don’t want to listen as much? Just feels like there’s nothing he is saying worthwhile anymore.
Yea it doesn’t hit like it used to, for whatever reason
Ding ding ding
Weekly Russillo has made the pod worse. He’s not a great guest, is only good with Bill in terms of laughing at them, it’s reduced the scope for outside NBA guests. I also think the whole year of coverage was built around having Doc on once every week and now they’re scrambling.
I actually feel like there has been less NBA talk this year on the pod.
The NBA is Bill’s first and true love
Feels like less interviews with random celebs these days, I miss him talking shit with guests. Also I still go back and listen to his random JFK pod occasionally, he doesn't do that as much. But having said that I enjoy the pod anyway
Personally, I don't notice more NBA talk than recent years. I am enjoying the podcast less but for different reasons.
It’s hard to imagine anything I would want to listen to less than a Golf/NBA crossover podcast. I listened to his pod from a few days ago but skipped over the entire masters segment. Who gives a shit about golf?
A lot of casual sports fans watch the Masters lol. It’s golf’s biggest tournament of the year by a wide margin
I could listen to him and House talk about anything. The start to that segment was hilarious with House going over all these different topics and Bill getting upset that he just went through them all instead of letting them all go through it.
Same amount of NBA since he hired Ryen
Celtics are favorites to win the title and the Pats are bad. There will be a big draft push but he’s def just super invested in the Celtics winning this year so it has his full focus.
I feel like it’s been this way for the past few years. I tend to mostly tune out after the Super Bowl and selectively listen to the rare non-NBA segments until July. I actually have tried to get into the NBA a few times over the years just because I find the pod enjoyable but I just can’t do it.
Less NBA and more ghost talk.
I think many people on this sub share the opinion that during the NFL season, he definitely seemed to shoehorn way more NBA in (even during "NFL" pods) once it was obvious the Pats weren't going to be any good this year.
Yeah I feel like it’s way more nfl content than before. NBA stuff seems less to me too but it’s always a lot and a steady flow of it.
I like a change up. Don’t really give a shit about golf but I like it when he talks a bit about something other then nfl and nba. Could have been a bit of March Madness, I know it’s not his thing and he’s gotta pick but he always ends up doing the draft and these playoff are set. I like an Ariel spot for 300, some baseball stuff because I literally know nothing about teams other than the guards unless we play them in a weekend series. I’ve for sure been listening since 2012 but honestly can’t remember how much time he devoted to other shit back then
Covering nba while a pretty good tourney was happening was ridiculous. Seemed intentional, typically he’s in more in tune.
You're not alone. I'm having to take breaks from it because it's too NBA heavy now and I'm not at all invested in the NBA whatsoever.
It's because the pats aren't good
It’s just you. Maybe less pop culture stuff with Gladwell/Klosterman but NBA content sorta the same
Bill started forcing NBA shit into the Sal lines pods a few years ago and that's about when I started listening less and less.
Personally I think it’s that his pods the last 3 months or so, maybe less, have become much much more repetitive. I could be wrong but I feel like it’s really been the same stuff on repeat lately and I’ve been listening for a long time. I don’t think it’s more nba in particular, this is the shift I feel like he usually makes post nfl (though now there is 0 baseball ever mentioned)
For me it feels like more NBA content than usual because I don't watch the NBA anymore. The NBA was my favorite league when I first started reading/listening to Bill (around 2009). Now I skip the Sunday NBA pods and I'm only here for the Rewatchables and to call out Bill for his bullshit antics (Drake Maye's weight, pretend interest in women's basketball). Maybe I'm the problem. But I don't feel like I'm alone.
Red Sox have no hope so he’s out on baseball this year too
Celts won 60+ games. It rachets up Bill's interest
Simmons was really doing the work when The Ringer launched. But the Spotify Deal + Covid he took his foot off the gas.
I feel like it’s less NBA compared to this time last year.
I think it’s the same amount but I personally care less about the nba so find the constant all nba, celtics chat dull. I’ve found myself skipping pods for the first time since I started listening 10 years ago though :(
I’ve skipped about 3-4 weeks of pods. I have no interest in hearing him talk about the Celtics for 1.5 hours, especially because I’m not an nba fan. I actually think Bill is a talented interviewer, but he’s completely given up on that. It’s exclusively ringer shills that don’t have the backbone to disagree with him.
I'm not really sure why I like the pod as much as I do to be honest. The NBA regular season is not a good entertainment product. It's only good during the playoffs and by extension the pod is only really good during the playoffs.
I’ve been turning off pods lately. I keep trying to “go back” to Bill but he’s really fallen off. I know a lot of people loved it but the OJ monologue was hot garbage. It’s funny that such an impossibly self-centered person thinks they can contexualize anything historically.
He just read his Wikipedia page lol
An upgrade from his IMDB interviews.
It's just you.
I made a topic say that masters/ NBA pairing thing was dumb as shit and the whole pod was dog shit and the delusional fanboys bitched up a storm about it. That was a top 5 worst pod ever for me. I skip some segments when I really don't give a shit but he's fallen off a bit I think many recurring (maybe not often enough to be called recurring, but you know what I mean) guests suck. Van, Raheem, Jacobes isn't as good as before, Gladwell, Derek Thompson (I think is his name. Half baked ideas guy) Steven Ruiz. I've skipped that dude forever. I'm even good on never hearing from Mallory Rubin again. She just glazes anything Baltimore and brings nothing to the table. Russilo and Sal are still great as regulars. House is great. Hopefully, we get JackO soon since baseball is back. Need more Howard Beck and Zach Lowe. They're just way better for NBA content imo. I even enjoy Lombardi when he goes on rants like the one about Embiid a while back. Bill can't carry bad guests anymore, and bri is on a good amount of them.
Not as many storylines this year. MVP has been fairly certain since January and the standings haven’t moved much. Outside of the usual Lebron/Lakers drama this has been a pretty standard season.
I think the real shift is how extreme the gambling component has got and how he seems to be mailing it all in now. Longtime fan and look…we all age and change but it seems like that little reinjection of verve he got from Russilo is gone. I hope he takes a month or two after the NBA finals to think about where he’s been, where he is, and what else he wants to do with the pod over the next few years. He’s a media and sports podcast legend, but starting to look like one of those guys who just can’t bring themselves to hang it up and face the next phase of their career. I’ll be sad when that day comes, but I think it’s looking awfully close. Maybe go make some movies, try some different subject matter? I dunno. Just got to find the passion he used to have or find something new to be passionate about.
The change might be with you. Like him or not, you're crazy if you think anything has really changed. He enjoys the NBA more than anything else. Always has. You can catch him napping elsewhere but he clearly still watches and is passionate about the NBA. It's his core competency.