Oh, Sports Guy - you slay me!

July 13th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanE

Now hold on. Before you think I’m being sarcastic here, let me assure you. I am not. I actually really, really like the Sports Guy, despite a brief slump, I guess you would call it, earlier this year. Otherwise, he’s been brilliant for just about as long as I’ve read him.

Something funky is indeed going on over at his place of employment, however. Not only did he not know about that little gambling blog thing ESPN is starting up, he seems to be carving out his outsider status over there even more, with a greater ability to diss colleagues. Don’t believe me? Check out these two zingers from his chat yesterday:

Chris Berman (Bristol, Conn): You’re with me, Sports Guy.Bill Simmons: (Trying to fight off 100,000 bolts of electric current …)

Ken (Tarzana, CA): Your’re subbing for Kornheiser on PTI. Who do you want sitting next to you? Stuart Scott or Skip Bayless?

Bill Simmons: (2:04 PM ET ) How drunk am I allowed to be before I go on the air?

The first one, with the slick Berman reference, is kinda funny, but so many people know that little story it’s past its point. The second one is much funnier, if only because I can imagine both Stu and Skip hearing about the little jab and flipping out on one of the Page 2 editors or the Buzzmaster. Hilarious. The really interesting thing is that these little remarks are even making it past whatever chat moderator is working with Simmons. Maybe he doesn’t have a moderator? Even better.

Throw in Bill’s ongoing feud with Screamin’ A Smith, and you’ve got an ESPN writer who not only realizes his ability, but who capitalizes on the knowledge that a lot of the people he works for - and works with - are five-compartment toolboxes.

Skip Bayless chimes in on the ‘next MJ’

May 8th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

After numerous commenters (and by ‘numerous’ I mean three) blasted me for my LeBron James comments last week, I felt it necessary to respond in a post. Because, well, the detractors (if they even ever come back to this site) will be more likely to see this post then to dig back through the site and look up the comments under the LeBron post from last week.

And I think, barring injuries and if he gets a few championships under his belt, he will be perhaps THE best of all-time.

Dictionary.com defines the word perhaps as ‘maybe; possibly.’ So, yeah, nowhere did I say he was better than MJ right now, just that if he wins a few titles there’s a good chance he will mentioned right up there with Jordan, PERHAPS even better than him after all is said and done.

And yes, commenter Romes, Steve Kerr is right. The Cavs do look a lot like the late 80’s Bulls where everyone watched Jordan do everything. And once Jordan got good players around him, they were able to win championships. Which if LeBron gets teammates of the same caliber as Pippen etc., he’ll have an excellent shot at winning a few titles as well. In essence, all you are doing is strengthening my arugment.

Anywho, everyone’s favorite robot Skip Bayless just wrote a column about the whole ‘Next MJ’ thing in regards to Kobe and King James. After a bunch of whimsy rhetoric, he says Kobe has no shot at MJ’s throne and LeBron will never ‘quite be Jordan.’

Even with a solid first half by King James last night, the Pistons routed the Cavs 113-86. And no matter how good LeBron plays, it’s going to be insanely difficult to beat a team that actually plays defense (unlike the Wizards) and has a fluid and cohesive starting five.

But let us not forget it took MJ three tries before he got past Detroit.

(Also, due to lack of resources, I won’t be able to get my Derby video up until tomorrow. It’s worth the wait, trust us.)