Simmons Article On Sheed

[jdpapa3]

Claims to be a huge Celtics fan, but he tweets observations about other games while the Celtics play a great game and thinks Sheed was suspended for a game. Complained about the Durant call, but said nothing about the calls KD got last week.

really man? Simmmons was spot on as usuall. And there was only 1 bad call on durant last week, the pierce stip, but what do you expect? When you play an entire game defensieivly with your hands and not your feet (reaching in all game long) , your not going to get the benefit of the doubt from the refs. That's the way basketball works.  Don't believe it? , the celtics have lost 3 games in the past few weeks when THEY shot over 50%!! SO they havent really been playing defense with thier feet or their brains for that matter, all year.  Good luck getting the benefit of the doubt, espically when you dont deserve it.  You want fantom calls? Wait till Lebron in round 2,  it's only gonna get worse, unless you have a time machine and can take us
back 2 years

I agree with most of the article, unfortunately, but I don't think Simmons follows the team with the same passion that he used to. And there was a comedy of bad calls in the Thunder game. Just one call is a poor description of the reffing in the game, imo.

[Mr October]

The article was a good read. However too much blame is placed on Sheed.

Its not his fault KG can't move well side to side. Its not his fault that Pierce and Perkins have been so banged up. Its not his fault Ray's 3 point percentage has taken a hit this season.

Rondo dogs it on certain nights just as he has throughout his career. This is not Sheed's fault.

This team is filled with grown men. Sheed can't be blamed for the entire team dropping their effort, and being inconsistent.

[nickagneta]

I thought Simmons was right on point with a lot of his points regarding Rasheed, both positive and negative. He brought some good stats to prove his points and I think was pretty thorough in looking at the big picture.

He went out of his way on several occasions to not lay the total blame of what has happened to the Celtics at the feet of Sheed but did definitely lay a decent piece of the blame on Rasheed. Fair or not, it's the way a lot of people both in and out of Boston are seeing things.

[Onslaught]

As someone who's always hated Sheed I say spot on.

[dlpin]

This article is the reason why I think Simmons is the 'Sheed of the sports writing world. The guy went from being the outsider fan who wasn't afraid to blast the big dogs (Kobe, Manning, etc) to just writing generic, bland stuff and becoming a part of the NBA overhyping machine.

I mean, if you could pick a celtics topic to write on (or to ask your favorite columnist to write on), and you had 4000 words, tons of resources to do research, and access to most people, would you basically rehash the same old Sheed bashing that you could read any night on this or other forums?

The fact that he is spot on is beside the point. It's a lazy column about a lazy, self evident topic.

[MetroGlobe]

Also, I feel like Simmons is writing without really knowing what he is writing about.  I feel like he doesn't really watch this team.  Not because he's calling out sheed because I think sheed is a big part of the problem, but because Simmons only talks about generic examples.  For instance he never gives any specific examples except for the clippers game.  Thats all fine and good but he watches all clippers games.  That doesnt really tell me he watches the Celts consistently.  One other game he mentioned has the OKC game but i have to believe thats because he has a man crush on Durant.

Actually I he does watch the Celtics on a regular basis.  If you go to his twitter page, he's always talking about the games in real time.  The guy does nothing but sit home and watch sports.  For the last few months there was no football or baseball.  I bet he watched every Celts' game.

[PosImpos]

Ugh, he's so right and it hurts.

Sportsguy has a way of taking a topic that I had thought was self-explanatory (the Clippers are cursed, Sheed is frustratingly lazy) and making it seem so much more undeniably true.

I don't know if you can really blame Sheed for most of the Celtics' troubles this year, but he really does make a perfect symbol for this season's team. 

[Kuberski33]

One thing I really liked about the column was the Lost analogy.  Sheed really is an infection but I also agree with those who say he's not the entire problem.  I think it's a multi faceted thing.

But what's obvious is that Simmons is passionate about the Celtics.  Sheed, who actually plays on the team, is not.  If I were paying Sheed's millions, I would be offended by this.  As one who spends money on tickets, I certainly am because a key member of the team is basically saying ----- you to the fans....

[liam]

This article is the reason why I think Simmons is the 'Sheed of the sports writing world. The guy went from being the outsider fan who wasn't afraid to blast the big dogs (Kobe, Manning, etc) to just writing generic, bland stuff and becoming a part of the NBA overhyping machine.

I mean, if you could pick a celtics topic to write on (or to ask your favorite columnist to write on), and you had 4000 words, tons of resources to do research, and access to most people, would you basically rehash the same old Sheed bashing that you could read any night on this or other forums?

The fact that he is spot on is beside the point. It's a lazy column about a lazy, self evident topic.

Good point! Didn't Simmons pick against us in 2008? He's not a fan he's a BS reporter.

[Tai]

This article is the reason why I think Simmons is the 'Sheed of the sports writing world. The guy went from being the outsider fan who wasn't afraid to blast the big dogs (Kobe, Manning, etc) to just writing generic, bland stuff and becoming a part of the NBA overhyping machine.

I mean, if you could pick a celtics topic to write on (or to ask your favorite columnist to write on), and you had 4000 words, tons of resources to do research, and access to most people, would you basically rehash the same old Sheed bashing that you could read any night on this or other forums?

The fact that he is spot on is beside the point. It's a lazy column about a lazy, self evident topic.

Good point! Didn't Simmons pick against us in 2008? He's not a fan he's a BS reporter.

He's not a fan because he picked against the C's?

Are you sure that's 100% fair?

[StartOrien]

Absolutely too much blame is put on Sheed, it's absolutely ridiculous. Here's a list of players who are making between 4 and 7 million dollars this season  (all according to hoops hype).

Mike Bibby 6.2
Zaza Pachulia 4.7
 
Kendrick Perkins 4.2
Nate Robinson 4.0

 
Nazr Mohamed 6.4
Desagna Diop 6.0
 
Jerome James 6.6
Tim Thomas 6.6
 
Anderson Varejao 6.3
Delonte West 4.2
Boobie Gibson 4.0
 
Brendan Haywood 6.0
Shawn Marion 6.4
Matt Carroll 4.7
 
JR Smith 5.5
 
Chalrie V 6.5
Jason Maxiell 5.0
Kwame Brown 4.1
 
Vladamir Radmonavic 6.4
Raja Bell 5.2
Speedy Claxton 5.2
Ronny Turiaf 42
 
Shane Battier 6.8
Trevor Ariza 6.4
Jared Jeffries 6.4
 
Jeff Foster 6.0
Jamal Tinsley 5.2
 
Steve Blake 4.9
Drew Gooden 4.5
Travis Outlaw 4.0
 
Ron Artest 5.8
Derek Fisher 5.0
Luke Walton 4.8
 
James Jones: 4.3
 
Tony Battie 6.2
Trenton Hassel 4.3
Rafer Alston 4.3
 
Morris Peterson 6.2
James Posey 6
Darius Songalia 4.5
 
Brian Cardinal 6.7
Chris Duhon 6
 
Matt Harpring 6.5
Nick Collison 6.2
Nenard Kristic 5.4
 
Jason Kapono 6.2
Lou Williams 4.9
 
Lenardo Barbosa: 6.6
 
Joel Pryzbilia: 6.8
Andre Miller: 6.5
 
Shareef Abdur Rahim: 6.6
Beno Udrih: 6.0
Fransico Garcia: 5.8
 
Antonio McDyess: 4.5
 
Reggie Evans: 4.9
Jarett Jack: 4.5
Marcus Banks 4.4
 
Kyle Korver: 5.1
 
Mike James 6.3
 
 

[FallGuy]

This article is the reason why I think Simmons is the 'Sheed of the sports writing world. The guy went from being the outsider fan who wasn't afraid to blast the big dogs (Kobe, Manning, etc) to just writing generic, bland stuff and becoming a part of the NBA overhyping machine.

I mean, if you could pick a celtics topic to write on (or to ask your favorite columnist to write on), and you had 4000 words, tons of resources to do research, and access to most people, would you basically rehash the same old Sheed bashing that you could read any night on this or other forums?

The fact that he is spot on is beside the point. It's a lazy column about a lazy, self evident topic.

Good point! Didn't Simmons pick against us in 2008? He's not a fan he's a BS reporter.

I agree. The only real fans are the ones who never concede their team might do anything but win the title.

[jdpapa3]

Also, I feel like Simmons is writing without really knowing what he is writing about.  I feel like he doesn't really watch this team.  Not because he's calling out sheed because I think sheed is a big part of the problem, but because Simmons only talks about generic examples.  For instance he never gives any specific examples except for the clippers game.  Thats all fine and good but he watches all clippers games.  That doesnt really tell me he watches the Celts consistently.  One other game he mentioned has the OKC game but i have to believe thats because he has a man crush on Durant.

Actually I he does watch the Celtics on a regular basis.  If you go to his twitter page, he's always talking about the games in real time.  The guy does nothing but sit home and watch sports.  For the last few months there was no football or baseball.  I bet he watched every Celts' game.

I just don't think he's on our level if he thinks Sheed got suspended for a game.

[dlpin]

Good point! Didn't Simmons pick against us in 2008? He's not a fan he's a BS reporter.

I don't think the issue is that he picked against the celtics. I think he has just become a lazy writer. He's the guy who used to bring the outsider perspective to sports writing, and now he just jumps on whatever badnwagon and overhypes whatever ESPN is overhyping.

Take this column: had he written it last summer, it would have been great. 10 days before the end of the regular season? Not so much. Instead, last summer he was picking the celtics to come out of the east and calling it the deepest celtics team since KG got here.

As an outsider bringing the fan perspective, Simmons is great. As a so called "nba expert," Simmons is generally unimaginative, and half a season late on his columns. This column isn't nearly as bad as his "Ali vs Tiger" column, but it's just more uninspired.

[youcanthandlethetruth113]

Simmons is the biggest "bandwagon" fan in Celtics history.

During the years that led up to the championship year:
-he ALWAYS questioned Ainge's moves in hopes of being able to pounce on an "i told you so" situation
-he didn't see that we had "pieces" which would be desirable

During the draft which brough Ray Allen to the Celtics via trade with the Seattle Supersonics:
-he was baffled and didn't see the value in Ray coming off double ankle surgery

When the KG deal became official:
-he was euphoric

During the championship season:
-he questioned/hated on every move/adjustment Doc made
-not once did he ever give any credit to Doc Rivers

Post-Championship:
-he pretends he's been a supporter all along
-pretends he saw Ainge's vision
-does a complete 180 degree turn on his views on Doc as a coach