Sim Bit #22: Bill Simmons, President of Race Relations, Part One

Unfortunately, there are a bunch Sim Bits on race. From a footnote on page 91:

“Pettit’s quadruple-printed card remains the easiest to find. Go figure, they quadruple-printed Pettit (white) and single-printed Russell (black). I’m sure this was a coincidence.”

Let’s look at this soberly:  In 1957, Bill Russell wasn’t Bill Russell yet. You’ll recall that it was Russell’s teammate Tommy Heinsohn who won the Rookie of the Year award over Russell. At the time, I’m certain that no one beyond Red Auerbach understood Russell’s real value. It’s a fact that Bob Cousy, not Russell, won the MVP award that season. Bob Pettit won the MVP and the NBA scoring title the season before. I have no doubt that Bob Pettit was a more important player than Russell was in 1957, but no, go on ahead Bill Simmons – just keep on casually making accusations of racism.

In fact, Simmons himself calls Bob Pettit the Alpha Dog of the 1957 season, but the people alive at the time who made the cards were racists for thinking the same thing?

Tomorrow: back to why we're here.

Intro: A Voice in the Wilderness

Hi. I'm glad you've decided to take a moment to read this post.

Bill Simmons is truly one of the most important figures to appear in the sports media in a long time. With a fresh and humorous writing style, he has reminded us all that sports is fun and intended to be enjoyed. Simmons established himself back when four beat writers in suits would go on TV and pontificate about NCAA violations, the merits of instant replay, whether the wild card was good for baseball, and other such topics. They had forgotten that we follow sports to hang with our friends and marvel at the otherworldly abilities of top athletes. Nothing in America beats sports for water-cooler talk, and Simmons became the one guy at work who had season tickets to every game. We wanted to hear from that guy.

Water-cooler Simmons is good for the column. He can tell an entertaining story when he writes not only about the games, but he can make us laugh about people he saw at the arena, about how a game reminded him of a movie we all like, about what he and his buddies did before tip-off. It's fun stuff. But when you want to discuss the substance and history of the sport, at length, you don't necessarily have the water-cooler guy in mind. You need a sober-minded, serious analyst. And despite the heaps of praise The Book of Basketball has received, it's really just a collection of columns by the water-cooler guy. One cannot discern that Simmons has made any particular effort to be scholarly and objective. It's a shame, because baseball fans have Bill James' Historical Abstracts to peruse; we basketball fans have Bill Simmons one-liners.

Bill Simmons' Bogus Book is here, then, as a counterpoint to Simmons' magnum opus. Someone needed to reign in the propaganda; someone needed to point out the fallacies. Someone needed to combat the army of strawmen and the slippery logic. Someone needed to point out the omissions, cut through the rhetoric, and steer the discussions back to the point. Someone needed to ask for explanations and turn assumptions back into questions. Scores of critics failed to do so - and that's why Bill Simmons' Bogus Book is here. That's why I'm here.