On the recent episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, Simmons and Ryen Russillo talked about distributing some playful, imaginary awards as the NBA regular season was drawing to a close. An award they named "Jem Coughlin Award" gave Simmons a chance to tease LeBron James and JJ Redick's new Mind the Game podcast.
Bill Simmons spoke candidly, expressing his feelings about the new venture of LeBron and Redick. "Year, I’m delighted James and Redick are doing their podcast.
But it rubbed me the wrong way when in the opening 15 minutes they seemed to take on a mission to rectify the poor basketball discourses out there. I took it personally. We are doing our best here, trying to stimulate deep basketball conversations."
Piqued, Russillo queried, "How did that make you feel on that day?"
Simmons replied, "The feeling was more of “Congrats, guys. But let's not forget there are many intelligent individuals out there who are already engaging in insightful basketball discussions. This is something we've been doing via podcasts for over 15 years."
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Simmons' Playful Banter with Redick and Reflections on Mind the Game's Early Success
Simmons made comments that were light-hearted and perhaps self-deprecating. It was intriguing to witness his continued quasi-rivalry with Redick. Back in December, Redick, a former NBA shooter, claimed that The Ringer's resistance to video curtailed his
The Old Man and the Three podcast's success when it was part of the company, an issue Simmons publicly disputed while continuing to declare his fandom for Redick.
Regarding Simmons' comment content, he's not the inaugural person to claim that James and particularly Redick, are acting high and mighty in their shift from basketball talk to game strategies.
After three episodes, Mind the Game has produced promising results, although each episode's YouTube viewership has seen a drop since the inaugural episode's 3.5 million views.
If this pattern persists, it'll be fascinating to discover if James and Redick persist in their attempt to reinvent basketball discussions or whether the podcast adopts a strategy akin to Simmons', which Redick acknowledges as effective.
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