FanHouse Chad Ford

Whew. If Bill Simmons and ESPN were having sex, I would have lots of questions. Perhaps questions I don't want answered, but questions nonetheless. Non-metaphorically speaking though, it would appear, based on the Sports Guy's chat today, that he and ESPN have begun the makeup process and that his little pot-shot-taking foray back into the personal blog world may have given the WWL reason to play nice.

Or as Simmons said, let him back in bed.

Stephen (Nashville, TN): So you do a chat about the Finals, but you refuse to answer any question too probing because it "steps on the preview column." Is this whole thing just a show so we know you and ESPN are still cool?

SportsNation Bill Simmons: (12:25 PM ET ) I am no longer sleeping on the living room coach. Altrhough [sic] we're still not having sex.

Alright, an actual reason to read the chat if you're not a Bostonian or fan of the Real World (full disclosure: I hate the RW, but that dude breaking down in an alcoholic rage? Hysterical.)

No, seriously. It's nice to see the Sports Guy off the couch, although I find the phrasing of that particularly odd. Isn't Simmons the one who got angry and took of on his own? Because that is the way I interpreted it; not that ESPN told him to write less because they were enforcing his contract, but that he was sick of being censored.

Consider this a programming note if nothing else: ESPN is holding an 'interactive mock draft' with scouty Chad Ford and pundity Bill Simmons trading picks and barbs. And seriously, Ford is murdering The Sports Guy. A sampling of Ford's comments following Simmons' plan for the Celtics:

You've lost it, haven't you? [...] The Celtics become a seventh or eighth seed in the East under your plan. Congrats. [...] They say one man's trash is another man's treasure. In this case, your trash is ... trash. [...] You're destroying the team you love Bill. Don't do it.

It's like Sean Salisbury and John Clayton, only with the geek fighting back and without the subliminal homoeroticism.

After reading Brian Berger's Sports Business Radio Blog yesterday, I became a little bit upset. In the post Mr. Berger criticized current Memphis Grizzlies GM Jerry West for these comments following the draft lottery:

"It's like pitching pennies. It's grossly unfair to the team, but I've said it before, I don't think the lottery is fair. I never liked it. I don't think it's a good system at all, period.

"There have been a lot of picks in the lottery that have [failed]. There are two in the lottery this year that are not going to fail. There are two superstars in the draft. I think for the teams fortunate enough to get them, the fortunes of their franchises have changed forever."

Berger categorized the comments as "sour grapes", stating that Mr. West only made the comments because his team lost the lottery. However, being the media watch dog that I am, I know that Jerry West had been urging the league to change its current lottery system long before Tuesday's draft lottery. In fact, in a podcast with Chad Ford back in early April, Mr. West spent half of the interview talking about how terrible he thought the system was.

With Kevin Durant now set to enter the draft, the hype machine is going full blast. Over the last week, we've even heard it suggested that the former Longhorn could become a Jordan-like savior (sorry LeBron, you fumbled that one). Now, in a chat yesterday (Insider only, so you'll have to take my word for it), Chad Ford is saying he'd take Durant over Oden--and LeBron, and Wade, and Bosh, and Dwight Howard, and Melo.

Chad Ford: Personally ... I believe Durant has a chance to be better than all of those guys. If all of those guys were in the draft today ... here's how I'd rank them from a potential standpoint ...

1. Durant
2. Wade
3. LeBron
4. Oden
5. Howard
6. Bosh
7. Carmelo

At first I was positively outraged by this, but now I'm at least beginning to see why this is a debate worth having. There's no telling how Durant's game translates to the NBA, but his combination of size, speed, skill and intelligence is virtually unprecedented. My only reservations are about placing him over LeBron. I know that James's stock is down, and he seems to have some troubling tendencies both in his play and in his personality. Still, with him you've got some guarantee that his game translates to the NBA, and then with additional room to grow. This assumes that LeBron can still capitalize on the room for growth he's got left, but this is about potential, right?