Bill Simmons is at odds with ESPN again. Or at least a couple of people who also work there.
The popular sportswriter, NBA show host and Grantland editor-in-chief took to Twitter Thursday to vent about comments made by co-workers Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg on their “Mike & Mike” ESPN radio and TV show that morning.
“What Mike and Mike did today was absolute garbage,” Simmons tweeted. “I would say I lost respect for that show, but I never had it.”
“For an ESPN Radio show to pull an interview out of context from another ESPN Radio show, then play the moral authority card, is disgusting,” he continued.
“Have the balls to call me to discuss it on the show,” Simmons added. “Don’t pull it out of context just because you need fodder for a segment. Pathetic.”
He then tweeted: “But hey — I’m just a guy who can’t evolve, right?” and linked to an ESPN Ombudsman article, headlined: “Probing the gray areas of ESPN’s journalism,” which explored Simmons’ recent suspension.
The firestorm began after the two Mikes played a clip of Simmons on Colin Cowherd’s ESPN Radio show “The Herd” on Wednesday, where Simmons commented on LeBron James‘s less-than-ideal immediate return to Cleveland. Simmons said the duo didn’t bother to provide context on his larger point.
“It reminds me a tiny bit of [Albert] Pujols and the Angels — and I hope that’s not how this plays out,” he had said in the clip cut by “Mike & Mike in the Morning.”
“But it’s like the Angels got Pujols, this guy’s one of the best players ever. They got this guy in his prime, he’s gonna be freaking awesome. The Cardinals’ Pujols never showed up in Anaheim.”
Golic, the former pro football player of the duo, took particular exception to that snippet.
“I think it’s one of the most ridiculous statements I’ve heard four games into a season in my life in any sport,” Golic said on the morning radio show. “That’s what I’ll say about Bill Simmons. So, you know, he grabbed a headline, which is something I know he loves — and that’s one of the most ridiculous lines I’ve ever heard in any sport in my life. Four games into a season. I don’t even … that’s ridiculous. To me, it’s ridiculous.”
He continued: “Stop it. I put nothing — zero — on that,” referring to the piece of Simmons’ opinion they highlighted.
Watch the “Mike & Mike” clip: