Let's see how Bill Simmons fared in his predictions. Well Brandon Roy did play in the playoffs Bill, just like he said he would. But nobody (except everyone who read he was coming back) saw that coming right? So he is 0 for 1 but to be fair I don't know if he wrote this article before Roy said he would be back. But why would he say that Roy would not be back for no reason? I'm guessing he read that Roy said he would be back, and just assumed that there is no way he can come back from surgery that quickly, and made his column without doing any research on Brandon's Roy surgery. Either way, I'll give him a semi-pass on this one. 0 for .5 so far. His next prediction was that the Celtics would lose in the first round. He is a Celtics fan right? Even though the Celtics were not playing their best ball, could anyone really doubt that a team led by KG (the ultimate competitor... I still hate him though), Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen would not be ready for the playoffs? They were clearly going to beat Miami in the first round. The perfect defensive to stop the Heat (and the Cavs) is to quadruple team Dwayne Wade, leave Jermaine O'Neal under the basket for rebounds and interior defense, and allow the Wade's teammates (or Lebron's teammates) to brick wide open jumper after wide open jumper. It's a bulletproof strategy that the Celtics have employed on the Heat and the Cavs so far this playoffs. To me, it was obvious the Celtics would beat the Heat in the first round because of the Big Three and their playoff advantage. But the key to how far the Celtics would go has always been the play of Rajon Rondo, and no one knew he would be this good this soon. He is the second best PG in the league in my opinion (behind Deron Williams). I'm a diehard Knicks fan, I hate the Celtics, but I just love Rondo. The instant Rajon Rondo's first successful midrange shot falls through the net, he becomes the best point guard in the league. If the guy can learn how to shoot, he will be absolutely unstoppable. My Rondo love is getting the better of me right now, I need to get back on track. So Bill Simmons is 0 for 1.5 (he should an additional 0 for 1 for every series the Celtics win, so he is really sitting at 0 for 3.5 right now assuming the Celtics beat the Magic). He said the Cavs would win the title. Wrong. 0 for 2.5. He claimed he can prove team chemistry matters then went on to say the only two teams without chemistry are the Celtics and Lakers. According to that, he just proved that team chemistry doesn't matter. Team chemistry does matter, he's right there, but he is an idiot for saying the Celtics and Lakers are the only two teams without chemistry. They are the last 2 champions. They have basically the same players. Their core guys are veterans who have one goal, a championship. How can you say the Celtics and Lakers don't have chemistry? Imagine that none of these guys have ever played together and there was a game that included Kobe, Pierce, Ray Allen, KG, Gasol, Artest, Odom, Bryant, Rondo, Nate Robinson, Rasheed Wallace, and Big Baby Davis. In my mind, here is how this game would go. Let's just say it was the Lakers + Nate vs the Celtics. Kobe would be 27-94 and the rest of his team wouldn't touch the ball outside the occasional rebound or inbounds pass. Eventually, Nate Robinson would try to steal the ball from Kobe because Nate also has then need to throw up dumb shots that have a very small chance of going in. Artest and Wallace would have a fight-to-the-death. The winner will emerge severely injured and will immediately be given 100 technical fouls, the loser would obviously be dead, and their team would lose one of their players, but would have a huge advantage due to the amount of free throws and free possessions they get from 100 technicals. If Artest won, he would ultimately end up fighting KG. And if Rasheed won, he would still probably end up fighting KG. Gasol would probably flee to Spain where he can practice the softest move ever (the fadeaway jumpshot in the post) because all the fighting. Pierce, Allen, Odom, Nate, and Big Baby would eventually just move over to the next court and have a 3 point shooting contest. Obviously Ray would win because he is the only one who can actually shoot, the rest just think they can drain. To make this game work, there would have to be at least 10 basketballs at all time and Ghandi would need to be there to negotiate the peace between Artest, KG, and Wallace. That is what a Celtics vs. Lakers game would look like if these teams had no chemistry. 0 for 3.5. And I doubt the Cavs would have beat the Magic so 0 for 4.

So back to my original point, how is Bill Simmons currently employed? I could see someone hiring him thinking he was a real sports writer, then immediately firing him when they realize they were played like fiddles. But ownership would realize their mistake in at most a month, so he should never be employed for more than a month at a time. How he remains employed at the largest sports media outlet in the world astounds me. He is occasionally funny, but that alone is not enough to earn him the position he has.

Here's the Article I'm talking about (there is a part 2).
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/part1/100416&sportCat=nba

Its his "Opinion". HE writes, we read, ESPN makes money from the ad space they sell.

Thats why he is employed.

However, he clearly is an entertaining writer because he gained a huge audience on his own and consequently, became noticed by ESPN. He's a smart guy but obviously he is prone to get predictions wrong just like any other analyst/expert.

If people continue to read and follow him, why shouldn't he continue to have the platform that he currently has? The guy is delivering big-time for ESPN just going by how many followers he has on Twitter and the amount of readers he draws to ESPN's site. He has also played a role in the "30 for 30" ESPN series, which is impressive.

MSG3 wrote:It seems to me like he could hold his own with GMs, coaches, etc.

Well, he did have one threaten to kick his ass.