Highlights from Bill Simmons’s latest mailbag
Simmons’s latest column is dedicated to the age-old question: which month is better for sports/time-wasting — April or October?
On the Russian billionaire’s purchase of the New Jersey Nets…
You know the NBA is in at least a little trouble financially when it allows a Russian billionaire to buy a team. Five or six years ago, how fast do you think David Stern squashes the idea when someone says to him, “So, I guess the best way to describe him is that he’s like a Russian Mark Cuban”? Two seconds? One second?
Which raises the question: Did Stern just open the door to all foreign billionaires, or was this a one-time thing? I’d argue that the NBA was soooooooooo desperate to fix this Nets situation and salvage the Brooklyn complex that it didn’t care where the money came from. This was a one-time exception. We need a cash buyer. Period. I think a Saudi oil sheik would have been approved as an owner. I think Tom Cruise would have been approved. I think everyone short of a Pablo Escobar-type buyer would have been approved. It’s the NBA and it’s faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan-tastic … ( … -ally in need of some cash).
On CAR Steve Smith versus NYG Steve Smith…
