NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and The Ringer CEO Bill Simmons had a surely scintillating discussion at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference last weekend, where Silver said something mildly newsworthy and kind of bizarre about how players today are unhappy and anxious as “a direct product of social media.” Advertisement ESPN’s Get Up, the show that’s on your TV in the morning when you accidentally zonk out on the couch while watching w est-c oast basketball, talked about Silver’s comments with Charles Barkley tod ay. The show played a clip from the Sloan conversation that hilariously managed to keep Simmons, who had an acrimonious exit from the network in 2015, completely out of frame. Unsurprisingly, Simmons had something to say about it: Yeah, that’s Adam Silver appearing to talk to a man wearing an invisibility cloak, as Simmons appears only as a ghostly voice saying “yes,” because he’s totally cut out. Here’s a comparison, via Dan McQuade, of how the clip originally looked compared to how it looked on ESPN: Simmons, who’s seemingly shit-talked the company nonstop before and since getting fired, isn’t banned from ESPN or anything—he was on Katie Nolan’s show last year. But this is a solidly enjoyable footnote in a long-running petty beef between two very wealthy and grating entities. In my Taylor Swift/Kanye West Pantheon Of Famous Feuds, I give this entry a 5.47 out of 23.<doc-sep>1. Tsk, tsk, tsk, ESPN. Is it really necessary to be this petty? Did you really think you wouldn't be called out for such nonsense? It seems the World Wide Leader may still have some issues with former employee Bill Simmons. The man who now runs The Ringer, interviewed NBA commissioner Adam Silver last week at a conference. One particular clip, in which Simmons and Silver discuss NBA players being unhappy and Silver putting the blame on social media, got a lot of pick up across the Internet. Even ESPN picked it up Wednesday. However, when the network aired the snippet of video on Get Up, the clip was edited to zoom in so tight on Silver's face that you didn't see Simmons at all. It was like Silver was being interviewed by a ghost and it looked completely ridiculous, as you'll see below. This piece of chicanery did not get lost on Simmons, who took to Twitter to voice his displeasure. I reached out to ESPN for a comment, but so far have not heard back. UPDATE: An ESPN spokesperson has given this statement to SI.com: "There is absolutely nothing to this. It’s a non-story. We ran clips of Adam Silver with Bill Simmons on ESPN shows/platforms." In fact, ESPN did show the full clip of the interview with both Silver and Simmons in the shot on Monday's edition of The Jump. So this incident does seem like it was just the work on one Get Up producer and not an ESPN plot. 2. Speaking of ESPN, Mark Jackson had harsh words for Rajon Rondo on Wednesday night when the Lakers guard was seen seated far away from his teammates at the end of the Lakers' blowout loss to the Nuggets. 3. The latest Sports Illustrated Media Podcast features an interview with author, writer, and podcast host Jim Miller. Topics covered with Miller, the man who wrote the book on ESPN, include what ESPN plans to do for its Monday Night Football announcing team, how Jason Witten handled his departure from ESPN, Jessica Mendoza's new "conflict of interest," how sports fans will be affected by the changes at Turner Sports/Bleacher Report, an update on Adnan Virk, and much more. You can listen to the podcast below or download it on iTunes or Spotify. 4. The Chicago Tribune is very salty that LeBron James passed Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list. 5. It's hard to have more poise, class, and dignity while announcing tragic news than Alex Trebek showed when he let the world know he has pancreatic cancer. In honor of Trebek, let's remember the Jeopardy! episode last year when he went savage on contestants who knew absolutely nothing about football. 6. For all the wrestling fans out there, here's a treat. SI's wrestling reporter, Justin Barrasso, is doing a five-part podcast series on iconic WrestleMania moments. Part I just launched and his guest is the Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels. 7. RANDOM YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE DAY: Thursday is National Cereal Day. When I saw that, I immediately thought of this Seinfeld scene. Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustarted Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina. You can also follow on Twitter and Instagram. IN CLOSING: Antonio Brown in Oakland will be a beautiful disaster.<doc-sep>Bill Simmons and ESPN have a little bit of history together. And by a little bit, we mean a lot, of course. Simmons rose to fame with the ESPN in the late 1990s and 2000s, he later started Grantland with ESPN, and was an analyst on the NBA shows… until things went very sour. He was suspended once for criticizing Roger Goodell, then eight months later he made a joke about Goodell on Dan Patrick’s radio show and the next day the ESPN informed him that they were done with him. So yeah, pretty ugly ending there. Which makes this thing right here all the more juicy… and a tad petty. Simmons interviewed NBA commissioner Adam Silver last Friday at a conference. The interview was on video, with the two sitting across from each other having a conversation. Well, ESPN’s morning show, “Get Up!”, aired part of the interview on Wednesday’s show and cropped the shot so Simmons wasn’t in it. And boy did it look weird: ESPN removed @BillSimmons from this morning's episode of @GetUpESPN This ranks up there with Henry Cavil's mustache in JLA pic.twitter.com/4nkuB39IMG — David Astramskas (@redapples) March 6, 2019 Crafty little zoom in there. It was like Silver was talking to an invisible ghost. Simmons noticed and had some fun with it: 2-min Mark… Incredible CGI efforts by “Get Up” to cut me out of last Friday’s Adam Silver interview. They should have just replaced me with a hologram of Rachel Nichols. Come on @jalenrose defend your boy. 😂https://t.co/wgfkfpTc1a — Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) March 6, 2019 Many people on Twitter noticed it, too, and ripped into ESPN for it: @jsode10 bro ESPN soooo petty 😂☠️ — Chris Birkholm (@Chris_Birkholm) March 6, 2019 Terribly petty. I know the history, but this makes them look worse. — Adam Ryan | NBA history podcaster (@inallairness) March 6, 2019 This is some salty ex-girlfriend type stuff lol https://t.co/mC23MT7rJi — gifdsports (@gifdsports) March 7, 2019 Lol. They are a multi billion dollar corporation that is acting like a dumped 8th grader😂🤣 — Paul Gagne (@TheKiddsTable) March 6, 2019 Surprised they didn’t mask your voice too…they should have really. So many possibilities. — Adam Pratt (@apratt6) March 6, 2019 Clairvoyant Bill replaced with Clear-voyant Bill. — Pat Henyan (@Henyan50) March 6, 2019 ESPN is a joke doing this makes u look so bad — Todd Lighty (@tlighty23) March 6, 2019 @MattDemsky @SEHunsberger BS my boy but this is Mount Rushmore petty 🙏🏻 respect. — LuckyBoy (@GatesHerscher) March 7, 2019 Hella Petty!!! — Jloc24 (@Jloc2424) March 7, 2019<doc-sep>Bill Simmons took to task his former employer ESPN for editing him out of an interview he conducted with NBA commissioner Adam Silver when World Wide Leader morning show “Get Up!” aired highlights on Wednesday -- but the network claims it's a non-story. “Incredible CGI efforts by “Get Up” to cut me out of last Friday’s Adam Silver interview,” Simmons tweeted. “They should have just replaced me with a hologram of [current ESPN host] Rachel Nichols.” Simmons rose to fame at ESPN, dabbling in everything from podcasting and producing documentaries to co-hosting the network’s NBA content. But Simmons was suspended by ESPN in 2014 for criticizing NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and a few months later the network decided not to renew his contract. MEDIA BAD BOY BARSTOOL SPORTS THRIVING IN POLITICALLY CORRECT CLIMATE: ‘WE'RE PRETTY RARE’ Simmons has since founded The Ringer, a thriving sports and pop culture media brand. While Simmons’ breakup with ESPN initially appeared ugly, the two have somewhat rekindled a relationship as of late. Simmons recently appeared on ESPN’s “Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz” and "Always Late with Katie Nolan," while current ESPN personality Ryen Russillo is allowed to have a podcast on The Ringer. So it raised eyebrows on Wednesday when ESPN's morning show aired highlights from an interview Simmons conducted last week at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston with the NBA honcho that didn’t feature Simmons himself. He was removed, making it appear that Silver was talking to an empty stage or "invisible Bill," as one tweeter put it. Simmons even urged his longtime friend, current ESPN host Jalen Rose, to defend him. Rose responded that he “got” Simmons, but didn’t elaborate. “There is absolutely nothing to this. It’s a non-story. We ran clips of Adam Silver with Bill Simmons on ESPN shows/platforms,” an ESPN spokesperson told Fox News. An ESPN source close to the situation pointed out that ESPN’s “The Jump” ran the same clip but didn’t edit out Simmons. The source said that each show has its own production team and “Get Up!” simply decided to give the video a “less cluttered look.” However, Simmons wasn't the only person to notice the odd edit on "Get Up!" and media watchdogs were quick to slam ESPN for the move. HOW RUMORS OF A BIGGER NAME THAN ROBERT KRAFT BEING BUSTED FOR SOLICITATION GOT STARTED Sports Illustrated media columnist Jimmy Traina wrote, “Tsk, tsk, tsk, ESPN. Is it really necessary to be this petty? Did you really think you wouldn't be called out for such nonsense?” Author and radio host Clay Travis called it “next level petty,” while Decider’s Claire Spellberg said the move “can only be described as a supremely petty,” and said it escalates ESPN’s beef with its former star. Deadspin’s Lauren Theisen wrote that Silver appeared to “talk to a man wearing an invisibility cloak,” noting that ESPN didn’t bother to remove Simmons’ ‘ghostly” voice from the clip. THE DRAMA BEHIND BILL SIMMONS' EXIT FROM ESPN Awful Announcing’s Sean Keeley wrote that “very time we think this he-said-corporate-behemoth-said candle has burned out for good, along comes another petty move from one side to ignite the flame once more,” and paraphrased Ferris Bueller when analyzing the situation. “It’s a little childish and stupid, but then, so is the sports media world,” Keeley wrote. The Ringer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<doc-sep>
Last weekend, The Ringer boss Bill Simmons interviewed NBA Commissioner Adam Silver at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston, but you wouldn’t know it if you were watching ESPN. On Wednesday, ESPN morning show Get Up discussed Silver’s remarks, but when they played a clip of the interview, Simmons — who had a bitter breakup with the network in 2015 — was nowhere to be found. In what can only be described as a supremely petty move, ESPN zoomed in all the way on Silver to cut Simmons out of the frame, effectively erasing him from the clip entirely. According to Deadspin, Silver said during the interview that many NBA players are “truly unhappy” as “a direct product of social media,” which is… quite a take. But weirdness of that statement aside, it’s how ESPN presented it that’s newsworthy. In an attempt to avoid showing ex-employee Simmons, Get Up zoomed in so far on Silver that it looks like he’s totally alone on stage and speaking into a blue void. Simmons only appears via audio: his disembodied voice says “yes” to Silver’s comments about social media. One Twitter user captured the moment in a before-and-after video (which you can watch above) and compared it to Justice League digitally removing Henry Cavill’s mustache. Simmons also sounded off on the Get Up clip. He posted a video of the entire segment on Twitter, writing, “2-min mark… Incredible CGI efforts by ‘Get Up’ to cut me out of last Friday’s Adam Silver interview.” Simmons has had an ongoing beef with ESPN since 2015, when he left the network under acrimonious circumstances. ESPN’s then-president, John Skipper, told The New York Times in 2016 that he “alone made the decision” to fire Simmons. “I severed our relationship with Bill because of his repeated lack of respect for this company, and, more importantly, the people who work here.” Simmons, for his part, has taken multiple shots at the network in the years since his exit. In 2016, he blasted ESPN in a Hollywood Reporter cover story, saying, “They’ve now gotten rid of everybody who is a little off the beaten path. Ask yourself this: ‘Who would work there that you respect right now? '” You can watch Get Out escalate ESPN’s feud with Simmons in the clip above.