#113: Part 1 With David Quiñones: Bill's Lasting Impact on Sports Journalism, The Evolution of Player Coverage, The Generational Divide in Sports Media, and Why Does Bill Hate Mid-Tier NBA Stars?

The r/BillSimmons Podcast

Welcome to Episode #113! We bring on David Quiñones, a Miami-based podcaster and former sportswriter at the Miami Herald. David combines a deep history with Bill Simmons with his vast experience of working in media and sports media specifically, and the result is one of the r/BS Pod's best episodes yet. We recorded for 2 hours and 45 minutes, so I split the pod into two parts - Part 2 will release later this week.

In Part 1, David and I discuss his experience writing for the Miami Herald sports desk and how he was inspired by, and attempted to channel, the groundbreaking work Bill Simmons was doing at Page 2 for ESPN. David explains the internal pushback he received when pitching some of those ideas, and then discusses his time at Fusion TV, an early 2010s media startup backed by Univision and Disney.

Next we dive into Bill Simmons' legacy and impact on sports journalism. Can we trace today's aggressively negative coverage of the NBA back to Bill's refreshingly honest sports takes, which spawned copycats and made everyone eventually talk like Bill to try to duplicate his success?

We then hit on Bill's frustration with NBA player pods, and David identifies what changed over the years between players and journalists, as we moved away from the days when Bill's childhood hero Bob Ryan dined out with the Celtics players; now stars simply repeat PR-approved lines to the media.

We next discuss the evolution of media and hit on the current leader in the clubhouse - short-form video content, on TikTok specifically. We examine The Ringer's video push of late, and assess how different generations consume media differently, and what that means for the future. Plus, is media critiquing media going to have a larger presence in the future?

We finish up Part 1 with David's view of Bill's takes on the Miami sports scene, including Bill's general anti-Miami sports coverage, East Coast bias, and the odd fact that no one at The Ringer even covers Miami, the city. David discusses the quirks of Dan Le Batard's show, which, similar to Bill's, has its legions of fans who are in on the joke. We talk his hypocrisy with KD and LeBron, and then hit on why Bill seems to strongly dislike mid-tier stars.

Hope you enjoyed the show, and come back for Part 2 later this week! David's podcast about Florida called "Why Are We Like This?" can be found here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-are-we-like-this/id1645419175