Without question, the worst Bill Simmons article ever.

[Iplayboard]

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Did you ever read the article in which Simmons proclaimed that AI would undoubtedly be the greatest soccer player ever, if only he had taken up the sport?

What a clueless, US-centric retard.

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I'll agree that Bill Simmons can be US-centric. For instance he's trying to list sports stories from this summer that are upsetting, and he chooses to mention the possibility of Rosie joining the cast of a drama set around high school football, and yet he does not mention the scandal-ridden Tour de France from this year.

However, in the article you mention he certainly did not claim "AI would undoubtedly be the greatest soccer player ever". What he did write (in this piece) was:

He's an athletic freak. Iverson could have been an unbelievable soccer player. He could have been a world-class boxer and a remarkable defensive center fielder and base stealer. He could have picked his sport in track and field and competed for an Olympic spot. I can't fathom how much ground he could have covered on a tennis court.

Hyperbole maybe, but not on the level you put it. And he is not limiting the comparison to soccer.

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Actually you are dead wrong. It's my fault for not siting the specific article, but nevertheless you quoted the wrong one.

"By the way, I've been watching the World Cup for four weeks trying to decide which NBA players could have been dominant soccer players, eventually coming to three conclusions. First, Allen Iverson would have been the greatest soccer player ever -- better than Pele, better than Ronaldo, better than everyone. I think this is indisputable, actually."

Ya, Simmons is a douche.

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I see you acknowledged the said post, but I had already typed this one and I don't want to feel as though I've wasted the last ten minutes of my life.

[ThaSaltCracka]

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He is pointing out a reason why soccer does not take off in the states, not belittling soccer or the MLS for failing to do so.

[/ QUOTE ] He is pointing out why MLS hasn't "taken off", not how soccer supposedly hasn't "taken off."

FWIW, I don't want to get in a soccer debate. Its been done before.

However, when I read comments like that from Simmons, someone who makes his money off of being the "sports guy" and the "common man", it makes me realize that Simmons is no different than most Sports "journalist". He doesn't really have a clue about anything, he just writes his opinion.