Former ESPN columnist Invoice Simmons piled onto the avalanche that has collapsed on the “Worldwide Chief” for firing Zach Lowe on Thursday.
Simmons stated on “The Invoice Simmons Podcast” that the Worldwide Chief “misplaced its soul” when it fired his shut pal Lowe, whom the Ringer founder employed at his ESPN vertical, Grantland, from 2011-15.
“I don’t know. I want I might clarify ESPN and I simply can’t,” stated Simmons, who labored for ESPN within the early 2000s earlier than his 2014 departure.
“There’s just a little little bit of a lawlessness––as somebody who was beforehand suspended for 3 weeks, suspended on Twitter a few instances––I take a look at a few of the stuff I did, and it wasn’t one-tenth as dangerous as a few of the stuff that individuals do now.
“Like Ryan Clark overtly difficult them about his extension? I imply, have they got bosses? Together with in the event that they wish to have a intercourse tape on Instagram. ‘Ah, it’s tremendous; I’ll look the opposite approach on that one. Is he going to be on ‘First Take’ on Tuesday? Okay, cool, we’re good. Unc was getting it on!’”
The choice to let go of Lowe was largely resulting from his seven-figure wage, The Athletic reported.
Simmons stated: “I simply don’t perceive it, like who’s in cost? What are you attempting to do?”
In his takedown of his former employer, Simmons’ quote referenced two extremely publicized conditions involving two former NFL stars turned personalities in Clark and Sharpe.
Ryan Clark publicly threatened to go away ESPN earlier than re-signing with the corporate in February 2024.
Shannon Sharpe was heard by the whole world having intercourse on Instagram Reside however confronted no penalties for the blunder and was again on airways days later.
ESPN additionally lately misplaced one other of its NBA abilities when reporter Adrian Wojnarowski shockingly resigned earlier in September after saying he was burnt out.
He’s now the final supervisor for the boys’s basketball staff at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure.
“In the event you’re alleged to be the WorldWide Chief, how aren’t you going to have these things?” Simmons stated in regards to the current large adjustments that ESPN has endured in 2024.
“NBA basically the final yr, they lose Doc [Rivers], they lose JJ [Reddick], they lose their lead shade analyst twice after firing [Jeff] Van Gundy, [Adrian] Woj is simply gone, now Zach Lowe is gone. It’s simply kinda your mind is spinning.
“Now I assume what we’re going to get, and I like Stephen A. [Smith], so this isn’t a slight at Stephen A. I actually suppose he’s a superb man. It seems like they’re shifting towards ‘It’s a Knicks playoff sport. Right here’s Stephen A’s entrance.’ And that’s kinda what they suppose individuals need, and I don’t suppose they’re proper.
“It simply feels just like the Zach Lowe second seems like one thing we’ll keep in mind the place we’re like, ‘Wow, keep in mind when ESPN was creeping this fashion after which they laid off Zach and went this fashion.’”
Lowe, extensively thought-about among the many greatest NBA writers within the enterprise, will now enter free company whereas ESPN scrambles to search out its approach.
ESPN’s resolution to maneuver on from Lowe seems to sign a change in its enterprise technique.
“They whiffed on ESPN Radio, it looks like they’ve whiffed on the podcast enterprise, however the YouTube and TikTok and Snapchat, you title any type of factor that has risen within the final 12 years, they’re in there in the absolute best methods, and perhaps that’s their enterprise,” Simmons stated. “They clearly see some type of imaginative and prescient that’s completely different than what we see.”
“I did discover that Zach was trending on Twitter together with Kendrick Perkins, and that’s one of many fascinating matters of this. Persons are this like ESPN is selecting this Kendrick Perkins path of their basketball protection over the Zach Lowe path.”
Simmons continued by saying that Perkins’ hot-take type of entertaining a TV viewers isn’t his choice.
He had a easy suggestion for viewers who’re complaining about it: “Don’t watch it.”
“Now they’ve pinned themselves able with Stephen A. the place they principally must hold him. He can title his worth,” Simmons stated of Smith, whose contract reportedly expires subsequent yr.
