[Bill Simmons Pod] “I think the Knicks winning the championship is the biggest thing left in any sport other than Bills, Vikings or Detroit Lions winning the Super Bowl”
I guess the browns winning the Super Bowl is too unrealistic
Or the Guardians winning the World Series lol.
Got real close in 2016
Add anything else to that year and the simulation would have a kernel level panic
I think the Cubs actually winning it was more crazy than otherwise
Two Cleveland champions in the same year would have been unreal. It would have seemed like LeBron legitimately lifted a curse on the city if the Tribe also won that year lmao
Watching warriors fans celebrate the guardians 3-1 collapse as if it made up for their choke was so sad đ
I love going back to that Game 4 thread.
Keep in mind the CUBS won that World Series, which was a 108 year-old drought, so the Indians winning would have actually been the less weird outcome
Honestly if it wasnt for the rain delay I think they win that. I say that as a cubs fan
1000%. But at least the Cubs were the only team that could take a little sting off that loss for us. I was in a heavily Chicago attended bar that night and I couldnât have been happier for the fans. No salt whatsoever
That rain delay was fate intervening
Jason Heyward speech to rally the troops? Peak sports moment
And 95 and 97.
My baseball almanac from 97 was really high on griffey and Belle breaking hank Aaron’s record above all others
The Knicks haven’t won since forever, it’s nuts. 1973
Now remember the Guardians last won 25 years before that. And they’ve been good for the past 30 years too!
Yea, there’s two movies about how lame that franchise was. No other team can match that.
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It would make your heart sing
It would make everything groovy
The Guardians have to up there with the Bills for the most cucked sports team in America.
The old people tend to not discredit the 4 they already won.
Theyâve won and appeared in 0 super bowls, they won 4 NFL championships. Since segregation ended they have won nothing.Â
Since ever theyâve won nothing. The franchise that displayed competence got moved to Baltimore in the middle of the night.
This group of clowns have zero accolades to their names.
Tbc, the Browns’ history stayed in Cleveland, and the city fought really hard to ensure that. So I get the sentiment you’re getting at, but by the books those championships stayed.
as someone from Cleveland, at this point in my life I hope they stay this awful forever
Not me. My dad is still alive. It would somehow be even better than the 2016 3-1 comeback on one of the greatest teams ever to win ON Fatherâs Day. Thatâs how much a Browns chip would mean to most Clevelanders.
Pirates World Series not even in the realm of possible outcomes either
They broke my heart twice in the 70âs.
They got it coming.
Pittsburgh đ¤ Baltimore Counting down the days til football season starts
At least the Orioles have actually tried to be good, the Pirates are a complete disgrace to the city of Pittsburgh
The Browns still need to reach that stage where everyone recognizes they are actually competing.
We arenât talking about the Browns winning the title, weâre talking about if they can be good.
It genuinely boggles the mind how even with the extremely straightforward NFL draft where sucking for so long means you necessarily have to be in a good position in the draft the browns have managed to be bad for almost 30 full years. Theyâve had 4 winning seasons since 2000.
Factory of Sadness never closes.
Or the cardinals lol
As a Arizona Cardinals and Phoenix Suns fan I should just go kick rocks
Not quite the same tbf. Phoenix is a young city, big first gen transplant population, etc. There arenât a lot of 80 year old men walking around going âjust one Suns ring before I die please.â
Cities like NY, Chicago, and Cleveland are ancient and generational, like âmy grandfather gave me this fandomâ type stuff
As a fourth gen phoenican I know many an 80 year old hoping to see one before they die. Suns been around since 67’ bud
Considering itâs literally a euphemism for pooping in a toiletâŚ
He did say in a similar vein the heâs not counting Sacramento lol, too unfathomable given current ownership
An African nation winning the World Cup would be insane.
It would be a win not just for that country but for the entire continent.
(unless it is Morocco)
It actually already is Morocco. They declared their victory last week.
And FIFA obliges
Really anyone outside of Europe and South America winning it would be absolutely massive
Ya I don’t even know who I’d pick as most likely.
Morocco? They were on an absurd unbeaten run (still are because of that farce of an AFCON?).
Would have to be US, Morocco, Mexico, Japan
Korea too maybe.
Canada gonna come in clutch for North America this summer. Move over Mexico and USA.
When an American says “all of sports” they actually only mean the Big 4 US team sports + golf and tennis.
with asterisks for Golf, Hockey, and Tennis.
MLS, WNBA get far far less respect than college teams.
Most US sports fans donât actually care about golf or tennis either though, except maybe the major tournaments.
Rip Ghana
60 years for the leafs đ
The Leafs have had far more gut punching and terrible seasons than the Knicks have had. The 70s and 80s were a joke, the 90s and early 00s had some good teams but a lot of bad thrown in, and the most recent stretch of being a good regular season team was punctuated by year after year of game 7 or series chokes.
Itâs a decent comparison in that both fanbase are absolutely die hard, stupidly rabid, starved and delusional every year. And now the Knicks are winning. New York would pop if they won. Maybe not quite as hard as Toronto but I get the vibe.
Yeah unfortunately this is complete NHL erasure. Itâs the Leafs by a mile
The Toronto Maple Leafs making the Stanley Cup Finals would be a party you could see from space. Probably because we’d burn the city down to the ground, accidentally or on purpose.
And thatâs just MAKING the Finals. Bills, Vikes, Knicks have made it to the final at least.
Lions are most similar but they donât sniff the kind of clout the Leafs
If the Knicks win, the entire Northeast will burn to the ground. And we deserve it
He does end up mentioning in the segment
He did mention them later on
He said that âMaple Leafs fans are like,`what about us?â But the Knicks are the biggest city in America. Like they have the most fans.â
Reads as pretty blind to hockey.
Now there may be more Leafs fans than Knicks fans, but Hockey is a smaller sport. Maybe not in Toronto, but it just is.
New York is a bigger market, one of the 3 most identifiable basketball teams in the world after the Lakers and Celtics.
I get it, but nobody would have said the St. Louis Blues were a franchise on the same level of despair despite the year after the Leafs last win they lost three consecutive Stanley Cup finals before winning it all a few years ago.
Mostly what Iâm saying is that the St. Louis Blues have been to 4 Stanley Cup Finals and won 1 since the Leafs last win or appearance.
It’s okay Marner can get one this year
Ah, the classic Phoenix Suns strategy.Â
The organization is just garbage from top to bottom, theyâll never win
US doesnt give a shit about hockey lol
I just want any MN men’s sports team to win a title, would be insane in MN given its been 35 years since they even appeared in a title game/series in any mens sport.
Youâre a WNBA state. Get used to it
so is NY atm
Maya Moore: Am I nothing to you?
2010s lynx: the unwanted dynasty
You’re forgetting the PWHL. The Frost have won two thirds of the Walter Cups.
Not like I have had much of a choice (at least when it comes to titles), so thanks for the insightful comment
What can we do otherwise? The ladies bring home the trophies here. Both the Lynx and the Frost have multiple titles
And a pwhl state, but counter point fuck the frost
As long as Montreal loses I’ll feel better.
As a Vikings fan in New Orleans bounty gate still haunts me.
Paul Allen is a piece of shit and I am a lions fan living in MN but I do think his call of the farve int is an all timer lol
I couldnât imagine what downtown Minneapolis would look like if this happened. Vikings in particular would shut down the state for a month
There was a giant block party on 1st Ave just for making the WCF
The Lynx have 4 rings
And 1% of the market share of any men’s team, unfortunately
I think Ant definitely has the ability to carry the wolves and a true number 2 option to a finals appearance but man idk what we are supposed to do about wemby for the foreseeable future.
Maybe he’ll smash his own face into the floor again.
I got to go to a 1991 world series game for free because I was small enough that my parents just had me sit on their lap and they let me in. And now I’m turning 40 this year, and that’s how long it’s been since we won a title
I feel like there are a couple of sports he is neglecting to consider here.
Two that come to mind. Leafs winning the Stanley Cup and England winning the World Cup.
I canât tell if England winning the World Cup or assuming Americans care about the World Cup is a bigger joke.
England winning the World Cup is much bigger than the Vikings winning a Super Bowl lol.
Not to the country where the Vikings would be winning said Super Bowl.
If USA was good at soccer they’d care a lot. It really comes down to that. Even if they had a world class player or a golden generation doing work on the world stage, the sport would rise a ton in a short period of time.
I think it’s the other way around. If Americans cared about soccer we would be better. Our best athletes choose other sports
We also gate keep the hell outta soccer. I grew up in San Antonio where the most talented soccer players were forced into football/baseball in Middle School because middle schools offer it for free and they couldn’t afford club and travel fees for tournaments etc.
They chose other sports being the US soccer federation is pricing kids out and only cares about whose parents can pay them not producing the best talent
You just described the youth basketball program but that hasn’t stopped any talent
Well the best players arenât from the US anymore so you could argue it has
Has it not? The amount of second gen basketball players speaks to a combo of genetics and wealth.
Of course the path to the nba is easier when your parent has access and connections to nba level training, facilities, etc. Even then like 98% of nba players arent second generation, so no it hasn’t
Maybe, but the US isn’t good at (men’s) soccer because nobody cares. MLS is only 30 years old, it’s nowhere near the established juggernauts of the main 4 sports Americans care about professionally because they have more history. Soccer is a pickup sport everywhere else in the world but in America that’d be more basketball or flag football/two hand touch.
I couldnât even name even one MLS team
Well thatâs easy, you just pick a big US city and add âFCâ either before it or after it depending on how pretentious you think they are.
A lot of Americans care about the World Cup, 26m watched the final in 2022
He actually talked about that
I mean asking Bill to go beyond the three team sports he has focused on during his career is a big ask.
Theyâre talking about their own world of sports.
So theyâll clearly forget things like soccer and hockey.
North american sports, its a different sphere
MY LIONS MENTIONED WOOOOOOOH
Why is a GSW fan a Lions fan?
Well you see, he started watching NBA in 2015, and started watching NFL in 2023.
Then shouldn’t he be a Chiefs fan?
Nah because the Chiefs were good already by then. If you wanna bandwagon correctly you have to pick a team that hasnât won lately but has potential to so you can claim you were a fan before they won their championship.Â
This is why im gonna be a wizards fan starting next season đŻsurely nothing could go wrong
Watch AD play 80 games lol
I’m a Warrior fan but also a Commanders fan. I was born in Maryland but we moved to the Bay when I was 5 in 1980. Redskins were good in the 80s, so I was able to see them on TV and remain a fan. It was much more difficult to follow the Orioles/Bullets/Caps back then so I eventually switched to the SF Giants/Warriors/Sharks. But kept on with the ‘Skins.
Iâm born and raised in Sacramento with a dad from Seattle. Itâs not that abnormal.
Sacramento-Seattle is indeed not that abnormal. Detroit-San Francisco is, decidedly, much more abnormal.
Born in Michigan, raised in the Bay. So picked Lions because family and Warriors because Monta have it all.
Born in the Bay but inherited mom or dad’s football fandom? Or the other way around? Idk, there’s a few possibilities.
How did I end up a Lakers and Bills fan? Mysterious things happened 40 years ago (the Rams sucked)
lmao, and now the Rams are in LA.
Brother also posts in r/boston , what the fuck is that fandom
Most people are missing his point. Itâs not that the Knicks are the most suffering franchise. Heâs saying that in terms of fan size, fan fervor, and drought, the Knicks winning it all would be a HUGE deal
He also immediately said Iâm probably forgetting some teams here
Is that why he brought up the Buffalo Bills next?
Bills mafia go through tables before regular season games just to get hyped up. What the hell do you think they would do if they actually won?
Itâs really been a blessing the Knicks have been bad for so long. Theyâre like finally somewhat decent and their fans canât handle it lmao
I don’t think anybody feels blessed about it lol. But it would be crazy if the team to break the longest drought for NY Sports championships (Big 4) was the Knicks when the Yankees have the 1st or 2nd best baseball player on the planet right now.
Isn’t Judge relatively mid in the playoffs and baseball far less individual oriented? It’s not that crazy at all.
If you told somebody in 2017 that the Knicks might win a championship before the Yankees they would probably think the Yankees team plane crashed and exploded. Yankees have been a lot closer (and arguably got cheated out of a ring by the Astros).
Yankees went to a World Series 2 years ago. The Knicks still haven’t even seen a Finals and quite frankly I don’t think they’re doing a thing to whoever comes out West if they even reach the Finals so maybe this whole discussion is premature lol
You’re giving more reasons why it would be crazy if the Knicks were the team to pull it off.
Honestly I donât disagree. The closest comparison I can think of is the 2016 Cubs, that fanbase is fiending for a championship.Â
Itâs noteworthy to not disagree with Bill Simmons
It really is lol
Not getting into it too much because there’s still a long way to go. But just adding that the Knicks have never actually had a ticker tape parade. Think things were really hectic at the time with Vietnam protests so they just had a ceremony at City Hall.
Feel like that context matters for what it would look like if they won.
No offense Knicks fans, but the below would be more significant:
Lions, Browns: long time franchises without one, with A LOT more suffering.
Bills: have never won one despite making a SB in four straight years
Vikings and Cardinals: Long time franchises without one, just not as much suffering as Lions and Browns.
Guardians: Haven’t won a WS since 1948. A comedy movie franchise was literally made about how downtrodden that franchise is/was.
Maple Leafs: Hockey’s version of the Knicks. The difference is that their drought is longer and Hockey fans shit on them way more then basketball fans shit on the Knicks.
He’s including the sheer size of the fandom as part of what he means though, and NYC is obviously bigger than those cities.
Browns and Lions I think would be up there, maybe Leafs too. But I think those are the 3 in the conversation.
Iâd argue the Cardinals have suffered more than the Browns and Lions, itâs just easier to forget about them
No shot lol we’ve never even sniffed the super bowl. Watched our team get uprooted overnight and moved to Baltimore only to watch them have a top 3/arguably goat linebacker and win a super bowl less than 5 years into existence. WE’RE CALLED THE MISTAKE ON THE LAKE for Christ sakes đ
Mistake on the lake is crazy lmaooo đ, the Baltimore stuff adds another layer of pain that canât really be matched. Itâs just more that in my mind itâs better to be bad but memorable than bad and completely irrelevant
the cardinals are the worst franchise in professional sports and I don’t think it’s particularly close, they have existed since 1898 and have somehow managed to suck almost the entirety of that time… 128 years. It is something that would be hard to recreate even if you tried.
Youre right its not close but wrong about who suffered more. You saw your team in the SB. I saw mine go 1-31 and trade for a rapist
I get that, but I would tell you from first hand experience that blowing a super bowl in the last two minutes of the game is NOT a memory I cherish lol.
I think its fair to argue they belong in the same category as Lions and Browns, but its tough for me to say they’ve suffered more when they’ve at least been to a Super Bowl.
They have 7 playoff wins since the end of WW2, itâs pretty dire. I think it helps that theyâve had good players in pretty recent memory
The Houston Texans tied the cardinals for last place in playoff wins this year. The Texans were founded in 2002, the Cardinals were founded in 1898.
Iâd argue the Cardinals have suffered more than the Browns and Lions
Please make that argument, id love to hear it.
Absolutely not. Not even close. That Cardinals have played in a super bowl in recent memory. We lost our team entirely, then got em back only to become a doormat, then reinforced that going 1-31 and when we finally had a viable team, we THEN traded a decade of assets for a rapist.
No other team has suffered more in any major US sport
Leafs winning the Stanley Cup and England winning the World Cup are right up there.Â
They’d both be bigger than the Knicks, to be honest.
Leafs winning the Stanely Cup is way bigger.
âway biggerâ is an insane take. at best that would be comparable. NYC the basketball mecca, having a title team with the one squad everyone in the city loves, would be unbelievably huge. while the drought length and passion for the sport are close, new york has 3 times the population of toronto and basketball is a bigger sport
It is almost impossible to quantify these things but more people are definitely tuning into and caring about the knicks winning than the leafs.
Bill âThe Sports Guyâ Simmons has no time to think about hockey outside of talking Bruins with his dad đ
Honestly heâs pretty in tune with hockeys broader cultural relevance at this point
This is it, not being a hater but NY sports have been terrible recently, 5000+ days without a Big 4 title. It would be the biggest moment for NY Sports in 20 years
What event are you thinking about that you’re saying 20? Because the only thing coming to mind is beating the undefeated Pats, but you’re always dealing with some fandom split for football.
Thatâs what I was thinking, basketball is the only sport in NY where 95% of the city goes for one team. No other title would be as big other than the Yankees, but they have plenty out of city fans.
Only thing coming to mind is if the Yankees had won in 01 because that also goes past split fandom, but obviously that didn’t happen. But I don’t know what the parades looked like during the 90s dynasty.
I assume 20 was just a nice round number but the 2009 Yankees World Series and Giants’ Super Bowls from 2007 and 2011 were obviously the biggest of the last 20 years. I think the Giants in 2007 was a very big deal given the context of who they beat, but for obvious reasons a Knicks win would be a uniquely big deal since there isn’t a real split amongst actual New Yorkers on who to root for like there is with the Giants/Jets.
Mariners have never even made the World Series.
I feel seen
The Mariners (who’s never even been to the World Series) would like a word
We were so close
Sorry Cardinals
You can just say Cardinals, the qualifier isn’t necessary.
Knicks winning the championship would be like a kindergarten graduation celebration compared to the Cleveland browns even just making the super bowl. If we were to ever win a super bowl I pray for the safety of our city đ
Cleveland has whatâŚ.350k people? NYC is 8 mill and yea obv not all 8 mill are gonna be in the streets but I donât see how that compares lol
8 million but you guys have the space to spread that out. When the cavs won in 16 there was no space whatsoever downtown. They shut down access to downtown 20 minutes after the game because of safety concerns. We lost cellphone coverage it was so packed lol
reason I say that though is the cavs are the 3rd most loved team in Cleveland, or at least they were before I moved away for work. Had the indians won that same year it would’ve been a riot. Leaving game 7 took forever because so many people were there that stuck it out after mother nature decided fuck Cleveland. The browns though are the heart of Cleveland. They’d try to tip over tower city if we could lmao people dont understand how big of a following the browns actually have throughout the world.
The man speaks extemporaneously into a mic for 5+ hours a week and people get big mad when what comes out isn’t 100% complete or accurate.
Knicks winning the championship would be a landmark moment in my life but like to all sports in the world its not that crazy of a thing tbh. We’re not even a team thats never won, the people who won for us last time some of them are still alive even.
Bill Simmons has terrible takes
*North American sports.
Browns winning the Super Bowl would collapse the entire state of Ohio
Good take
American sports
Nah Jets winning the Super Bowl would change the world
Can my Suns get at least one? I know damn well the Cardinals won’t bring one home lol. AF least the dbacks won one and were in one 3 years ago.
England World Cup. Or any country outside Europe/SA. The Leafs, or hell any Canadian team, winning the Stanley Cup. Mariners World Series.
Bengals?????
not even biggest in their state lol
No one cares about your Bengals or my Suns đ˘
Jets havenât won since â68
As a Lions fan I can honestly say if they ever win it the apocalypse just may follow. Iâd put the sadness and disappointment of being a Lions fan up against any fan base.
The Sabres Stanley Cup would like a word
came here to say the same thing heh
Leafs winning the cup in TO?
Not even a leafs fan, but Iâm excited to see the city burn to the ground when/if I get to see them win a cup
I mean… before I get on my soap box, would any of you care if the Kings won the championship? Or would it be the lowest rated Finals that becomes a bar trivia answer in a few years?
Why? Fuck the Knicks đ
Wonât happen this year buddy đ¤Ł
Everything bill simmons says makes me dislike him more
Habs/Leafs winning the cup is WAY bigger.
Hearts winning the SPL
IMO England winning the World Cup would be the biggest thing if we’re talking about ANY sport. They have only won it once in 1966.
Before anyone goes hoho haha never going to happen I remind everyone that England was the runner up in the last European Championship.
NYC will burn if the Knicks win lol
Maple Leafs Winning a Cup
Heâs right. All of you should want the Knicks to win. Even over your own team.
I do see the knicks or cavs potentially beating OKC. OKC is going to get strained by the spurs.
They have a ring tho?