Bill Simmons is going viral for rolling with brutal WNBA take

Social media has taken several shots at the popular sports podcaster.

May 10, 2024 - 02:30

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Bill Simmons is going viral for rolling with brutal WNBA take

The WNBA is expected to take a huge leap in terms of viewership and overall media attention this season.

While the league has been growing in popularity over the last half decade, this air is different this year. The WNBA is welcoming a rookie class that features the likes of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Cameron Brink. If the viewership numbers of the NCAA Women's Tournament are any indication, this should be a banner season for the WNBA.

There's still no definitive way to prove just how big of a positive effect this draft class will bring. And the WNBA needs to see growth, as even its strongest supporters are aware that the league is in crucial spot that will define its future.

So there are pundits out there who are trying to figure out a way for the WNBA to grow even further — one of them being Bill Simmons, who had previously been very critical of the WNBA and women's basketball, but has changed his tune as of late.

Simmons has spoken glowingly about the rise of women's basketball as of late, and he tried to assess more ways to help the league grow on "The Bill Simmons Podcast" alongside sports writer Ethan Sherwood Strauss. But an exchange between the two about a suggestion to help the WNBA has gone viral for all the wrong reasons.

"The one thing they should have done, and maybe there's still time to do, that they didn't do from the outset, is just use the same teams names," Strauss said. "Why force people to learn about the Fever, why not just have the W Pacers? I think that makes it so much easier to just resonate and just cut across."

Simmons did not outright agree, but he didn't disagree either, instead adding on top of Strauss' suggestion.

"Like in college when they just have the Lady Gamecocks," Simmons seemed to agree.

Ethan Strauss thinks WNBA teams should be called like the “W Pacers” bc it’s too hard to learn the name Fever and Bill agrees pic.twitter.com/gIg8OdI6MO— Paternity Riley (@lesterfreamon) May 8, 2024

Strauss has been a longtime writer in the sports business space who, over the past several years, has written on his Substack called "House of Strauss." His voice has been a contentious one in the space, as he's taken a unique stance in the sports business space that veers between independent and conservative. This includes criticisms about the NBA and NFL's decisions to push social activism during their games.

Simmons said earlier in the podcast that he doesn't always agree with Strauss' views, and that he would text him when he disagrees with what he writes. That didn't seem to be the case with this suggestion from Strauss about the WNBA.

That led to a ton of backlash on social media, with some calling out past stories from the days when Simmons was critical about the WNBA.

This idea would be fine if the WNBA were a new concept but the W — and its teams and its branding — has been around for more than 25 years. You’re late. These discussions occurred while Bill was writing stuff like this: https://t.co/rfQOtP5lSX pic.twitter.com/nMbTKCwvoQ— sarah kelly (@thesarahkelly) May 8, 2024