When Bill Simmons and Dan Le Batard, two outspoken ESPN voices who once worked closely together, both left the Worldwide Leader over a five-year period, Le Batard got former ESPN CEO John Skipper in the divorce.
That came somewhat as a surprise, given that Simmons had the more prominent public relationship with Skipper. The two even made a big show of their post-ESPN reunion in April 2019.
But when it came time for Le Batard to depart and launch his own company in late 2020, he did so with Skipper as CEO. The two came together to build Meadowlark Media, an undefinable production house anchored by The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz.
Meadowlark has seen some trouble in recent weeks, punctuated by Skipper’s departure as well as a lesser role for the titular Jon “Stugotz” Weiner.
So on Friday night when Simmons’ dear Boston Celtics were eliminated in the second round of the NBA postseason and the Le Batard Show‘s social media accounts teased Simmons with a popular meme of his depressed face, Simmons fired back. And he did so with Skipper very much in mind.
“Didn’t realize you guys were still around,” Simmons wrote on X, alongside a similar collage of photos of Skipper.
The Le Batard Show has been using the photo of Simmons to mock every big Celtics loss since it was taken in 2023. As a Miami-based property, they revel in having the upper hand in a long-running NBA rivalry with Boston.
Yet as Le Batard has largely ignored the fallout with Skipper on-air and Simmons suffered through one of the worst Celtics weeks in recent memory, with a loss to the Knicks plus an Achilles’ tear for Jayson Tatum, Simmons finally poked back.
Simmons is the first former ESPNer to comment on the strange breakup between Le Batard and the former Bristol boss, and certainly a notable person to speak up given all that history.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.