Few people in sports media take NBA awards voting as seriously as Bill Simmons.
The Sports Guy came up in the industry primarily as a basketball writer, obsessing over the minutiae of the league and turning its eccentricities into national storylines. Even now that he is no longer on ESPN’s NBA studio coverage or penning columns on a regular basis, Simmons covers the league closely through his podcast.
During the final weeks of the NBA season, Simmons dedicates significant airtime to laboring over his awards picks. In the past two weeks, Simmons spent several hours across three episodes poring through his selections with his guests, Zach Lowe, Kirk Goldsberry, and Doc Rivers.
But after the league voting deadline finally passed over the weekend, Simmons revealed that he had not stuck to his guns. Instead, viral clips of his own commentary, as well as the outcomes of players’ eligibility appeals and the Play-In Tournament, led Simmons to flip-flop in three categories, including MVP.
“I have a confession for you,” Simmons told Lowe on Sunday night’s episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast.
“On Tuesday, I did my award picks, and I did MVP. And I did this long thing about how I couldn’t believe I wasn’t voting for Joker (Nikola Jokic), and SGA (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander), and I was trying to be fair and rational about it. And SGA, they won four more games, and they were the 1-seed, and he was the best player in the league, and four straight 31-point seasons. But then I was like, ‘I just can’t believe I’m not voting for Joker.’
“We ran it, we cut it as a video. And I watched it on social media, and what I saw was a person who was confused and didn’t have a lot of conviction in his choice. And I was a little embarrassed by it. I was like, I’m doing gymnastics not to pick Jokic, who is the best player in the league and is the most-valuable-to-his-team player in the league. And instead, I’m doing these mental gymnastics because SGA’s on the best team and he’s f*cking awesome. And look, either guy could have been the MVP. Wemby (Victor Wembanyama) could have been the MVP.”
The clip in question is just as wobbly as Simmons describes it. Rather than singing the praises of his selection for one of the more consequential NBA MVP votes in history, Simmons spends the majority of the explanation sounding exasperated that he wouldn’t be voting for Jokic.
Because multiple players appealed to the league over their eligibility under the contentious 65-game requirement for awards eligibility, voters received more time to stew over their ballots. So rather than mournfully cast his vote for Gilgeous-Alexander, the Sports Guy went with his heart.
“I voted for Joker. I changed my pick,” Simmons said. “I did a La La Land–Moonlight. I changed my pick. I was like, ‘What am I doing? How can I not vote for Joker?’ And I feel not awesome about it, because I thought SGA had an awesome year, too. But I think Joker is the best guy in the league, and I think he means the most to his team.”
Later, Simmons revealed he also moved San Antonio wing Keldon Johnson into the top spot on his Sixth Man of the Year ballot after watching his original pick, Jaime Jaquez, fall flat on his face in Miami’s loss in the Play-In Tournament.
“I had Jaquez over Keldon Johnson, but then Miami lost on Wednesday,” Simmons explained. “And I was just like, I’m going to have the Sixth Man of the Year from the team that couldn’t even get to the last round of the Play-In game? And I switched it. So that’s the league’s fault. They shouldn’t have had us vote before the Play-In games.”
Awards voters were expressly instructed not to factor Play-In results into their picks. But Simmons was not the only voter who seemed to flip-flop during the wait, as an analysis of prediction market patterns from writer Sam McQuillan showed.
Because Luka Dončić and Cade Cunningham were successful in their appeals and deemed eligible for awards, Simmons also took back an All-NBA selection he had been teasing for weeks, taking San Antonio’s Stephon Castle off his 3rd Team to make space. Simmons had preached his love for Castle all season and canvassed numerous guests on his podcast throughout the spring about naming the young Spurs star to All-NBA.
But when push came to shove, as with MVP and Sixth Man, Simmons’ eventual vote wavered considerably due to circumstances that arose after the final day of the NBA season.
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.