This week Around the Horn announced their last show will be May 23rd. Sports fans lit up Twitter with fond memories of growing up watching OG legends Woody Paige, Jay Mariotti, Tim Cowlishaw, J.A. Adande, Bill Plashcke, Kevin Blackistone, Jackie Mac, Bob Ryan and more banter on their screen every afternoon.

In today's show, we look back at what made the show great, and also diagnose and present theories on why the show was cancelled, likely driven by generating significantly less ratings than PTI.

There's been a lot of discussion about NBA ratings this season. Given my background in sports media, I discuss why this is misguided and that the NBA is actually in excellent shape. We discuss the new TV rights deal, how the media partners make money, what variables will be needed to judge the new deal, and the advantages that the NBA brings to NBC and Amazon that the NFL and MLB do not, including far greater cultural significance. Enjoy!

Welcome to Episode 104! We bring on Mike (@SpringerProject) from Twitter for a classic r/BS Pod rip. We start off discussing Bill Simmons current events, with Mike actually defending the Termine & Eddie Johnson pod - wait, what?? Then we get into Mike's time at ESPN and discuss the formation of and disintegration of Grantland - this is must listen for any Grantland fans. Next we discuss where Bill ranks in the Pantheon of ESPN personalities, and we each give our all-time ranking for Bill in the ESPN Pyramid. We finish up with some r/BillSimmons discussion before predicting where Bill and his content goes from here.

Welcome to Episode 103! We bring on previous guests Mike (Episode 73) and Chanch (Episode 98) for a 3-man weave reviewing Katie Nolan's new podcast. It's a concept we've wanted to do for awhile - a podcast reviewing another podcast - and what better show to start with than someone who goes back deep in Bill Simmons lore and, in many ways, is attempting to do an evolutionary version of The Bill Simmons Podcast.

While discussing the show, we compare and contrast Katie with Bill, and discuss what we liked about Katie's pod, what she can improve, and the niche we think she needs to hit for the podcast to be successful. And as is common with The r/BillSimmons Podcast, we touch on many aspects of the sports media world including Grantland/The Ringer, Barstool, subreddits, people who are too terminally online, and a lot more.

We wrap up the pod discussing some of Bill's NFL takes and laugh at how ridiculous Guess the Lines and Million Dollar Picks have become. If you like the pod, check out Mike on Twitter (@PokerPolitics) and Chanch on TikTok (@perchnches).

Welcome to Episode 102! We bring back 3-time guests Flex and Chenny to react to the insane Luka trade and epic masterpiece from Russillo, Bill and Rob Mahoney, who recorded an emergency 3-man weave as soon as the trade happened Saturday night.

We break it all down: the trade, the pod, Bill's juice, Russillo's virtuoso performance (yes, this is his Apex Mountain), Bill letting Russillo cook while bringing the best of his NBA historian mind, and commend Rob Mahoney on a job well done in the biggest moment of his career. If you're an NBA fan who listened to Bill's emergency pod, this episode's for you.

Follow Flex (@flexfc) and Chenny (@ChennyBritt) on Twitter and check out their previous r/BS Pod episodes (#80, #79, #75)

Welcome to Episode #101! The Podfather is staying at Spotify, and thus we break down all the angles. Plus, reports indicate he may work with ESPN again, and we assess whether Zach Lowe is now planning on joining The Ringer. Enjoy!

Welcome to episode 100! We bring on 3-time guest Chris (Episodes 93 & 95) and first time guest Aaron (who's pod I guested on last week) to discuss, so far, the sports media story of the year: Big Cat grew up a Boston sports fan. That's right, the Pardon My Take co-host grew up right outside of Boston and only started rooting for Chicago teams after college. While this was known by some, it blew up recently with the help of Kirk Minihane, and the rest was history.

We break down every angle of the story, with Aaron providing an excellent Barstool perspective being a long-time consumer of their content pre-dating Big Cat joining the company, while Chris is a Chicago fan and frequent Pardon My Take listener. We also bring Bill Simmons into the mix, including how Big Cat has failed his "rules for being a sports fan" by switching teams, made more interesting by the fact that Big Cat, in many ways, has carried the torch that Page 2 Bill Simmons lit in the early-2000s.

If you like the show, follow the guys on Twitter (Chris: @CT_WIU; Aaron: @tobinology218), and check out my appearance on Aaron's podcast (For The Love of the Game) and Chris's two r/BS Pod appearances.

For the Love of the Game: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/for-the-love-of-the-game/id1386844352?i=1000683521741

Welcome to Episode 99! We bring on @T_sizzle71 from Twitter for a classic r/BS Pod show. We've focused on NBA ratings for the last couple episodes and had a welcome return to this podcast's roots talking all things Bill Simmons.

We start off discussing our backgrounds with Bill, both finding him on ESPN.com in the early 2000s and listening to "Eye of the Sports Guy" in 2007 before it was changed to "The BS Report". Is there a Bill Simmons of 2025 and if a younger Bill came up now, would he become as popular?

We next discuss the issues we're currently finding with the podcast including Guess the Lines and then compare it and the overall BS Pod to Pardon My Take - are they the true evolutionary Page 2 Bill rather than 2025 Ringer Bill Simmons? We discuss what they're doing better than Bill to make them the top sports podcast today.

Next, we speculate on how Bill's audience has changed over the years - as he's lost some long-time fans, plenty keep listening out of comfort and familiarity. He also brings in new NBA and Rewatchables fans, but can the younger generations relate to him? And is he using too many Ringer people as guests? We discuss whether Bill should be doing podcast mailbags and why he probably isn't despite the fans wanting it.

T then zags and defends Any Given Wednesday, after we called it the worst HBO show of all-time in our recent podcast deep dive, and so we #EmbraceDebate.

We next get into Bill being annoyed with many people (including myself!) who have been calling out Bill's takes - he should just embrace the fact that he gives hot takes and will be wrong often - especially because he used to rip other sports media figures back in his Digital City Boston and early ESPN days.

We hit on the Ric Bucher comments and then I spring a new theory on why Bill's sports takes have gotten so wonky lately, and we finish up with a call to action for Bill to record fewer, but higher quality podcasts as his career winds down.

If you like the show, leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts and we'll read the review on the next pod.

Welcome to Episode 98! We bring on Chanch and Kyle from TikTok, who are brothers in real life, for another classic r/BS Pod 3-man weave.

We start off talking our history with Bill Simmons (0:00-9:15) before Chanch and Kyle introduce their foolproof way to fix the NBA (9:15-58:30). They've been perfecting this idea for over a decade, which primarily involves a radical schedule change and also introduces international competition and switching up the current salary cap & max contract structures.

Next we discuss Zach Lowe (58:30-1:17:15) and his impact on the NBA. The bros believe Zach and his analytics crew and fans have ruined basketball and should atone for his sins. A scorching take, for sure, but perhaps a useful alternative perspective in 2024 when NBA fans, including Bill Simmons, are watching fewer games as the sport is less aesthetically pleasing.

We finish up the pod (1:17:15-end) talking more about the state of the NBA, comment on r/BillSimmons & r/NBA, and predict how people will react to the pod.

If you liked the show, follow Chanch (@perchanches) and Kyle (@kartfantasysports) on TikTok and also check out @rbillsimmonspodcast where I've started to post entertaining Bill Simmons and r/BS Pod clips.

Welcome to Episode 97, where we bring back r/BS Pod favorites JF (Episodes 71 & 83) and TikTokInvestors (Episode 27) for a classic 3-man weave. We discuss the topic that's taken over NBA Media: Why are NBA ratings down? JF & TikTok expand on a variety of reasons highlighted by the NBA Twitter community but also detail several additional reasons that we haven't seen mentioned much. Some are within the NBA's control, some aren't, but overall we agree - if this continues, it's likely that we will eventually have changes to improve the NBA product. 

If you liked the episode, follow JF (@Window_Cleaner) and TikTok (@TikTokInvestors) on Twitter and be sure to check out their previous r/BS Pod episodes.