Bill Simmons on the trade deadline, Milwaukee slips further down
Fan-tastic? — ... There are Bill Simmons haters out there, but I've been a fan since a friend in college introduced me to his ramblings. The latest piece hands out grades for the non-trade deadline. Many Fs and a few F-quadruple-minuses handed out. The Bucks mercifully "only" get an F for their inactivity, despite the fact that they'll lose Mo Williams (bad) and keep Bobby Simmons (worse) due to sheer inertia.

D-Wade Done?
120 Proof Ball — ... ((Admit it. You were expecting a Dennis Johnson joke. We have a policy of not pissing on the graves of future Hall of Famers here at 120... unless we're driving by the graveyard and really have to pee..)) Anyway, as I was saying, nothing went down. Nothing of note anyway. Espn.com's Bill Simmons thinks he could be G.M. of any team in the NBA according to his report card of the deadline. I'm gonna go ahead and say that some of his ideas are actually not too bad, even though his proposed 4-team trade to save the Clippers would leave them without a single legitimate center on their entire roster, and that it's predicated on teams being willing to accept players on the South side of awful like Ira Newble, Zeljko Rebraca, Sasha Pavlovic, Aaron Williams, and a host of others. The most entertaining part of the article is the creative metaphor insertion, and the use of the phrase "testicular fortitude."

Bill Simmons Would Prefer That Someone Else Coach the Clippers
ClipperBlog.com Blog for the Los Angeles NBA Clippers Fans — ... The Clips’ earn a ‘G’ from Bill Simmons on their trade deadline report card:

Bill Simmons: Z-infinity-squared-plus-one
Cleveland Cavaliers — ... That’s the relationship Bill Simmons and the Cavs share in light of Simmons’ latest column that attempted to sum up the trade deadline. Simmons’ Friday column on ESPN.com’s Page 2 graded all 30 teams on their performances and attempts to get better before Thursday’s 3 pm EST deadline, and he had this to say about the Cavaliers:

Game Thread # 56 -- vs. Seattle
Pounding The Rock — ... -As pointed out by PtR member kalone, Bill Simmons wrote an article grading each team's performance at the trading deadline (it's an entertaining read).  He had the following to say about the Spurs, who he gave a grade of "INC" (meaning "incomplete"):

Wolves Updates 2/24
I Heart KG — ... Bill Simmons hands out trade deadline grades to each team and gives the Wolves an "F-infinity-minus."

Worst. Deadline. Ever.
Give Me The Rock — ... , I typically avoid linking to them, but I’ll make an exception for Bill Simmons latest article, Welcome to the No Balls Association, which is a very good read. It’s a entertaining summary of all the trades that coulda and shoulda went down this past week, and why some teams are pussies for not making them.

NBA Trade Deadline Clean-up
Sportsfrog.com — ... To those teams that held firm...good for them. But for those contenders who wouldn't pull the trigger? Weak. Sometimes you have to go ahead and sacrifice what might be for a chance to win now. And for the Lakers, Bulls and Cavs, that opportunity to improve and get a better shot at winning it all now was this week. And they all blinked. Bill Simmons writes a fantastic wrap-up column where he takes them all to the woodshed (along with most of the rest of the league for having zero stones).

Bill Simmons’ Grade: Stupid
Chicago Bulls — ... and did something that I probably shouldn’t have done. That terrible decision was clicking a link to a Bill Simmons’ article. Now I usually never read article’s on a certain network’s webpage because of that stupid little Insider thing, but thats another rant for another day. Anyway back to that Simmons’ article, which was about the trading deadline and the lack of moves at the said deadline. In this article titled “No Balls Association” (Get it N.B.A.?), he graded, excuse me, ripped pretty much every team for not making moves at the deadline. Some of the grades he gave out included F-minus-minus-minus-minus, G, and my personal favorite…Z-infinity-minus. So what did he give the Bulls? F-infinity-minus. Before I begin, I just have to say I am not upset that he bashed the Bulls, everyone has their own opinion, but some of the stuff he says is just

Saturday's jabs
Bullets Forever — ... Everyone's favorite blogger-pretending-to-be-a-columnist Bill Simmons handed out trade deadline grades.  He gave nearly every team an F or worse, and chastised NBA GMs for lacking the guts to make a big trade.  Here's what he said about the Wizards:

Show Me The...10-Day Contract?
Lion in Oil — ... The NBA trade deadline came and passed with a whimper this week, with Bill Simmons perfectly describing everyone as belonging to the "No Balls League." In a slow week, the biggest news was that after three years of retirement, Scottie Pippen wants to make a comeback. Why would a player want to do something like this? Usually it's that they can't handle retirement, miss the limelight, and feel they have something left to prove. Usually. In the case of Pippen, it seems like he may have a different sort of motivation.

He Wrote It So I Don't Have To
Thank You Isiah — ... pretty much writes exactly what I was planning to about Simmons' bitching about Pax not pulling the trigger on a Gasol deal. He makes all the right points:

Bill Simmons is talking LeBron
YAYsports! NBA — ... Luckily, ESPN’s Bill Simmons is having that word for us - as a nice companion to the excellent trade deadline scouring he gave the league’s GMs last week, he’s got

Game 58 - at LA Lakers
Sactown Royalty — ... Even Bill Simmons has spit the knackered idea that the Lakers-Kings rivalry is done:

We Want You, VCU
Mondesi's House — ... Actually, I've been a Simmons fan for a long time. His No Balls Association piece about the NBA trade deadline was fantastic. We need more columns about that, and less college basketball. It's just not his strength. But I will keep reading.

The War in John Paxson's Mind
ESPN.com - TrueHoop — ... What is it going to take for you to just do something! Do I have to quote Bill Simmons to you again? "When the media guide for the No Balls Association is released," Simmons writes, "I demand that John Paxson appears on the cover."

Game 3
The Gil Meche Experience — ... . My favorite has to be Bill Simmons. On his first podcast this past week, he breathed loving words towards the Warriors for their trade with Indiana, saying they were the only team in the NBA that had any guts. So I'm sure you would him expect that he was positive about it when it happened. I mean, Simmons never contradicts himself, right? Well, after the NBA trading deadline, Simmons went on a huge rant about how no one in the NBA had any balls, and weren't willing to try something different. So the Warriors, based on his comments on the podcast, must have gotten a good grade from him, right? Of course you're wrong! Ah, the D- grade. There's no way that Simmons just jumped on the Warriors bandwagon, and is now jumping off as soon as it looks a little rocky, right?

Bill Simmons vs. The Celtics
CelticsBlog — ... 5. A short time later Simmons looked at "The No Balls Association" and aired his criticism of Ainge:

The Sports Guy: Logic and the lottery
ESPN Feed: bill simmons — ... (Zach Randolph and LaMarcus Aldridge), which means they'll eventually trade Randolph for 60 cents on an already diluted dollar. Yeah, he's a loon, but he's a superb low-post scorer who would thrive with Durant spacing the floor for him. So why not explore trading down if Seattle is enamored with Oden? They could just trade the No. 1 and Darius Miles' craptastic contract (expires in 2011) for Rashard Lewis (sign and trade) and the No. 2, then play Brandon Roy, Lewis, Durant and Randolph at the same time (with Aldridge coming off the bench). Tell me, who's double-teaming Randolph with Lewis, Durant and Roy out there? Don't they have to explore that one? Do we need to dial the phone for Kevin Pritchard? The VP's verdict: If the Blazers can't move Randolph for Antawn Jamison (expiring in 2008) or Rasheed Wallace (expiring 2009), either swap picks with Seattle (and dump Miles on the Sonics for Lewis) or keep the pick and take Durant. (Note: They won't do this, of course. It's the ...

Longform Shoals: When a Pick Isn't Just a Pick
FanHouse — ... , it seemed like they had a plan. Danny Ainge, scourge of the Celtics faithful, was going to be a hero. ...

The Sports Guy: Subject archive
ESPN Feed: bill simmons — ... (2007) The No Balls Association (2007) ...

The Future Is Now: Rashard Lewis Formally Introduced at Press Conference
Orlando Pinstriped Post — ... received. ...

More on the Pistons Offseason Ranking
Only The Bulls — ... Not to sound too much like Bill Simmons, but what Dumars did this summer was typical of the league(Paxson is guilty of this as well). Instead of taking advantage of his teams position and making the change to push the Pistons over the top and maybe risking his ass, he plays his hand conservative and attempts to maintain. ...

NBA Preview: John Paxson's Pipe Dream Is Your Nightmare
The Shamrock Headband — ... So trade for Kobe. I know Luol Deng could become a superstar, but that's a huge gamble. At 22 he certainly can't be qualified as near that stratosphere yet. Meanwhile he and Gentle Ben are about to become expensive, and all of a sudden the Bulls are going to be in luxury tax limbo. What I'm saying is simple - go for it now! I have little faith that Paxson will pull the trigger, ever, because he didn't go after Gasol last year and strikes me along with Rod Thorn as the most gutless GM in basketball. Maybe Paxson's plan will work, maybe Ty Thomas will turn into Amare Stoudemire, but I am sick of Chicago as they are constituted. ...

How to become the Sports Guy's new favorite blog
Blog a Bull — ... So trade for Kobe. I know Luol Deng could become a superstar, but that's a huge gamble. At 22 he certainly can't be qualified as near that stratosphere yet. Meanwhile he and Gentle Ben are about to become expensive, and all of a sudden the Bulls are going to be in luxury tax limbo. What I'm saying is simple - go for it now! I have little faith that Paxson will pull the trigger, ever, because he didn't go after Gasol last year and strikes me along with Rod Thorn as the most gutless GM in basketball. Maybe Paxson's plan will work, maybe Ty Thomas will turn into Amare Stoudemire, but I am sick of Chicago as they are constituted. ...

Someone reads too much Sports Guy
Bullets Forever — It's been over seven months since Bill Simmons' landmark "no balls" column (yes, I'm sorry the NBA doesn't work like your NBA Live franchise, Bill), and the sounds still reverberate through the internet.  In case you can't remember, Simmons not only called the Spurs front office "crazy" to think they could win the NBA title without making a trade (that worked out well, didn't it), but he had this to say about the Wizards. ...

The Sports Guy: Time for a quick NBA fix
ESPN Feed: bill simmons — ... , the luxury tax's stranglehold over any potential roster improvements and a lottery system that clearly doesn't work. Why weren't these issues handled before the season? The NBA tinkered with the officiating infrastructure mainly because the Donaghy Scandal forced its hand; let the record show the league completely ignored the other problems. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. After the most damaging 12-month stretch of the Stern Era, it seemed arrogant (and that's being kind) for the league to adopt the always-dangerous "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy, especially after Boston's resurgence and the never-ending Kobe Saga saved the league from a month of cover stories about how screwed up the NBA is right now. The question remains: Why do the people running the NBA care so much about big-picture issues and causes (globalization, technological advancements, the WNBA, etc.) and so little about ...

Houston GM: 'Steve Kerr Has Big Balls'
FanHouse — ... ESPN's Simmons, of course, penned a rather infamous column last February which lamented the lack of trade movement in the league. The theory GMs are too timid has sort been shot to hell this year as ...

The Suns And Mavericks Are Going To Have A Hard Time Golfing Comfortably With Such Huge Balls
Fire Jay Mariotti — ... Anyways, one of Simmons' more well-known columns from the past couple years is this, from February 2007, in which he lambasted nearly every team in the NBA for not making some kind of risky, roster-altering, hype-generating trade before that season's deadline. In his criticism, he very cleverly re-christened the league the "No Balls Association" in a brilliant turn of acronym. Oh, the audacity! His point was basically that although nearly every team in the league was flawed at the time in some obvious way, their GMs were too afraid to make a big deal ...

Eight Hoops Thoughts To End '08
CelticsBlog — ... 7.  Gutsy executives: Remember the 2007 trade deadline, when nothing of import happened and Bill Simmons nicknamed the NBA the No Balls Association?  Not the case in 2008.  Over the last 12 months alone, Shaquille O'Neal, Pau Gasol, Shawn Marion, Jason Kidd, Devin Harris, Chauncey Billups, Allen Iverson, Jason Richardson, Boris Diaw, Raja Bell and Ben Wallace all changed zip codes via trade.  And Mike James, too!  Thus far, I'd hesitate to call anyone beyond the Lakers, Nets and Nuggets definitive winners of all those involved with these moves, but it's ...