Grantland is slowly adjusting to life without Bill Simmons. Two of Simmons’ closest running mates at the site are Jalen Rose and David Jacoby and they addressed Simmons’ departure publicly for the first time.
On their Jalen & Jacoby podcast published on Monday previewing the conference finals, the pair took a couple minutes at the top of the show to pay homage to their now former Editor-in-Chief.
This included an ominous Simmons fathead on the wall behind them and the two literally pouring one out for The Sports Guy.
“Without Bill Simmons there’s no Grantland, without Bill Simmons this studio doesn’t exist and it doesn’t look as cool, without Bill Simmons there’s no Jalen Rose podcast, there’s no Jalen & Jacoby, so we just want to salute him.”
Do you think the giant Simmons head will be a permanent fixture in the Grantland studio from now on? Is that face going to be the Che Guevara portrait of the sports media world?
If you play the video beyond the designated endpoint, you can also listen to Rose’s thoughts on his feud with Chris Webber where he struck a much more reconciling tone than calling C-Web “delusional.” It’s been a busy time at Grantland, hasn’t it?