What happened to Bill and Jalen's 2015 Preview

[SamuraiSWISH]

Last season they did a team every day up until the season started. This year they just stopped in the middle of it? WTF happened ...

[Rake2204]

Bill Simmons' suspension.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlTLhyRNlwk#t=15m17s

[Smook A.]

At the end of the Pacers preview, they said Bill and Jalen never finished filming :/

[StephHamann]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xW2taEoH6s

RIP top team previews

[RedBlackAttack]

Bill Simmons' suspension.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlTLhyRNlwk#t=15m17s

I got to thinking about this and I think Simmons may have used this popular video series as a message to ESPN... "If you suspend me, your content is going to suffer."

It's hard for me to imagine that (1) the filming couldn't have been finished in the days between Simmons' suspension being lifted and the start of the season or (2) they push a few of them into the first week of the season or so. Would anyone really care if they came out in the fourth week of October instead of the third?

No, more likely to me is that Simmons decided to cease production when they dropped the hammer on him. If his suspension didn't result in any loss of content or quality, then they'd probably feel more inclined to do it again. Now, they actually have to think about how it might impact their schedule/content.


I can sort of understand it from Simmons' perspective, although it isn't the most righteous thing to do for your audience.

[Rake2204]

I got to thinking about this and I think Simmons may have used this popular video series as a message to ESPN... "If you suspend me, your content is going to suffer."

It's hard for me to imagine that (1) the filming couldn't have been finished in the days between Simmons' suspension being lifted and the start of the season or (2) they push a few of them into the first week of the season or so. Would anyone really care if they came out in the fourth week of October instead of the third?

No, more likely to me is that Simmons decided to cease production when they dropped the hammer on him. If his suspension didn't result in any loss of content or quality, then they'd probably feel more inclined to do it again. Now, they actually have to think about how it might impact their schedule/content.


I can sort of understand it from Simmons' perspective, although it isn't the most righteous thing to do for your audience.

Someone also mentioned how he had that new show coming to ESPN, so that may have become the primary push post-suspension.

[StephHamann]

Hey everyone - we feel awful that we couldn't finish the previews. It would have been impossible, we taped those first ten on Sep. 23 and I wasn't allowed to work until Oct. 15. We love doing these previews and put a ton of time into each one. We couldn't and wouldn't mega-speedrush them just to finish the series, especially when we had to worry about planning the new TV show, too. In general, the timing just couldn't have been worse. But thanks for the support and big thanks to the Redditor who came up with the "Bad News Bill" idea. We are proud of the ten we did - we don't have a big team, it's just 4 of us and some freelancers. I thought the production quality was better this year than last year. We were getting better at doing them which is the real bummer here. Anyway, thanks for understanding and I promise to do an impromptu AMA soon. --SIMMONS

[DeuceWallaces]

No need to bust your ass finishing team previews during the season when he has several hour long network shows to prep for using the same production team.

[RedBlackAttack]

No need to bust your ass finishing team previews during the season when he has several hour long network shows to prep for using the same production team.

Maybe not from his vantage point, but it is really a cool series especially for the teams not in the national spotlight. To have a full segment devoted to nothing except one team is a neat idea. It's one of the things that Simmons does that I will actually still go out of my way to watch/read. He's gotten increasingly annoying/arrogant over the years, but he and Jalen are pretty pitch perfect on these things.

I guess we'll see how this show turns out.