Bill Simmons Facing Backlash Over Saying ‘Fu-k Jalen’ Green on His Podcast

Jalen Green finished his first NBA season as the second-leading rookie scorer in the league with 17.3 points per game.

A pretty solid start for a rookie. It’s quite obvious he could make the All-Rookie first team.

Bill Simmons doesn’t feel that way. On an episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, Simmons, who has a vote in the NBA’s postseason awards, profanely explained why he picked Pelicans forward Herb Jones over Green on his All-Rookie team.

“F–k Jalen Green,” Simmons said with about 1:08:00 left in the episode. “I don’t care you’re scoring 40 points and your team’s 19-60. Congratulations. Herb Jones is like guarding dudes in real games.

“Now, the Houston people are going to be mad at me. I’m sorry. I like winning players, I’m sorry. Jalen Green will get there, it’s just that team was 21-61 this year or whatever.”

Literally after proclaiming, “F—k Jalen Green,” Simmons seemed to backtrack and said he was actually “Pro Jalen Green.”

“I just didn’t think he was one of the five best rookies, but we also had an iconic rookie class,” Simmons said. “I think that’s one of the best rookie classes we’ve had.”

Sounds like Bill caught himself.

When you have a vote in the process, maybe keep your opinions to yourself?

Bill responded to the story:

“This is ridiculous. I think we were laughing during 80% of this. My point was: I’m always leaning toward a rookie like Herb Jones who was meaningfully contributing to a decent team over someone putting up stats on a bad team. Jalen is gonna be excellent.”

https://twitter.com/BillSimmons/status/1514298907517280256

Be better Bill. See some reactions below:

Bill Simmons, who actually has a vote this season, openly said “F**k Jalen Green” on his podcast. If clowns like this are getting a say in who wins NBA awards then all validity is lost.

— GOWIE (@DaKidGowie) April 13, 2022

Bill Simmons on Jalen Green:

"Fuck Jalen Green, I dont care you're scoring 40 points."

—
I have a feeling I'll be coming back to this quote for a long time in the next decade. Actually, you can count on it. #Rockets #LightTheFuse pic.twitter.com/glp8YUmKSC

— Paulo Alves (@PauloAlvesNBA) April 13, 2022

Rockets twitter looking at Bill Simmons after the Jalen Green slander pic.twitter.com/zRFRHiL6an

— Josiah Johnson (@KingJosiah54) April 13, 2022

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