Ryan Russillo sees Draymond Green as an interloper on TNT’s popular studio show “Inside the NBA.”
Russillo and Bill Simmons were talking about the NBA playoffs earlier this week. Simmons’ Ringer PodcastSimmons spoke about how other professional basketball players are ecstatic when Timberwolves big man Rudy Gobert struggles.
“It’s odd to see someone so despised by so many of his colleagues. [someone] “He’s a four-time Defensive Player of the Year, he’s had a lot of regular season success and a lot of playoff appearances,” Simmons said.
“But Draymond, on the TNT set, you have to give Gobert a shoutout for how bad things are. [Doncic] He can’t hide his disdain. If you try, it seems like a lot of people don’t want this guy to succeed.”
The podcast partners then discussed the future of “Inside the NBA,” a hot topic among fans and media, before returning to their issues with Green.
Russillo said he finds it hard to believe the current “Inside the NBA” team of Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith would disappear if TNT lost its NBA rights, and that perhaps another league partner would come up with the funding to keep them on TV together.
Simmons called the debate, which everyone is celebrating on “Inside the NBA,” “the dumbest debate of all time,” and said, “They’re going to be OK. NBC will hire them, and if they don’t, Amazon will. We’ll be OK.”
Russillo likened Green’s arrival on “Inside the NBA” to how his former employer, ESPN, had Todd McShay and Mel Kiper Jr. study the NFL Draft all year long, then had former athletes parachute in to join them as the draft approached.
“Going back to the original topic, I can’t believe they’d put Draymond on the air at this time.” Russillo says:.
“He ruins it. He doesn’t know the difference between being funny and critical and just being mean.”
In the end, Simmons Tweet from comedian Amir Blumenfeld Green on “Inside the NBA” on feeling like Cousin Oliver, his character in the final season of “The Brady Bunch.”
