Immediately Following the Premiere of ESPN Films’ The Announcement
On the heels of Bill Simmons’ recent “The B.S.Report” podcast with President Obama, the Grantland editor in chief is now taking a full episode of his popular podcast to the TV screen for the first time with “The B.S. Report Special: Magic Johnson.” This special edition of the podcast will air on Sunday, March 11th at 10:30 p.m. ET, immediately following the 9:00 p.m. premiere of The Announcement, an ESPN Films and NBA Entertainment production.
Part one of the two-part podcast will feature Magic Johnson and Simmons discussing a variety of topics surrounding the current state of the NBA heading toward the playoffs. This portion of “The B.S. Report” will be available for download the morning of Friday, March 9th on Grantland.com, ESPN.com’s Podcenter and via iTunes.
“The B.S. Report” then heads to the small screen for the first time, with a special edition of Simmons’ conversation with Johnson to air as a TV feature presentation on ESPN following The Announcement. Directed by Nelson George, The Announcement tells the story of Johnson’s incredible personal journey in his own words and explores how he continues to thrive two decades after his 1991 press conference shocked the world.
“The B.S. Report” with Magic Johnson includes the following highlights:
On what he’s been excited about this season:
“We already knew that Miami and Chicago would be the best two teams but this Jeremy Lin story has made the Knicks relevant…one guy who was all the way down at the end of the bench could come in and cause this much excitement and he made them a better team.”
On Wade and LeBron playing together:
“Wade and LeBron have to really look at each other and communicate with each other and say “Ok look, I got the mismatch right now, I’m going good, I know I can take him”…right now they’re playing great together, it’s just what’s going to happen when there’s 2 minutes to go and they need a big bucket, who do you go to?”
On what advice he would give LeBron to regain his confidence:
“You’ve been an MVP, you’ve been a superstar in our league for what, the seven or eight years that you’ve been in the league. Get back to that mindset of hey, I’m gonna make every shot, and I’m gonna make every big shot, and I don’t mind being the hero or the goat. Cause now it is almost like he’s hesitant.”
On how it felt playing for the ’92 Olympic team after his HIV announcement:
“I was thanking God that I got this opportunity to play one more time, thanking God that I’m able to play with the world’s best players, you know, and the two guys that I’ve always wanted to play with Michael Jordan and Larry Bird on the same team. I need the camaraderie of the guys one more time…it was my therapy.”
On how he would have handled his HIV announcement given what he knows today:
“What I know today versus what I didn’t know then, I might as well have played right away [that season]. Was it the right decision what I did, yes, but you’re asking me now 20 years later. I don’t regret anything I did.”
“The B.S. Report” is consistently among the most downloaded podcasts with more than 700,000 downloads per episode. In 2011, the podcast’s download total was over 92 million. Recent guests have included President Barack Obama, comedian Louis CK, NBA legend Larry Bird, Sugar Ray Leonard, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Myers, amongst others.
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