After Kevin Durant first introduced the term “blog boys” on a recent edition of The Bill Simmons Podcast — making a few more “blog boys” cracks over the course of the show — the phrase has entered the basketball lexicon.
As a public service to blog boys (and blog girls) everywhere, we have transcribed the portion of the podcast in which KD first dropped the term. Listen to the full episode below. And if you would like to purchase your very own “Blog Boys” T-shirt, check out The Ringer’s online merch store.
Bill Simmons: I like when guys try [to defend] near the rim, ’cause I think the YouTube/Twitter era has made people actually less likely to challenge dunks ’cause they don’t want to end up on Twitter.
Kevin Durant: Yeah, basketball is in a bad place because of that.
Simmons: Yeah, I wish we could get rid of Twitter. I still enjoy it, but …
Durant: No, don’t get rid of it, I’m just sayin’ it’s like —
Simmons: No, it [just] shouldn’t change how people play. That’s the part I don’t like.
Durant: People don’t watch games ’cause they can look at analytics on Twitter. … The eye test, man, you gotta watch games if you really want to know what the game is about, you know what I’m saying? But if, you know, guys not trying to get embarrassed because they don’t want to be on the latest meme — come on, man. What are we doing? Basketball is about getting embarrassed.
Simmons: We swung too far with the advanced metrics this season. People started doing the five-man lineups like 10 games into the year.
Rich Kleiman: But you’re a little bit to blame for that [Simmons].
Durant: You’re an analytics guy?
Simmons: No, I’m not — I like it, but I don’t like the five-man lineup and the plus-minus.
Durant: I don’t like analytics at all.
Simmons: I think that stuff goes too far.
Durant: I like field goal percentage defense, I like field goal percentage, I like …
Simmons: Turnovers.
Durant: Turnovers. I like rebounds, I like the real stats, but the “true shooting percentage” and “effective field goal percentage,” and all that stuff — c’mon, man. It’s flawed.
Simmons: It’s funny, your coach [Steve Kerr] told me — what were the three stats that he said? Turnovers, opponent field goal percentage, and rebounds were the three things he looks at.
Durant: Yeah, that’s all — when I look at a stat sheet, and [during] timeouts, I look at opponent’s field goal percentage, rebounds, and assists. That’s what I look at.
Kleiman: Not free throws?
Durant: And free throws.
Simmons: The funny thing is, the box score was great — the basketball box score is fantastic.
Kleiman: It’s all you needed.
Simmons: You can learn a whole shitload from it. You can tell. I was looking at free throw attempts … trying to figure out what was going on with Carmelo [Anthony], whether he was just hitting a different phase of his career, and you go back to earlier seasons, when he’s getting to the rim — [he was averaging close to] nine, nine and a half free throw attempts a [game].
Durant: He’s a stretch-4 now, so it’s like, he’s not getting the isos like he used to get.
Simmons: But that’s something you could learn pretty easily — he’s just shooting jump shots.
Durant: But you gotta watch the games and see that.
Simmons: And then I watch the game and it follows up, yeah. … But I’m saying I look up numbers to see if they back up what I’m watching.
Durant: Yeah, yeah, you can’t look at numbers first and then watch.
Simmons: I think that’s where we get into trouble is people —
Durant: ’Cause they’re lazy — they don’t want to watch games. It’s too long, it’s too hard to watch games.
Simmons: Or they’re watching games, but half the time when they’re watching they’re looking at the internet versus actually watching.
Durant: Yeah, it’s a bunch of culture vultures in the game right now, it’s a bad place. Can I make a PSA real quick?
Simmons: Please, do it.
Durant: Aight, so all you blog boys, and you fanboys that’s gonna use everything I say and create an article, watch a basketball game … I just wanted to say that.
Simmons: [Laughs]
Durant: All these guys are gonna write articles about, and get real mad about, what I say tonight.
Simmons: Yeah, probably. … They like this stuff, though.
Durant: They like it, but they gonna put their emotions into it — it’s not about you. Watch a basketball game, enjoy the game, stop worrying about me so much. I just wanted to say that. … So, yeah, I just wanted to tell the blog boys out there who in their feelings about everything I say —
Kleiman: “Blog boys.”
Durant: Blog boys, is what I call ’em.
