Bill Simmons, founder and CEO of The Ringer who exploded onto the sports scene in 2001 with his beloved and hilarious ESPN column, currently hosts seven different podcasts for the media outlet he founded.
One of those podcasts, inventively called The Bill Simmons Podcast, covers a wide variety of sports and media topics and, really, just about anything else that might spring to mind, with the 55-year-old hoops fanatic often talking a lot of NBA.
So with the NBA Finals upon us, the Thunder-Pacers clash has obviously been a significant point of discussion for Simmons.
After Indiana took Game 1 of the series in dramatic fashion, Simmons offered up the following thoughts to his podcast guest, NBA guru Zach Lowe, on Pacers guard Bennedict Mathurin.
Bill Simmons after game 1: "I'm wondering are we going to hear from [Mathurin] in this series... you know when Mathurin will have those games where he scored 27 points in 22 minutes, I feel like he's gonna have one of those"
Guess what?
Mathurin had 27 points in 22 minutes… pic.twitter.com/YwRWZlxS3L
— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) June 12, 2025
"I thought Mathurin seemed athletically comfortable in this game," Simmons expressed to Lowe. "And I'm intrigued by what his upside is for them, because OKC is so fast, and so athletic and they're just at warp speed and I just thought that he looked comfortable in the chaos. In a way that I'm wondering, are we going to hear from him in this series with one of those games ... You know when Mathurin will have those games where he's like, he scored 27 points in 22 minutes. I feel like he's gonna have one of those."
Unbelievably, that is exactly what Mathurin proceeded to do in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
The 22-year-old guard score 27 points in 22 minutes, just as Simmons so casually threw out there and predicted he might do.
Had Simmons simply predicted Mathurin's point output, it wouldn't be all that crazy. But for him to have nailed the exact points and minutes played is borderline insane.
It's also generally impressive that it took one game in the series for Simmons to specifically call out Mathurin as a player that could have a great impact on the series at some point, as the third-year guard is not necessarily a major go-to point of discussion when it comes to the Pacers.
And generally speaking, Mathurin's minutes have been very sporadic and unpredictable throughout Indiana's playoff run, yet the prescient Simmons somehow managed to predict a forthcoming 22-point, 27 minutes performance.
Just utterly ridiculous.
While he absolutely does not need the extra cash, Simmons spending his Thursday morning and afternoon driving around Los Angeles and scooping up bundles and bundle of lottery tickets might be the best course of action.
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