Slam Dunk Central

ESPN.com columnist Bill Simmons has been campaigning recently to be named general manager of the Milwaukee Bucks. Coincidentally, he began his online campaign just before the Bucks dismissed Larry Harris from the position. Now, Simmons has been practically pleading his readership to consider him a practical choice for the position.

I am sure some readers blow this off as hot air. Others probably view it as a pipedream. I think it is a fantastic idea.

Simmons is notorious for emphasizing a ?common sense? approach to running sports teams, much the way he has introduced that philosophy to sports writing. Now, while there is much more to the general manager position than simply deciding which players to sign, trade and/or release, that is still the crux of the job.

With any job, it seems that thinking outside the box is often a way to reach the preferred results that often aren?t met by those who are supposedly qualified for the position. Experience can be vastly overrated. If that were the deciding factor for success, why wouldn?t teams with longer-tenured general managers ? the Pacers with the formerly employed Donnie Walsh, the Clippers and Elgin Baylor, the T?Wolves and Kevin McHale ? be the most successful?

Simmons uses logic and rationale in his thought process. It often seems that most general managers wouldn?t know the definitions of those words if they were staring at them in a dictionary. How else do you explain McHale agreeing to a $100-plus million deal with Joe Smith? Or Atlanta ?s Billy Knight passing on Chris Paul to draft Marvin Williams when he already had two or three competent swingmen, but no point guard?

The major problem that Simmons would confront is the resentment he would meet from other teams? front office personnel. He wouldn?t be accepted. There would be backlash from other GMs about how irrational it is for a know-it-all, na?ve sports writer to be running a professional sports team. And to a certain extent, those GMs would have a valid point. Surely, there is much more to their positions than meets the eye. Sports writers have the convenience of sitting back and criticizing any part of a GM?s decision that they feel is flawed. GMs have the inconvenience of having to make a slew of important decisions for an organization that is worth in the hundreds of millions.

Some might think there would be a conflict of interest between Simmons? sports writing and his hypothetical role as a general manager. In this case, I think his journalistic mindset would help him with his job as a general manager. After all, the logic he uses in writing about and analyzing sports would be his greatest characteristic as a general manager. Obviously, his role as GM would conflict with the objectivity he would have to maintain as a journalist if he were to keep writing.

I think this is a fantastic idea mostly because, as a writer, I would love to see someone at the top of the profession take a dip into a professional sports league. I would love to read and listen to writers and radio hosts debate whether it would be a successful move. I want to see just how well Simmons? logic transfers from the written word into action. Are his articles much like the Phoenix Suns? roster: Great on paper, but short on substance? That really is the question I want answered.