While the city of San Antonio was celebrating its return to the NBA Playoffs in a grand fashion, one media pundit was not a fan of the festivities.
The San Antonio Spurs hosted their first NBA Playoffs game since 2019 on Sunday, which ended in a 111-98 win over the Portland Trail Blazers.
While the team took care of business on the floor, the fans did their part by wearing special playoff-themed shirts that painted Frost Bank Arena in various shades of vibrant colors.
The idea paid homage to the Spurs' City Connect jerseys this season, which are based on previous uniforms and logos used by the franchise in the 1980s and 90s. This era of the franchise's history is commonly referred to as the 'Fiesta' era.
With the team wearing those same uniforms in Sunday's debut, it seemed appropriate for fans to take part in the celebration. And they took their role seriously, with several in the media and online commenting on the passionate scene in San Antonio.
However, not everyone was feeling the festivities, as one media pundit made his opinion known on the promotion.
During a segment on The Bill Simmons Podcast, Simmons reprimanded the Spurs' move as a "gimmick."
"You've won five titles as a franchise. It's not the time for gimmicks. Act like you've been here before...it felt like I was at a parade," spouted Simmons.
He continued to ramble on about how the Spurs should be ashamed to be participating in such an act, especially in front of franchise legends like Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili.
Later in this show, even his own co-host Zach Lowe vocalized disagreement with Simmons' opinion of the showcase.
"He [Tim Duncan] is wearing the shirt, Manu Ginobili was wearing the shirt...Just a horrible take," responded Lowe.
Following his much more level-headed assessment, most others would line up on the side of Lowe and were left wondering why make such a big deal out of fan interaction.
Needless to say, Simmons isn't making many friends nor getting invites to any other fiestas anytime soon in San Antonio.
As the old adage goes, "Any publicity is good publicity." And the fact that Simmons is talking about the scene the Spurs faithful created in their return to hosting postseason basketball, even though he apparently hated it, highlights just how impactful they were on Sunday night.
The Spurs wrapped up their first playoff home stint on Tuesday in Game 2 of their series against Portland. San Antonio will look to host many more games this postseason and it will be exciting to see how the energy keeps building, much to the ire of so-called "basketball purists."