Bill Simmons defends himself after Jalen Williams mixup

While everyone wants to talk about the officiating in the series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angeles Lakers, a different and even bigger controversy is looming – is Bill Simmons actually watching?

The Thunder beat the Lakers in Game 2 of their Western Conference semifinal series to take a 2-0 lead. The defending champions haven’t lost a game yet this postseason and are odds-on favorites to go back-to-back.

But when Bill Simmons was running down the box score, he made a peculiar statement. He began talking about the minutes of the Thunder roster and turned to backup center Jaylin Williams, confusing him with Jalen Williams, who hasn’t played since Game 2 of the first round due to injury.

That could certainly be forgivable given that we’re talking about two players with names that sound the same but sound different playing for the same team. But it was Simmons’ extra analysis that caused some worry amongst fans that maybe Bill Simmons, Mr. NBA, isn’t as plugged in to the league or even what he apparently just watched in Game 2 of the Lakers-Thunder series as he claims to be.

https://t.co/v9WqQA7rrz pic.twitter.com/DWptaeBa60

— Gur Singh (@HoopFocusX) May 8, 2026

“Let’s see. Chet 32, Mitchell played 30, Wallace played 30. They played 10 guys, they really played more than that. But really, they have this 10 man rotation. Jaylin Williams played 14 minutes tonight. He was their second best guy during the title run last year and now he’s I think their third best guy because I think Chet has officially put on the Robin costume to Batman, to flopping Batman SGA. I kid, I joke,” Simmons said.

While Jalen and Jaylin Williams have similar names, their games are vastly different. Jalen Williams was a breakout star last year, scoring 40 points in the pivotal Game 5 of the NBA Finals. He’s an All-Star caliber player who has missed a lot of time this season due to various injuries.

Jaylin Williams started 11 out of 65 games in a mostly reserve role on the Thunder frontline. He has proven to be a quality impact player off the bench for the Thunder, but in no universe is he one of the top players on the Oklahoma City roster. If you watch any amount of OKC basketball, you can easily tell the difference between the pair.

The comments are even more confusing given the fact that Jalen Williams hasn’t played in several games. If Bill Simmons would have really been connected to the NBA postseason, wouldn’t he have known that?

As the clip became viral with those questions attached to it, he stated it was just a “brain fart” and that yes, he had indeed watched both NBA games on Thursday night as always.

I spent 5 hours watching both games, like always. Just brain farted. We recorded right after game and I was trying to rip through 15 things I wanted to talk about as fast as possible and just messed up. Shit happens. My bad. Really hope you can forgive me, Josh Eberley. https://t.co/pjSnH99Gu2

— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) May 8, 2026

“I spent 5 hours watching both games, like always. Just brain farted. We recorded right after game and I was trying to rip through 15 things I wanted to talk about as fast as possible and just messed up. Shit happens. My bad. Really hope you can forgive me, Josh Eberley,” Simmons said in replying to an X user who called him out on the mistake.

You have to give Bill Simmons the benefit of the doubt given he’s built a lot of his media career on his NBA superfandom. Everyone should be allowed at least one mulligan when it comes to the Jaylin Williams-Jalen Williams trap. But if it happens again, all bets are off.