Did Bill Simmons Subtweet ESPN President John Skipper on Tuesday?

Earlier this week, ESPN announced a content partnership with Vice Sports. Essentially, they’ll be pooling documentary content across their respective digital and television networks. Naturally, “storytelling” was emphasized in the release:

"Added John Skipper, President, ESPN, Inc. and Co-Chairman, Disney Media Networks, “Evoking manly tears from Shane Smith is no small task, and I take immense pride in that. Shane and the team at VICE do an extraordinary job presenting stories through their own, very unique lens – and working with them will help to bring a new perspective to our storytelling. I am confident that the content borne out of this collaboration will be a win for fans of ESPN, VICE and storytelling in general. And I applaud Shane for understanding that television is the smartest path to worldwide leadership.”"

Later that day, Bill Simmons took aim at the buzzword:

"Storytelling" is one of the dumbest new media words of the decade - it sounds fancy and means nothing yet gets thrown around constantly.
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) May 3, 2016

"Here at The @Ringer, we're putting a big emphasis on storytelling..." Get the F out of here.
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) May 3, 2016

"Just had a great talk with @SeanFennessey and @ericweinberger - we really want to double down on great storytelling, I'm excited."
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) May 3, 2016

While “storytelling” is in the lexicon for seemingly every launch of a digital entity these days, Conspiracy Ryan thinks the timing was not a coincidence.