The Sports Guy Bill Simmons is ESPN.com's flagship columnist. He is probably the world's most influential sports writer. He is also the world's leading WNBA basher. In his recent post-ASG column, he took his usual shots at the league.

Let me concede that the NBA's attempts to market the W at the All-Star Game are ham-handed. Let me also concede that the "Shooting Stars" competition is sorta lame. (Sorry, coach.) Let me also concede the larger point: that the WNBA is open to legitimate criticism on a number of levels.

But with Simmons, something else is going on. You need only read his writing occasionally to see what it is.

In the Sports Guy's world, there are two kinds of women: hot chicks and fat chicks. Women appear in his writing only so that he can continue the eternal process of sorting them into one category or the other.

On women in Vegas: "Remember when Britney and Christina Aguilera ushered in the Let's Dress Like Hookers Era, and attractive women across America stopped wearing bras -- and eventually, underwear -- followed by every married guy over 30 kicking themselves that they sowed their oats in the Let's Wear Baggy Sweaters, Eat & Be Scared of AIDS Era? Well, like with all great eras, there's been a massive backlash. Now women of all shapes and sizes wear clothes they shouldn't be wearing, which means you're about 100,000 times more likely to see saggy butt checks, exposed pot bellies, flabby arms and love handles than you were in 2001. It's legitimately, unequivocally horrifying -- a full-fledged onslaught against every man's libido."

On women at the ASG: "Every ovulating groupie within a 12-hour vicinity will be making the weekend drive to Vegas to hopefully get impregnated by an NBA player -- a list that includes every hooker, stripper and jock-sniffing female between 16 and 40 ... To its credit, the NBA is recommending that all players wear two condoms at once, even during the day and when they're sleeping."

On the Dixie Chicks at the Grammys: "The two pretty ones are wearing black cocktail dresses; the semi-chubby one is wearing a white dress with a fluffy bottom."

On Fergie: "I saw Fergie at the Celebrity Go-Kart Race last week and she was so unimpressive, my friends and I argued about whether she was one of the top 1,000 attractive famous females on the way home."

On post-Superbowl parties: "Maxim's party had less body heat, more booze, more bimbos."

On Kournikova: "There hasn't been anything quite like her before or since: a blonde, bosomy Russian with killer legs and a perpetual pout. She was prettier than most supermodels."

On South Beach: "Beautiful women. Jaw-dropping, even. I used to think that 85 percent of all the beautiful women live in Southern California, but I'm dropping that down to 75 percent because I didn't realize how many of them were here."

These are just a few examples from the last couple weeks. Go back through Simmons's archives. Pick a random column. It's better than 50-50 that you'll find more of the same.

All of this puts his WNBA hatred in context. His criticism of the W has nothing to do with fairness or money or basketball or sports. It is motivated by something much simpler: puerile misogyny.

And he isn't alone.