Bill Simmons during the Grantland Basketball Hour on ESPN on...

Bill Simmons during the Grantland Basketball Hour on ESPN on Oct. 23, 2014. Credit: ESPN Images/Kohjiro Kinno

ESPN announced Friday that its sports and pop culture website Grantland, which began in 2011 with Bill Simmons as its editor-in-chief, will suspend publishing.

"After careful consideration, we have decided to direct our time and energy going forward to projects that we believe will have a broader and more significant impact across our enterprise," ESPN said in a statement.

Simmons left ESPN earlier this year when his contract expired and now is preparing a show for HBO.

"Grantland distinguished itself with quality writing, smart ideas, original thinking and fun," the ESPN statement continued. "We are grateful to those who made it so. Bill Simmons was passionately committed to the site and proved to be an outstanding editor with a real eye for talent.

Editorial director Dan Fierman had left Grantland recently as well. Chris Connelly was named the interim editor-in-chief shortly after Simmons' departure.

"Despite this change," ESPN said in its statement, "the legacy of smart long-form sports storytelling and innovative short form video content will continue, finding a home on many of our other ESPN platforms."

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