The timing of the suspension is what makes it awkward. Simmons, fresh off a wildly successful book tour that has affirmed his expanding popularity, seems to be too big of a star to be told what to do on his own Twitter. In a network full of recognizable personalities, Simmons has developed himself into a brand, and may no longer need the platform that ESPN provides.

In fact, it may be hurting him. The ability to connect with fans is important to a columnist who writes from the viewpoint of one, and even when Simmons is back to tweeting, those same fans will wonder if he’ll be saying everything he wants to. His status as an ESPN employee, once an asset in attaining a wide audience, is now impeding his access to it.

With his contract expiring in 2010, Simmons may seek to make a clean break from the network. He’s dropped hints in the past about trying new endeavors, saying he, “wouldn’t want to be that guy [sitting on a barstool, saying how hot Anna Kournikova is] when he’s 42.” Simmons is now 40, and with his popularity at an all-time high, has expressed interest in starting his own site:

“Part of me can’t shake the temptation of being the underdog again — like, launching my own sports site, hiring some talented writers and designers and trying to compete with the big guns.”

One of those “big guns” would be ESPN.

The question for Bill Simmons in 2010 will be whether or not the platform ESPN provides, like giving him the chance to executive produce its “30 for 30″ series, is enough to outweigh their occasional meddling. But looking at his current level of popularity, it may not be much of a question at all.

Mediaite recently spoke to Simmons about the pressures of fame and bestsellerdom, his feelings about a fanboy named Will Leitch, and his plans to take over the Power Grid:

Mediaite: How does it feel to have the number one best selling non-fiction book?

Simmons: Still surreal. I never thought I had a chance for one reason: I had spent the previous 9 days traveling from city to city and never saw my book in any airport store — seriously, not once — whereas [Mitch] Albom‘s book and Superfreaknomics were practically getting handed out at the gates and security lines.

I was under the impression that the rankings for the top 3 were determined by nothing more than who blanketed cities with the most books; my publisher definitely did NOT do that. In fact, I think they did the opposite. So it’s a little like a small market team winning the World Series — yeah, it’s possible, but the numbers say it shouldn’t happen.

At the same time, I had more faith in my book than others did. Everyone seemed to be preoccupied with its length. Even my book company was worried, as we learned this past week when we didn’t have nearly enough copies circulating, which made it awkward because I was promoting the hell out of a book that nobody could find. Part of me understands the concern about length and part of me doesn’t. On paper, yes, a 700-page NBA book doesn’t seem like a conventional best-seller. But if you flip it around … why not? I reach a huge audience on ESPN. People like the NBA. People like reading. So… was the argument that people weren’t intelligent enough in 2009 to handle a long but well-written book, or that nobody had the attention span for it?

How does it feel to have the number one best selling non-fiction book? It’s a little like a small market team winning the World Series — yeah, it’s possible, but the numbers say it shouldn’t happen.

I mean, it’s not like I was trapping people in a movie theater for 4 hours, or forcing them to remember 700 characters in some gigantic mafia novel that they had to read all at once. It’s a book about the NBA. You know the characters. It’s easy to read. You can jump in and out of it. I slaved over every word. If you want to take 3 weeks to read it, take 3 weeks. If you want to take 6 months and only read it every time you take crap, then do that. If you want to plow through it in 3 days, do that.

All I knew was that this book was the best thing I had ever written. Ultimately, that’s all that mattered to me. The length was irrelevant. I also believed that, in this economy, if I was asking someone to spend 30 bucks on my book, then I wanted to give them their money’s worth. And at the very least, if they didn’t like it, the book’s sheer girth would make for a Christmas present that seemed more expensive and imposing than it really was. I couldn’t lose either way.

Next page: Simmons responds to Will Leitch, and his plans to take down Paul Krugman