I'm Done with Ben Simmons
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The Nets are struggling. They look bad. Durant is playing as bad as he ever has since returning from injury. The Celtics own them right now. They are getting whatever they want on offense and totally shutting the Nets down on defense.
Fact is that I do not like either team, especially the Celtics, but they look like the best team in the playoffs right now. They are impenetrable. They are getting switches and scoring at will. They should be the favorites.
Also, I could not have been more wrong on the Nets coming into this season. They have been a total mess. They were clear paper tigers. Kyrie is a selfish asshole. KD cannot stay healthy. Steve Nash is not a good coach. They have never gelled. And they traded James Harden away for Ben Simmons. That looked like a big time deal at the time. But I think we are now seeing who Ben Simmons really, truly is as a basketball player. All the talk before game three was that Simmons was going to be back for game four. He was going to be the defensive lynchpin and run the show getting the ball to all those shooters with wide open looks. It was all going to come together for the Nets when Simmons came back. Sure, they were not going to win this series, but they would put up a fight and be the true contender they should have been this season next season. Well, Simmons is now listed out for game four. After the Celtics cruised to a game three win, it seemed all but decided, both the series and Simmons not playing. In all reality I think it is the right move. I told my son that I would have sat him out for game four. The Nets have no chance, so why risk it?. But then the news came out that it was Simmons' decision. That his back was tightening up. That he just could not go out there and further hurt himself.
This is not a very good look. This is exactly what people have been saying about him all season. He is a diva. He is afraid. His nerves are shot. He does not want to go on the floor in a meaningful game and make a mistake. All of it, all of it is true. He is scared. Look, I get being nervous and not wanting to screw up. I live my life every day with anxiety, but Ben Simmons is a professional basketball player. He is paid to play a game. He cannot live in fear of messing up. He will mess up. It is going to happen. But if he continues to live in fear of playing basketball, his career is going to be over before he can even have a chance to redeem himself. This makes all that stuff he did in the offseason and when he returned to the 76ers look even worse. He did not want to show up to practice unless he was traded. That never happened. He was willing to give up his salary to "prove a point". Then he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars a day. He was happy to stare at his phone and sit out drills during practice. He was called out by teammates and coaches. And then he finally got traded and said all these things about seeing him succeed when he got back on the floor. And now he has decided to sit yet again. It is all too much.
I have tried with Simmons. I genuinely like his game. I like a big point guard that plays excellent defense and can find open players everywhere. I rooted for him in college and fully supported him leaving school early to get ready for the pros. I even took time to process him talking about the anxiety and stress he was dealing with while still in Philly. But this is too much. He has said and done too many things for me to root or care about him anymore. He is a liar. He is afraid. He is skittish. He is a child. He is selfish. He only cares about himself. He will never be happy on a basketball court. That is the player I see now. I'm done looking at his jump shots online. I'm sick of hearing about his "progression as an all around player". I'm sick of the media and talking heads telling everyone to give him time. He has had enough time. He got everything he wanted, acting as childish as he did. He got his way. And this is how he repays the league and team that pays him millions upon millions of dollars. Ben Simmons wasted an entire year of his prime trying to prove a point. The only point he proved to me is how afraid and selfish he is.
This is a mess and a Brooklyn Nets team being led by an under qualified Steve Nash is not the place to fix it. Ben Simmons is officially, to me, the most overrated player in the NBA. Well, should I say the most overrated wannabe player in the NBA.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.