The Complete Downfall of Ben Simmons

The Curious Case of Benjamin Simmons I know I know pretty clever but catchy titles aside Ben Simmons's Fall From Grace is one of the most perplexing in recent memory over the past few years he's become the punching bag of the NBA the butt of an endless number of jokes about basketball players who don't want to play basketball who are the NBA players that you would legitimately buy a ticket for to go watch because you find them entertaining Ben Simmons CU I would want to learn how you can make 80 and then play 55 games a long way to fall for a player once compared to Magic Johnson and LeBron James so what actually happened well to talk about the fall you have to talk about the rise and Ben Simmons's Ascension was meteoric Simmons was touted as a generational Prospect before and during his college career right up there with Zion and wemi as a can't miss future NBA superstar he spent one year at LSU before heading to the NBA a season that that ended up being fairly underwhelming the Tigers missed the NCAA tournament and Simmons was often cited for a seeming lack of competitiveness even still Simmons was an exceptional Talent he had a point guard's Vision in a power forwards body brilliant Court vision and awareness a long lean 6'10 frame that made him a nightmarish Defender and an efficient scorer around the basket he was the first overall pick in the 2016 draft to the Philadelphia 76ers but he had to wait a full year to make his Pro debut because because of a broken foot that was slow to heal he finally debuted in the 2017 2018 season and put a lot of doubts to rest he proved to be a winning player finished the season with the third most triple doubles behind just Russell Westbrook and LeBron James and helped the Sixers finished the season with a 56 and 26 record the franchise's best in 17 years in the playoffs he had a hand in the Sixers winning their first playoff series in 5 years and became the first rookie to record a triple double since Magic Johnson did it in 1980 and that was just the beginning Simmons had a great couple of years following his Rookie of the Year campaign he made three consecutive all-star teams two defensive first teams was a third Team all NBA selection in 2020 and was the runner up for defensive player of the year in 2021 meanwhile the siers were perennial playoff contenders things were good until they weren't everything changed in the 2021 playoffs Simmons just lost his Mojo developed the ultimate case of The Yips for all of his abilities he was not blessed with a shot he was not a shooter and I don't mean he was a below average jump shooter I mean he'd made just five three-pointers in his career going into those playoffs on top of being a poor free throw shooter throughout his career and in that first round of the playoffs he started coming undone his free throw percentage fell off a cliff from a very bad 61% in the regular season to a putrid 35% in the first round despite this the Sixers beat the Wizards in five games to advance to a second round matchup with the Hawks and there Ben Simmons fell apart his wo at the free throw line continued and somehow got worse resulting in a total lack of aggression and a dramatic dip in field goal attempts he couldn't shoot away from the basket and he seemed worried about getting fouled around it so he just didn't really do anything as a result he averaged less than 10 points in the series and didn't attempt a single field goal in the fourth quarters of five of the series seven games including games four five and seven all losses game four in which the Sixers blew an 18-point lead game five where they blew a 26-point lead and the Do or Die game seven at home of anyone in NBA history to take 70 or more free throws in a single postseason his 34% free throw percentage is the worst in NBA history and the Watershed event the single moment that seemed to change Ben Simmons's basketball life forever came in the fourth quarter of that game seven with just 3 and 1/2 minutes left in the fourth quarter of a game that would decide their season trailing by just two points Simmons drove down the lane with an open opportunity to score with all this bad mojo and this pressure reaching its fever pitch Simmons froze he just passed up the opportunity to tie the game and kick the ball out the Sixers lost the game 96 to 103 and afterwards no one left any doubt as to whose fault they thought it wasc you think Ben Simmons can still be a point guard for for a championship team like the one you guys want to become yeah David I don't know that question or the answer to that right now um I don't know how to say it um but I thought the turning point was just you know we had a an open shot and you know we missed Simmons was never the same after that he never played for the Philadelphia 76ers again and made himself Public Enemy Number One by demanding a trade and beginning a messy messy hold out he didn't attend training camp skipped the preseason and refused to part participate in team drills at practice citing issues with his mental health he never allowed himself to be evaluated by the Sixers however who proceeded to find him to the tune of a reported $19 million as he refused to play throughout the season making Ben Simmons the most heavily fined player in NBA history speaking honestly I think that Simmons had genuine mental health issues there were accusations and controversy between two of his family members on top of the extraordinary scrutiny and criticism directed at him for his basketball career within and without the 76ers organization but at what point is that pressure and criticism part of being an NBA athlete when you're a three-time Allstar a generational Talent on a championship roster and you have a glaring weakness that plays a major role in a playoff choke job you are going to catch Flack you are a public figure it's why you're a multi-millionaire who dated Kendall Jenner and can sit in the front row of Fashion Week was all of that exacerbated by another Factor like depression I don't know but that's where it feels like going too far rooting around in somebody's stuff when we the public are demanding answers about the intimacies of his mental health his employers though I get if he can't do his job I think it's fair for them to try to figure out exactly why but he didn't help himself by keeping the Sixers in the dark during the hold out and being completely uncooperative when they wanted to evaluate him I totally get why he didn't want his employers making the call for him but it opened the door for people to say that he was just running from the grind and all that negativity he was embroiled in was exacerbated when he threw out his back in March of 2022 just a month after he got his wish and was traded to the Brooklyn Nets and had to miss the rest of the season without having played a game the jokes wrote themselves Ben Simmons wanted to live the life of a celebrity basketball player without actually having to play basketball in reality he had liquid being squeezed out of a herniated disc onto a nerve in his back that he underwent surgery for I don't know if you know a lot about going under the knife for back surgery but it's not something that you do lightly somewhat unsurprisingly his last few years with the Nets have been plagued by injuries mostly to his back he will miss the rest of the 2024 season because of a nerve problem in his lower back which means that at the end of the season Ben Simmons will have played in just 57 of a possible 246 regular season games since game seven against the Atlanta Hawks he's not the same player anymore he's averaging less than seven points a game on the Nets he's still a good rebounder and passer but he's not the same guy that was was making the all defensive teams and Allstar games and history tells us that he probably won't be that guy again Derrick Rose was a league MVP who was never the same after his knee injuries Bill Walton was a league MVP and a champion who also held out for an entire year because he lost faith in the Portland Trailblazers and he never quite overcame his plague of foot injuries but those guys were still something in the league and Simmons can and will be something he just has to figure out what it all just goes to show how fragile an NBA career can be you can be on a certain trajectory destined for greatness and be derailed by that one injury that one missed shot or even that shot you never [Music] took

Channel: Bleacher Report

Views: 90,447

Keywords: bleacher report, br, nba, ben simmons, philadelphia 76ers, 76ers, sixers, brooklyn nets, nets, ben simmons nets, ben simmons 76ers

Id: _qqsfHxOL3k

Length: 8min 20sec (500 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 10 2024