Ben Simmons was asked to practice free-throws during the Hawks playoff series but canceled the session: “Sometimes I need my space. That’s just how I felt at the time. When you got 100 people trying to give you advice it’s kind of tough.”
I couldn’t imagine managing personalities in pro sports man lol.
If I didn’t see Ben Simmons say this I wouldn’t believe it. With how competitive so many athletes are it’s hard to imagine there not being guys in the locker room trying to fight him over this.
This isn’t just random practice either man. Like he was refusing to handle the ball because if he did he’d get fouled and he could not hit them. He was scared to touch the ball because of free throws. The coach wants to (shockingly) work on this before it happens in the next game. He refuses and repeats the behavior.
Honestly, I have never liked Rivers and I hated seeing him throw Ben under the bus after this series but I feel like if my max contract player was scared of the ball and refused to work on it I might lose my shit too.
Yeah. He deserved the callout. Just practice. My god you are making tons of money to play basketball.
Oddly enough Doc calling out Ben after and during that series was the most I ever empathized with him as a coach. Watching Simmons pass up a dunk defended only by Trae Young absolutely fucking broke me.
Doc has a ton of failings as a coach but Ben having no interest whatsoever in actually being an NBA player ruined that team.
I hated seeing him throw Ben under the bus after this series
It in no way was throwing him under the bus. If your “PG” is afraid to dibble the ball it is right to question whether or not he can play PG. Doc has shifted blame way more egregiously than this throughout his career. All the fault lies on Simmons for mentally booming.
How many examples of Ben Simmons being a pussy do you need? He’s not competitive like most athletes. He just wants the money and lifestyle
It was also the knock on him coming out of LSU. He had a hot start in the league, but proved the doubters right after a few years
Dude is such a bum. Unbelievable waste of talent. He could’ve been one of the greats if he gave two shits about working on/improving his game, but clearly just cared about the lifestyle and money. And that was a knock on him dating back to his college days, so this is just who he is.
Up there with Zion and Ayton as guys who squandered insane basketball talent due to a lack of drive.
From a basketball fan POV, I get your comment. We want to see players become the best they can possibly be for our entertainment.
But from a human perspective, I don’t think that just because you have a god gifted talent, that you have some sort of moral responsibility to nurture it. Bro already made giga generational money from the work he put in. So I don’t know if I would call him a bum for that. I know if I were in his shoes, I’d also struggle to find the drive to keep training to get better after that.
A lot of Zion’s career failures seem out of his control imho
I think it was pretty obvious even when he was at LSU but few people wanted to see it. The fact that he couldn’t get them into March madness tournament in at that time a very weak conference was pretty telling. The motor just was never there.
Don’t forget he probably shoots right handed but decided not to for some stupid reason
It’s all relative man. Yeah the money is different but someone could look at you at your job and ask why you’re not staying over and working OT every day and coming in on the weekends. You want your time too. He might just see his job how you see yours.
If my job paid me 50m per year I’d live in the fucking building if they wanted
Then let his punk ass have my bank account
making excuses for Ben Simmons is definitely a choice.
The best basketball(sports in general) players don’t treat their sport like picking up a check, they love it, they want to win, they show dedication… they want to be recognized as best in the world.
Simmons is definitely one that just cares about the paycheck, treats it like a desk job he can half ass.
Not competitive? He had a good career in college and pro
Yall so angry
Did he? He didn’t make the NCAA, never got out of the second round as a pro and then refused to play for a year. He made money and showed potential, but good career?
I don’t think anyone’s angry. People just shaking their heads at his drive for basketball. He didn’t care for it and it showed when he wouldn’t attempt that layup or try to improve his shot. He had a good 2-3 NBA years and made money. I wouldnt call his college “career” good. One year, no ncaa tournament, no special highlights really. Just another guy averaging 19 a game in a college system that has a ton of 19 ppg scorers.
I do think people are annoyed that he has shown he doesn’t give a crap about the game but wants sympathy.
I don’t think they’re angry at all, just pointing out how shocking weak his mindset is.
Nonsense, you cant be all defense without being competitive. Something else is going on with this guy
This is kind of a weird one though. He’s unquestionably excellent at defense & rebounding, the parts of the game most associated with toughness and self motivation. The shooting’s the fun part, who doesn’t want to practice that? It’s like playing baseball and not wanting to hit, just fielding grounders and shagging fly balls all practice.
Really? I’d think those were least about self motivation and more about having a lot of in-game energy.
Waking up early every day to work on parts of your game that are lacking is what takes self motivation
There’s a loooootttttaaa guys who coast on natural, God given talent and never really had to work too hard and still make it to the league, not just NBA but every league.
It makes me laugh that they see athletes like this and still feel like gambling on them because of the talent
I couldn’t imagine being a coach. Your whole existence is determined by if your star players like you. If they don’t they just stop listening and then the other players follow suit and then you’re out on your ass.
There’s no autonomy to be hard on these guys with maybe the exception of like a Spoelstra or someone similar.
How can you truly coach your best if you have to kiss a player’s ass?
They are humans not automatons. Coaches and other leaders have and will always rely on maintaining good relationships with their subordinates, even unruly ones. What is the alternative?.
In a few years, he’ll tell us he missed those free throws on purpose just to make a point
I’d be crashing out like Mike Singletary all the time “Cannot play with him! Cannot win with them! Cannot coach with them! Can’t do it!”
Why Phil Jackson was the best ever
For anyone who needs any more context or doesn’t remember, this is quite literally after the Sixers blew a 27 point lead with like 8 minutes to go in the 4th because Ben could not hit FT’s. Doc refused to take him out of the game too. But he did that to not hurt Ben’s ego in the moment.
By trying to not hurt Ben’s ego, he broke all of his other players. I get it if it was a meaningless regular season game, but it’s the playoffs and you have to use every means to win and this was a very stupid choice by Doc.
Correct. If he benched Ben flat out, Embiid and co. might have pulled that out.
You’re correct. But beyond just not hitting FTs, he was actively avoiding situations where he might have to even shoot FTs. That’s the true killer.
Hilarious to say they blew a 27 point lead in 8 minutes because one player couldn’t hit free throws
How this sub made Doc the bad guy after everything we saw was pathetic.
They were both the bad guy
Doc a bad coach but if his biggest crime against Simmons was “throwing him under the boss” after putting up with all this shit, I don’t blame him, Simmons deserved to have a buss backed over him with this kind of attitude lol
Shh Redditors don’t believe that two things can be true at once. It’s forbidden to them.
Hitler making Japan look good vibes
You can criticize him for some of his decisions as a coach but you can’t criticize him as a person, from everything I’ve seen of him he just seems like a good person
Nooobody here was doing that lol.
People do that same shit with Westbrook when they wanna deflect
Doc is a stale coach but one of the best coaches of his time.
lol fuck no he isnt
Consistent Regular season success for 10-15 years with 1 ring. That’s elite for me.
Doc was the bad guy. There were multiple instances throughout the season where TJ mcconnel was clearly better for the team. Not for entire games but for subs.
TJ earned more minutes but Doc was always obsessed with the star players that were the reason he had the job to begin with.
That’s never the case I heard though. The case was always that he didn’t believe in Ben enough.
Bro said “na, I don’t feel like it”
Ben we need you to physically shoot free throws and 3s
i cant do that boss, i need my space, 30+ million to shoot a dam ball, need my space brotha
Sometimes people are just douchebags, it’s okay
Ben talks in the 3rd person and is not humble at all
hes a clown and a fraud, and his back wasnt hurt when he sat due to mental health via trae young, hurt his back in the chair btw gaming.
I think of great players who never won it all - Barkley, Stockton, Nash, CP3, Harden, Russ, Embiid, Hill, Penny, Rose, Blake, Yao, TMac - and how much they would have wished for more opportunities in the playoffs, or some way they could have been better in the opportunities they had.
And then there’s this guy, who had an opportunity in the playoffs to work on his game and get better, and went “sometimes I need my space.”
Yeah he had back issues, he had mental health issues, he did his achilles. Of all the players who have had serious injuries derail their career, Simmons deserves the benefit of the doubt the least.
He’s just like me fr.
without the 200 million in your bank
Who he think he is, Kawhi Leonard?
His FTs were sub 60% his whole career and 34% during those playoffs
Dumbass should have went to those practices
Yeah but i can’t be having a thousand people telling me the same thing, that just makes me not wanna do it, ya feel me. I mean, if they would just leave me alone I would be practicing all my free throws on my own, I swear.
Dude I had a job where 5 people were sort of my boss and they all wanted different things from me (as in focusing on actual projects). This man had 10s or 100s (sure) telling him to just practice your free throws and shooting. Thats what’s crazy. You have all the facilities and trainers in the world and you’re acting like you can’t do anything because everyone noticed your weakness and told you to fix it?
He stood up his coach. Not 100 guys, one. Couldn’t even be bothered to tell him.
And the coach was supposed to be completely fine with it.
ALL BEN WANTED WAS A PEPSI, JUST A PEPSI
I want guidance… I want leadership… But don’t just boss me around, you know? Like, lead me. Lead me when I’m in the mood to be lead.”
He seems to have the same reaction to direct orders as my toddler. Maybe they should have shown him 2 basketballs of different colors and told him he could pick which one he wanted to practice free throws with?
Yeah but his back
A lot of Ben’s problems seemed to psychological and I don’t think practicing free throw mechanics would have helped him with that
He needed his space bro 👨🚀
Just say you didn’t wanna do it
This man wasted his talent and basketball career
I had no idea they interviewed Doc in this
I might have to check this documentary out
Doc gotta be one of the easiest guys to get for interviews and documentaries. That guy loves being put in front of a microphone
Dude loves the sound of his own voice
Do not support this bullshit
If you take Ben Simmons side on this you are on the wrong side of history.
Ben is and will always be a sucka
He kept his BIL on as his “shooting coach” dor years despite front offices offering to pay an actual shooting coach to help him. What a joke
He just need space brotha,
1 year of to play videogames after Trae young wasnt enough, which then gave him a back injury via gaming chair, cant make it up. and still got the 30 million for “mental health”
when real people like Lane Johnson for example got real anxiety and issues, Bens a liar and a disgrace of a human. Softtttt assssss boy
Can I at least try?
One free throw session aint gonna do shit. Hes prob shot tens of thousands of free throws in his life, one extra session isn’t gonna affect anything. And if he feels his confidence is wavering, and he knows himself better than anyone, then I can understand him cancelling a practice session if he knows a better way to build his self confidence.
Can I be on the side where Ben Simmons should’ve gone to practice free throws and Doc Rivers shouldn’t have invoked January 6th traitors when talking about Ben Simmons?
If you mean the quote where he said it’s like getting through to people who think Trump won, I think saying it’s comparing him to jan 6 is a little silly. He’s comparing him to stubborn delusional people who won’t listen despite having no evidence
Yeah I can feel bad for Ben Simmons and also feel like he didn’t try hard enough. There’s enough bad to go around here!
I’m a sixers fan who follows the team pretty religiously and have no idea what you’re talking about… but it does kinda sound like something he’d say
Anyone got a link to the quote?
“There’s times that I think we’re getting through, and there’s times that I think I’m talking to people who still believe Trump won the election.”
I don’t think jan 6th is the comparison at all. It’s just stubborn people in denial of reality, hard to argue tbh.
Just a polite way of saying dumb beyond comprehension, stupid as a rock with a TBI.
I’m on the Ben Simmons sucks but Doc Rivers sucks even more side. They both should explode
Feelsbadman
Thats why this lazy gen is pushing anti-intellectualism by saying its not cool to study things like history.
They’re Ben Simmons fans.
Anti intellectualism is a result of right wing hysteria and their defunding of education across the country not some generational thing.
Its impacting a generation
It’s impacting everyone.
not a generation thing man
There is no history lol
Tyler Herro type shit?
Who?
Trae Young defensive player of the year history
https://imgur.com/NJ8d3aY
No history
He’s such a loser . People just trying to help him and this is how he reacts
No fucking wonder Doc was honest instead of protecting Simmons after that series holy shit.
This guy is such a clown you can’t take seriously.
Sorry he got hurt again but it probably saved the team headache later on.
“They boo Santa” tells you everything you need to know. Braindead parrot.
Ben Simmons is a world class bum. Always has been and always will be. Idk what got into this sub over the summer about this guy but nothing has changed with him.
NGL, my job is pretty chill. Not that highly paid, but I can just take a day off if I want to and no one will give me issues. Though yeah what i earn yearly is probably what Ben spends for fun every now and then.
But…. yeah, I’d say if my job was to be a professional athlete earning millions of dollars… brother, anxiety or not, you are there to perform for that amount of money.
Like, I understand that on a scale from Ben Simmons to Kobe Bryant, you probably want to be somewhere in the middle and preferably closer to Kobe.
It really shocks me how little competitive spirit Ben has. He is such a great talent, but he always talks and looks like he doesn’t really mind if he wins or loses. Sort of a “part of the game” thing.
Bro…. if your coaches are begging you to shoot free throws, you do it…. Simmons is really something else. I have no clue how he is getting chance after chance after chance.
A lot of the guys simply don’t like basketball. They were tall enough and skilled enough, but a lot of guys just see it as a job and are not passionate about the game and don’t care to improve
If you’re scared to touch the ball because you can’t hit free throws…. Maybe practice the fucking free throws so you’re not scared?
It’s just a job.
Millions of people are just going through the motions at work.
No matter the compensation
I mean, you are right…. but this is not just a “job,” this is a “career.” And not many careers/jobs provide you with this kind of pay because of how highly competitive and stressful the environment is.
Like, a lot of NBA athletes sacrifice literally everything, education, friends, family, they just keep pushing forward…. It’s not that different from going into academia and becoming a specialist. You sacrifice a lot to earn good money, and then expectations skyrocket and suddenly you can’t just be bumming around….
“Oh, I am a surgeon, but I really don’t feel like doing an operation today, you know?”
So IMO, either you are born talented enough to play basketball and you can treat this as “just a job,” or you are really hungry, competitive, and love to win. The best players in the NBA are not there just for the money and the job…. Playing competitive sports leaves a lot of athletes borderline broken physically.
So yeah, I get it, Ben is just playing around to get easy money…. but why do teams actually sign him then if he has no desire to win?
Because he can help them win.
And I’m using job and career interchangeability there are people in “careers” just going through the motions too millions of them in fact.
And you hear anytime you hear someone ask a question like
“How much do you think players actually love the game”
The number is always like 10%
It’s a high paying job
You really believe only 10% of NBA staff or players love the game of basketball?
Are you actually serious? Have you ever played anything competitively and felt the desire to win and be the best? Like, this shit is addictive and likely one of the best feelings ever.
The vast majority of professional athletes, basketball or not…. love their sports, and moreover are addicted to competition.
Why do you think we were all laughing at Luka Doncic’s Overwatch stuff? Bro couldn’t handle losing a video game. That’s the kind of spirit the vast majority of athletes have.
Why do you think so many NBA athletes love golf? Have you seen Curry’s reaction to his shots? Bro just can’t stop competing.
They love their sport, and they love winning and hate losing. That’s what makes them special, and that’s why they get that one spot over millions of people who would love to be in their position but can’t because they either never had the attributes or never worked as hard as them.
Do you think Djokovic or Alcaraz do not like tennis? Do not like winning? They literally cry and destroy rackets if they lose. Losing breaks them and affects their personality. These people breathe their sport.
You’re telling me your motivation wouldn’t improve if you made 500x what you made now?
I’ll shoot free throws until I can’t raise my arms. Just a job… 🤦♂️to paraphrase Chuck, you get paid to dribble a ball and play a game. Get your lazy punk ass up and practice
Personally, it would probably actually decrease. Because instead I’d only need to work one more year instead of 40 more. Even if I only last a week I’ve made like 7 years worth of salary.
I’m naturally lazy when it comes to employment and nothing I’ve tried has changed that.
My motivation would probably go down to be honest. I’d have generational wealth. Probably just phone it in for a month or two until they fire me or I get bored enough to quit.
NBA money truly is ridiculous. If a player like Ben enjoys the lifestyle more than the game, well, he’s already made enough money to never have to give up the lifestyle without ever getting another NBA check again.
USUALLY the type of players that get max contracts have enough competitive spirit that that money will never be a distraction, but I don’t think that applied for Ben.
Idk why people think this.
When i was in survival mode, I worked my ass off. Too busy to even be depressed.
Now I make enough money to be comfortable and o could give give less shits about work. 0 interest in promotions and 0 interest in getting extra work done.
If I already had banked 200 million? I wouldn’t get out of bed for 3.5 million unless I wanted to do it anyways.
You mean the first year of his rookie extension worth $180mil? That’s when this video is about. Don’t justify him being a lazy bum
Mine would, but i legitimately love basketball. I get the feeling that Ben doesnt like basketball. He used it to make enough money to do whatever he loves the rest of his life.
Not all people are motivated by money.
Its a personality thing.
I would not take 10x the amount i get paid currently if it meant i had to work 10x as hard.
Its not the same thing.
Ben Simmons extension was 35M a year. Median single income is $48,000. That’s over 700x the median person’s salary. And you’re not working 700x as hard
What do you do for work and what could it possibly look like if you had to work 10x as hard lmfao.
You’re talking to me who is an accountant.
Ben Simmons has been primed to be the number 1 pick in the nba since he was 15 this is all expected for him
are you a top accountant in the world?
if you were paid 400x of the average employed accountant in the world, there’s higher expectations of proffessionalism
Yah burger flipper and NBA star. No difference
The difference is the pay.
They’re still both jobs.
Obviously, and exposure, and the lifestyle.
Hell, id argue he was not even going through the motions at this point…quite literally. And for a job that pays hundreds of millions of dollars, not $14 an hour.
beyond dumb ass take. nba player is more than a “job” and there are far more differences between being a pro athlete and a wage position than you’re letting on
Bro stfu 🤣
Bro wasn’t even going through the motions, he was essentially calling out in this scenario
Bro quiet quit as a pro athlete
The compensation definitely matters to most
To you maybe. I felt the same way working in retail as I feel as a cpa.
I’m just here to get paid
This is such an ignorant take.
Oh you need to elaborate
he has an issue with learning how to shoot the ball in the hoop up close with nobody guarding him as a pro basketball player, not even being great at it, just doing it
Because ???
Your ignorance is legendary actually
Dude DID NOT/DOES NOT love basketball. Probably didn’t even like it. Loved the lifestyle it provided but clearly wasn’t serious about itl. It was just a means to an end for him. He told us throughout his basketball career through his actions. Not going to class at LSU and becoming ineligible, straight quitting after cashing out in Philly, etc. The is probably more common (especially with the modern day athlete) than people realize.
I’m starting to believe the rumors about him trying to fake Covid exposure to get out of Game 7 vs the Hawks.
Bro. That’s nothing.
There’s rumors the Achilles tear wasn’t seen by team staff. He just came back to get the 10th service year and faked the injury to go back to being a socialite
Dude there will be an MRI. His season is getting paid out by the team’s insurance, there’s no way he’d get away with that. People don’t just let you bail on a multi million dollar contract on your word.
Lmfao I believe it man. This guy has no interest in the sport.
Literally impossible to fake that injury. The Kings would have to get the MRI Scans
What an asshole
What a chump
In hindsight, Doc took it very easy on Ben in that press conference.
OH YOU THINK???
I don’t get all this outcry from him getting injured. Bro had a million chances plus people behind him that were willing to help him and yet he chose to go fishing.
For people like him it’s not about playing, they got their money. “If I can play I’ll play but I’m not gonna make sacrifices” type shit
You can’t understand people rooting for a player’s redemption?
Ben can’t be redeemed because he never took accountability to begin with.
Redemption is for people who accept that they made mistakes and made up for it. E.g. Zach Randolph
Redemption from what? He’s just lazy and unmotivated. He didn’t suffer from gruesome unlucky injury. He just quit.
This would’ve been his third redemption arc? I’m good off anything basketball-related to Simmons after watching him play live in Brooklyn. Nonetheless I still hope he makes a full recovery.
It wasn’t like Ben fell off due to addiction or anything. His career derailed in partly because he lacked motivation to improve.
He had a pretty bad back injury. I think MPJ had the same and has talked about how he nearly didn’t recover from it.
I said partly. Yes, he had injuries that mainly derailed him, but his lack of motivation is also another factor.
Correct, I can’t understand why people want a redemption arc for a dude that didn’t overcome any real adversity and was just lazy in his work ethic. There’s a dozen other players I’d root for over him. He had all the talent and opportunity in the world and said “nah I’m good”
Maybe they’re just not toxic like you. You should want people to better themselves.
His time in Philly was so irritating. Everyone and their mom’s could see his talent. His ball handing, passing, driving, being 6-10, being able to play 1-4. The talent was so immense. His literal flaw was shooting. To be honest it wasn’t even that he couldn’t shoot, it was simply he wouldn’t. If he went 0-60 in 3pt shooting, eventually the fans would have given in and been like, ok bro, less shooting more doing all the other stuff. Instead this mofo took like 3 attempts in his entire time in Philly, and I think 1 of those was a half court end of half heave. Then we had the yearly summer hype videos featuring him shooting. Then the season started and again….not one attempt. Its the literally not even trying that bothered people the most. Like I’m ok if you try and fail, but you’re just a pussy if you don’t even try.
I don’t care how many times I get downvoted for it, but you don’t take a year off to go deep sea fishing because your L4/L5 impingement is so bad it’s sidelining your pro basketball career. Bro would have a better chance of getting right as a mechanic or UPS driver than that.
Both can be true.
I’ve never heard a more boo-worthy statement before
I try to be as positive as possible as I’m getting older, but I hate this mfer man lmao
Ben Simmons just admit you are scared to shoot not that big of a deal you dont need to blame everyone else for your failures
genuinely thought that everybody was doing a coordinated bit in the recent threads about that bozo’s return, injury, etc. lmao guy hates basketball and must have blown the couple hundred million on some bullshit
Ben Simmons has always struck me as the living embodiment of the “DON’T YOU TELL ME WHAT TO DO” Captain Picard meme.
Will need to watch it at some point. Apparently Embiid was only mentioned once in passing. But a Sixers friend of mine told me it’s a bit different and I have to watch it.
Fucking loser
Says the 1% commenter on one of the bigger subreddits lol
lmao got em
Right… rest and space are important, plus he was as good as he’d ever be at free throws. Criticizing dude for not doing everything coach said is weird to me. He practiced enough
Did we watch the same series
Obviously didn’t practice enough seeing as he was scared to shoot the ball while being 2ft from the basket.
Well clearly needing the space was not the right decision. He should have listened to the 100 ppl telling him to practice free throws and the millions of fans telling him to take freaking jump shots