‘As disturbing a memory as I can think of’: The ‘brutal’ truth in Ben’s dramatic decline

To really perceive how simply far Ben Simmons has fallen, you must return to the beginning. Back to when a fresh-faced Simmons had his identify referred to as by NBA commissioner Adam Silver, drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers with the primary general choose in 2016.

There is not any better honour. And no better burden. No manner of so shortly lifting you up, after which tearing you down.

“It honestly feels like all this pressure just has hopped off me,” Simmons mentioned when requested what it felt like to listen to his identify referred to as after the entire build-up to the draft.

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In actuality, the stress was solely simply beginning to construct, spelled out in huge block letters on the entrance web page of the Philadelphia Inquirer’s sports activities part the day after Simmons was chosen.

‘Big Ben’s Time’ it learn, together with three columns on the Australian’s arrival in ‘The City of Brotherly Love’.

Mike Sielski, for instance, famous how then-Sixers coach Brett Brown was “unafraid to wield names such as LeBron and Magic when speaking about the player Simmons might become”.

Bob Ford, in the meantime, had a warning of kinds, one which spoke to the sooner level that the lead-up to the draft was simply an early glimpse into the sort of stress Simmons was now dealing with.

“Simmons went from amateur status to a professional contract that will pay him between $5 million and $6 million in his rookie season alone,” Ford wrote.

“Something comes along with the fame and money and the memory of being the first one to shake hands with the commissioner on draft night. Expectations.”

Expectations just like the “task of turning around the Sixers’ losing ways”, as employees author Keith Pompey put it flatly within the headline of his column, with Simmons becoming a member of a Philadelphia crew that had not completed greater than 14th within the Eastern Conference for the reason that 2012-13 season.

This particular version of the Inquirer even included a web based further from Philadelphia’s former first general choose Allen Iverson, which got here with a easy message of recommendation for Simmons:

“Play every game like it’s your last”.

Simmons was a novel prospect, described by one NBA government as a “Hall of Fame talent that doesn’t come along every day” in an interview with foxsports.com.au in early 2018.

Meanwhile, together with being comfy throwing out names like LeBron and Magic, Brown instructed The Sunday Telegraph in 2017 that after we regarded again at Simmons’ profession, “we’ll say he’s the best to ever come out of Australia”.

“I know it’s a bold statement, but it’s true and one I believe,” added Brown, and that was solely 30 video games into the then-21-year-old’s profession.

All of that is to emphasize that the place Simmons at present finds himself in, restricted to only 15 video games after one other injury-interrupted season and at a profession crossroads, is made much more jarring when reminded of simply how excessive expectations had been for him coming into the league.

Not simply coming into the league both.

After his rookie 12 months Simmons was already placing his identify within the historical past books, becoming a member of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Russell Westbrook as the one participant to common no less than 15 factors, eight rebounds, eight assists and 1.5 steals per sport in a season.

Already esteemed firm for Simmons with out even mentioning the very fact he was the one one to do it as a rookie and on the again of a redshirt season attributable to harm.

“He could be the next marquee player, a leader in the sport,” Australian basketball legend Andrew Gaze instructed ABC News of Simmons after his first season within the league.

“Ben Simmons’ ceiling and realistic potential is to be the greatest in the world.”

Now the query isn’t whether or not Simmons may be the best within the league however whether or not he’ll even be within the league come this time subsequent season.

As Simmons prepares to enter the ultimate 12 months of the $170 million ($A260m) contract extension he signed with the Sixers again in 2019, foxsports.com.au breaks down simply what went fallacious for the Australian over the previous few years and what his future within the NBA appears like from right here.

To do this, foxsports.com.au spoke with Brooklyn and Philadelphia beat writers Erik Slater and Noah Levick together with NBA legend Gary Payton, a second general choose himself.

They dissected the uncertainty surrounding Simmons’ future within the league together with how they’ll keep in mind the Australian if that is the final time we see him on an NBA courtroom.

WHAT WENT WRONG AT BROOKLYN AND WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT THE NETS FRONT OFFICE?

But first, we begin at Brooklyn, the place Simmons was traded to in February 2022 as a part of a blockbuster deal that ended a seven-month standoff and despatched James Harden to Philadelphia.

At the time when Simmons was dealt he had not suited up for an NBA sport since June the 12 months prior, when Philadelphia crashed out of the playoffs by the hands of the Atlanta Hawks.

Simmons sat out the beginning of the 2021-22 season with the Sixers, citing psychological well being considerations, earlier than a again harm restricted his availability for the Nets and later noticed the Australian shut down in March final 12 months.

Still, the 27-year-old performed 42 video games for the Nets final season and based mostly on the way in which he was speaking final summer time, there was a real motive to be optimistic issues could be totally different.

Here Simmons was, off one more injury-shortened season, confidently declaring he would “dominate people” once more and wished to be “better than an All-Star”.

“I would definitely say that his confidence and just the entire aura surrounding him [is different],” Slater, a reporter from Clutch Points and host of Bleav in Nets, instructed foxsports.com.au on the time.

Simmons went on to inform the YES Network that it was “the best” he had felt bodily whereas mentally he additionally appeared to be locked in, able to make up for misplaced time.

His first sport of the season in opposition to Cleveland appeared to again it up as Simmons completed with 9 assists, 10 rebounds and 4 factors in a stable opening displaying from the three-time All-Star.

Unfortunately for Nets followers it was simply one among 15 video games for Simmons, who was in March this 12 months shut down but once more for the rest of the season to bear again surgical procedure for the second time in three years.

For Slater, the very fact Brooklyn entered the season counting on Simmons to be such a key a part of its offensive id was “pretty damning”.

“If you’re looking at it from that perspective of the way that the Nets are trying to build their roster and game plan a lot of stuff around Simmons, given his extensive injury history, the way that this has played out is pretty damning,” he instructed foxsports.com.au.

“It’s not a good look for the front office or the coaching staff because they came into the season wanting Ben to be a focal point of what they were trying to do offensively, which was push the pace, be one of the more efficient and higher volume teams in transition on the year.

“They did not want to play in the halfcourt as much and playing Ben at starting point guard and prioritising him over a guy like Spencer Dinwiddie and also not building up adequate point guard depth behind him.

“They signed Dennis Smith Jr. but he struggles offensively and their decision to curtail some of their rotations and have Ben be a focal point of the offence, it’s difficult to find alternatives to that given he’s making $37 million ($A57m).

“It’s such a large chunk of their salary cap but them leaning into that has blown up in their faces this year.”

Even former Nets coach Jacque Vaughn, who was fired in late February, conceded that the Nets had been “two different teams” with out Simmons — such was the extent of adjustment Brooklyn needed to make when the Australian was unavailable.

“We were top six in transition with Ben, bottom five without Ben,” Vaughn mentioned forward of a sport in opposition to the Magic in November.

“Better executing in the half-court without Ben, not with Ben. So it’s two different teams.”

The choice to construct the offence round Simmons’ strengths was reportedly a supply of frustration for “multiple players”, together with Spencer Dinwiddie and Mikal Bridges, in Brooklyn’s locker room in response to NBA insider Shams Charania.

Ultimately, that plan backfired given Simmons’ struggles to remain wholesome and appeared to contribute to Vaughn’s demise.

“It’s kind of difficult to envision how they could have viewed Ben as a sustainable piece this season,” Slater added.

“It seems like maybe it was just that they didn’t feel they had any other choice. But regardless, him being on the roster and being that much of a focal point of the team’s offence entering this year, given his extensive injury history, is a pretty glaring indictment of the coaching staff and more importantly, the front office.”

WHAT DOES BEN’S FUTURE OPTIONS IN THE NBA LOOK LIKE?

So with that in thoughts, what does Simmons’ future appear like on the Nets and within the league basically past this season?

Well, Simmons is signed for the 2024-25 season and is because of earn $40.3 million ($A61.7m), which makes the prospect of a buyout unlikely given it has little enchantment for the Australian.

After all, given his harm historical past and declining manufacturing it’s exhausting to see Simmons getting wherever near that determine at one other crew so he could as nicely pocket that sort of cash whereas he nonetheless can.

As for a commerce, Simmons’ $40.3 million ($A 61.7m) contract is expiring subsequent season which might make him interesting for any groups that want to get off long-term cash on their books.

In return, the Nets would possible get a number of position gamers.

“It wouldn’t be anything too valuable I would think but at least some guys who could be on the floor and give you something,” Slater mentioned.

Whether that’s the sort of return Brooklyn is after will rely upon whether or not the franchise has a practical likelihood of touchdown an enormous identify in free company as a substitute, as Slater defined.

“They’re projected to have a tonne of cap space in 2025 when Ben’s contract comes off the books. So, if they’re projecting that there’s going to be free agents and other players that they have interest in and that would have interest in coming to Brooklyn in that 2025 class, I would view them as just letting Ben’s contract expire,” he mentioned.

“If they don’t think that [in] that 2025 class a lot of guys are going to end up hitting free agency or they’re not going to have a shot at them, I could see them maybe trying to move Ben and trying to look for a team that’s looking to get off long-term salary and take back those players and maybe use them as salary fillers to trade for a bigger piece down the line.”

Boston’s Jayson Tatum headlines the potential free brokers in 2025, with Knicks guard Jalen Brunson and Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell the opposite main choices that make sense for Brooklyn each by way of positional want and the timeline the Nets are working on.

As for Simmons’ future within the NBA, he has each incentive on this planet to get again on the courtroom subsequent season given it’s a contract 12 months.

At this level although it’s exhausting to belief his physique given how assured the 27-year-old was this summer time.

“Despite that seven month rehab process and him saying that he feels so great, he wound up playing 27 less games this year than he did last year,” added Slater.

“So that’s a really damning sign for where his body’s at and it doesn’t really give you much confidence that he’ll be able to make it back from the injury.”

WHY HAS THE DISCOURSE SURROUNDING BEN BEEN SO TOXIC?

Considering that actuality — the very fact Simmons’ physique has greater than failed him in recent times — why has the discourse surrounding the Australian been so poisonous?

It is hardly something new for the league’s largest names to generate the largest headlines, however within the case of Simmons it at occasions appears to be greater than that. It appears nearly private.

As if Simmons is the one skilled athlete to not stay up this potential. As if, extra importantly, Simmons’ debilitating again points and psychological well being considerations aren’t a adequate motive.

As if he’s making a few of it up, or no less than at minimal exaggerating the extent to which it has restricted his potential to get on the courtroom in recent times.

You solely should learn a column by Mike Sielski, who has coated Simmons since he was drafted for the Philadelphia Inquirer and wrote that it’s “impossible to feel sorry” for the three-time All-Star as a result of “he squandered his sympathy years ago”.

Of course, Philadelphia is a very ruthless metropolis to be taking part in in in case you are not performing nicely. And they don’t neglect simply both.

Just ask a number of of the followers who confirmed up for Simmons’ first look in Philadelphia since being traded to Brooklyn.

“He quit on the city,” Fatieem Grady instructed the Inquirer.

“I had to come and boo him myself,” Jason Castaldo added.

Matt Grieco, in the meantime, paid $450 for his ticket however mentioned “it was worth it… just to boo Ben Simmons”.

But why this degree of vitriol? Why the branding of his psychological well being considerations as an “exploitation of the country’s mental health crisis”, as Sielski put it in his column, or the necessity for Stephen A. Smith to publicly air his “disgust” with Simmons?

“Some of the commentary has definitely lacked an understanding of all that has taken us to this point,” Noah Levick, who coated Simmons throughout his time on the 76ers for NBC Sports Philadelphia, instructed foxsports.com.au.

And that, as Levick factors out, goes again even sooner than most individuals realise. Back to the 2020 when then-Sixers coach Brett Brown witnessed what he mentioned on the time was “as disturbing a memory as it relates to a player that I can think of”.

“I mean, for me, always when thinking of how we got here, I go back to the 2019-20 season. He’s an All-Star calibre player yet again and then he aggravates his back injury in late February in Milwaukee. He is out indefinitely,” Levick mentioned.

“Then a couple weeks later, the season is paused because of COVID-19 and then we hear on a Zoom press conference with then head coach Brett Brown in May that he [Simmons] was vomiting primarily because of pain that night in Milwaukee. And Brett Brown called it “as disturbing a memory as it relates to a player that I can think of”.

“So to me, it’s easy to forget or overlook just the reality of in 2020 he suffered what at the time was a very concerning back injury and this back ailment has continued to plague him and seemingly continued to sap many of his athletic gifts and even sideline him and prevent him from playing in games.”

While the holdout at Philadelphia “absolutely clouded the way many people see” Simmons in response to Levick, he added it might be fallacious to put an excessive amount of of a highlight on that interval of the Australian’s profession.

“To me, regardless of how you feel about that particular major event in his career, it’s undeniable that for four years now, he’s been dealing with a serious back issue,” Levick mentioned.

“… I do think it’s really, really difficult to try to find nuance in reflecting on his career and the holdout saga and his big strengths and big weaknesses as a player. But I think the bottom line is he’s experienced very serious physical problems and that is, to me, unavoidably and undeniably the dominant reason why we are where we are now with him.”

For Slater although, the scepticism can be a product of the query marks that surrounded Simmons coming into the league.

“When you’re talking about the legitimacy of it and why people seem to question that, from my perspective, it would be the fact that before Ben started to have these serious back issues on record, his confidence was crumbling and his shot attempts and all those things were declining every season in Philadelphia and had continued to before the back injuries and those confidence issues,” he mentioned.

“Entering the league when Ben was coming out of the draft one of the knocks on him was people questioned how much he loved the game, questioned his motor. So when you have all that out there, those questions entering the league, then you have that confidence starting to go down, he didn’t really develop any of the skills that people would have liked him to during his time in Philadelphia from an offensive perspective and then you get him sitting out an entire season.

“When you have all that stuff working out together, once his back issues start to crop up, people question the legitimacy of it.”

Of course, Slater was additionally having not one of the critics who increase doubts over whether or not Simmons is definitely injured. After all, he has undergone again surgical procedure twice now.

“He’s not going in and having surgery for no reason,” Slater added.

Now, it’s one factor to be sceptical about Simmons’ want to signify his nation. But it’s one other factor solely to query respectable accidents or psychological well being considerations that include the stress of dwelling as much as being a primary general choose.

And that’s the place NBA legend Gary Payton lands on this dialog. Why has the discourse surrounding Simmons been so poisonous?

“Because we’re talking about a top pick,” Payton, a former second general choose, merely put it talking with foxsports.com.au whereas in Australia to attend NBA and TAB’s free ‘Block Party’ occasion at Hotel Steyne on Manly Beach final week.

“Everybody will always be saying, ‘Is he a bust?’… We had a lot of expectations for him and it hasn’t panned out. What I think is that I wouldn’t listen or wouldn’t think about it.

“I would try to be thinking about what we can do now to get better… that’s what I would think about.

“… He is on social media too much to be where he listens too much. I think he should just go by himself and do his work at his game and show people his game… I think that gets in peoples’ heads when they start listening to things and they hear criticism and I just don’t like that.”

REGARDLESS OF WHAT COMES NEXT, HOW WILL BEN BE REMEMBERED?

As straightforward as it’s to deal with what Simmons is now, additionally it is necessary to mirror on what he as soon as was.

Because as disappointing as the previous few seasons have been, that doesn’t take away from what Simmons achieved within the early levels of his profession.

Achievements that had Simmons’ identify consistently talked about amongst basketball royalty, together with LeBron James — and his personal teammates might see why.

“There’s really very few players, I’m trying to think if there’s anybody besides LeBron, that has had that combination of speed and size and athleticism and strength,” former Sixers guard J.J. Redick mentioned in 2017.

“LeBron is, I think, the greatest player to ever play and that’s a tough comparison to make for someone who’s played 17 games. LeBron is obviously in a different category but I think it’s a valid comparison from where LeBron was early in his career to where Ben is now.”

In truth, Levick’s finest reminiscence from protecting Simmons for NBC Philadelphia stays his epic duel with James in Philadelphia’s 132-130 win over Cleveland again in 2018.

“LeBron, of course, has been a mentor to Simmons and just seeing them go toe-to-toe and then the Sixers ultimately edge out the Cavs in that game definitely left you with the impression that sure, Simmons was unlikely to become a player of LeBron’s calibre, but that he was entirely capable of being a perennial All-Star sort of guy,” Levick mentioned.

Simmons had 27 factors, 15 rebounds and 13 assists in that sport whereas James led the way in which for the Lakers with 44 factors, 11 assists and 11 rebounds.

Just a reminder of what might have been for Simmons. What might have been if he hadn’t acquired injured. What might have been if he didn’t move up that wide-open dunk in opposition to the Hawks.

A split-second choice that summed up the following few seasons for Simmons, whose lack of aggression and hesitation across the rim solely additional restricted his offensive sport when paired together with his lack of a constant soar shot.

A sliding doorways second that spelled the tip of Simmons’ profession in Philadelphia, and maybe the concept he would ever rediscover the shape that made the Australian top-of-the-line two-way gamers within the league.

“It is really one of the more unusual and interesting situations in the NBA for a player of that calibre. It’s not something you see really often,” Slater mentioned of Simmons’ profession trajectory.

“It’s unfortunate because Ben was one of the more exciting players in the NBA and it’s looking more and more unlikely he’s going to be able to reach that level again.”

Greg Oden, who was drafted first general by the Trail Blazers in 2007 and located himself sidelined with a knee harm earlier than he had even performed a single NBA sport, is commonly introduced up in conversations on Simmons’ decline.

But Oden, who was restricted to only 105 video games in his profession, isn’t even a one-for-one comparability.

“I think it’s striking to me how dramatic and extreme the ups and downs have been for him,” Levick mentioned.

“I guess when I think of young players suffering career-altering injuries, it’s often someone like Greg Oden, where the injury is so early and so significant that they’re never able to reach a peak level or an elite All-Star kind of level.

“But I think Simmons is unique in that he was a three-time All-Star and in my mind those were deserving selections, so I guess that’s what jumps out to me, just that it is pretty hard for me to think of anyone comparable and the talent was absolutely eye-popping right out of the gate.”

So, with out realizing precisely what the long run holds, how will Simmons be remembered within the NBA?

For Levick, whereas the passed-up dunk in opposition to the Hawks is a “defining” second in Simmons’ story it received’t be the lasting reminiscence of the Australian’s time in a Sixers uniform.

“The Hawks moment, yes it’ll be defining unless this script substantially turns. But I do think honestly, if the health hadn’t become so problematic, that might be a larger storyline in his career,” Levick mentioned.

“For me now, it’s more than anything just sad that a player who displayed a lot of greatness and did a lot of positive things on an NBA court is unable to play. I know many people probably don’t see it that way.

“They see him as someone who was stubborn about not changing his game and someone who didn’t put in the necessary work to improve as a shooter and to adapt to what was wrong with his skill set or what have you.

“But I think at the moment, the big takeaway for me is when he was healthy, he was at least a number two star level sort of player for a championship contending team. And then boom, he’s not been healthy for quite a while.

“So I think that contrast, to me, is pretty severe and pretty brutal. I think for many the whole saga with the holdout and the mental health aspect of that is prominent and I understand that being kind of inherently fascinating and divisive and what have you, but I always go back to his availability in games.

“When that was intact, we saw greatness and it’s, I think, so harsh honestly that that has been taken away. At least from where I’m sitting, I’m really sympathetic to how difficult that must be. I do think he, at his best, was a really exciting player but we haven’t seen Ben Simmons at his best for years now.”

That in itself ought to be taken on as a “challenge” for Simmons in response to Payton, who mentioned the Australian can nonetheless be a “phenomenal basketball player” if he is ready to keep wholesome.

“He had big expectations as a top pick and then all of a sudden he’s got hurt… and they were telling him he can’t shoot… but I think if he gets himself back right and gets healthy, and work on the things he needs to work at, he can be a phenomenal basketball player,” the nine-time NBA All-Star mentioned.

“So to me, I just think I would take it up as a challenge for Ben Simmons. I would take it as a challenge to come back and do what I have to do. It’s been a rough road for him but I think he can get out of it. He’s a great talent.”

As for Slater, who has had a front-row seat of kinds to the Simmons expertise in recent times on the Brooklyn beat, the duality of the Australian’s profession stands out.

“When I look back on Ben Simmons, the way that I would view him is a guy that had an incredible amount of talent,” Slater mentioned.

“One of the more unique and rare talents that you’re ever going to see in basketball being 6’10”, having the defensive versatility, however extra impressively, the offensive fluidity and dexterity that he had as a passer and as a man that may deal with the ball. So all of that made him so engaging coming into the league. I’ll keep in mind that.

“But then you’ll also remember him being a guy that ultimately didn’t seem like he developed in the areas that he could have to take the game to the next level and a guy who was never willing to press the issue and maybe be a little uncomfortable and try to develop those things, whether it be a jump shot or some other moves driving to the basket or things along those lines.

“A guy who didn’t show enough willingness to improve in those areas, which ultimately led to him, I feel like, going further and further into the shell of what he was comfortable doing and eventually led to some of the confidence issues and Philly fans getting on him more and more and more and the lack of 3-point shooting becoming more and more glaring, confidence at the free throw line just going down leading up to that Hawks series.”

Which brings us again to the beginning. Back to when Simmons was drafted and again to that entrance web page of the Philadelphia Inquirer’s sports activities part. Back to the subject of expectations.

“Some young players handle that pressure well and some don’t,” Bob Ford wrote in his column after Simmons was taken with the primary general choose.

“Unfortunately it is impossible to know which category fits Simmons.”

Just underneath eight years later, nevertheless, it’s fairly secure to say Simmons most likely suits higher within the latter class.

Although in his first few seasons within the league, earlier than the accidents, Simmons appeared to be dealing with the stress simply effective.

Perhaps a contemporary begin, faraway from the highlight and the hundreds of thousands of {dollars} that include it, could also be the most effective factor for Simmons.

The stress will at all times be there in some type or one other. That is what comes with being a former first general choose.

It is rarely actually that straightforward, and Simmons’ profession thus far has been something however easy anyway. Nothing might be extra true given the unsure path that lies forward.