“Ben Simmons Is a F***ing Baby!”: Giannis Antetokounmpo Called 6ft 10″ Guard a Child, 3 Years Before Hitting Him With the ‘Too Small’ Gesture

During Ben Simmons‘ time with the Philadelphia 76ers, he and Giannis Antetokounmpo were famously known to be bitter rivals. Both big men had similar games at the time and were known to play hard every single night. And given that they were part of the same conference (and mostly healthy), they faced off against each other quite often. However, this rivalry took a turn in 2019, during the Bucks vs 76ers game.

On one such occasion in 2019, on the ESPN Sunday showcase, the Greek Freak managed to jam it right on top of Big Ben, before likening him to an infant. As if that wasn’t enough, he followed it up with a very similar gesture in 2022 after embarrassing him all over again. And NBA TV made sure to highlight the play as soon as it happened.

Giannis Antetokounmpo was brutal toward Ben Simmons in 2019

Back in 2019, Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks were in dire need of points against the Philadelphia 76ers. With the game in the fourth quarter, and the opposition up seven, the Greek Freak decided to back down Ben Simmons. The play that took place is one of Antetokounmpo’s most memorable posters to this day.

Right after the play, Antetokounmpo was seen shouting,

“He [Ben Simmons] is a f***ing baby!”.

Giannis Antetokounmpo dunks on Ben Simmons and calls him a baby(2019) pic.twitter.com/AyuKOqkdxe

— What are NBA Celebs Upto? (@NBACelebsUpdate) October 11, 2023

As if he were making a conscious effort to make it worse, the former NBA champion did something very similar in 2022. However, this time around, the Bucks had all but sealed a win, as they were up 13 points, with less than four minutes to go.

On this occasion, the Greek Freak once again backed Simmons down in the paint and jammed the ball disrespectfully over Big Ben. However, instead of refraining from a celebration (considering they’d practically won), he decided to rub salt in Simmons’ wound. Take a look at the play in the X (formerly Twitter) post by NBA TV below.

Giannis vs. Simmons 👀 pic.twitter.com/ESdVrfHPgW

— NBA TV (@NBATV) October 27, 2022

Admittedly, Antetokounmpo remains one of the more brutal players the NBA has ever seen, to this day. However, to be fair to Simmons, he did also get his own back in 2019.

Simmons responded to Antetokounmpo’s jam on him with a dunk of his own

In 2023, Ben Simmons is struggling to show the levels of aggression he was once capable of. However, in 2019, he was an absolute monster, unwilling to back down against anyone. And so, when Giannis dunked on him, Simmons refused to shrivel up. Instead, as seen in Rachel Nichols’ post on X, he came right back with a jam of his own.

Soooo Giannis dunks hard on Ben Simmons, calls him a “baby,” then 10 seconds later Ben comes up with the put-back slam right over Giannis’ head. Sixers win and I’ll take a seven-game playoff series between these two teams please. pic.twitter.com/yHqTxNst3m

— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) March 17, 2019

He redeemed himself in 2022 as well, this time during an interview with ESPN. When he was asked, “What do you do when people are like, “Ben can’t shoot, or Ben’s not going to go to the line”?”, the following was his response,

“They’re going to say that regardless. Even if I hit a shot, what are they going to say? ‘I still can’t.’ F—, I can’t make everybody happy, you know? … That’s like saying can Giannis [Antetokounmpo] shoot? Can he?”

If Ben Simmons can return to these levels of confidence once again, it is likely unimaginable how happy Brooklyn Nets fans would be.