In the past few seasons, Ben Simmons has practically downgraded from an elite two-way player to someone who is playing off-the-bench behind young role players in the starting line-up of the Brooklyn Nets.
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It might be a surprise for many in the past couple of years that how can an All-NBA and All-Defensive First-Team level talent could fall off the order so quickly. But it was in the making for a long time and has a lot more to do with his lack of will and desire to be the best he can be.
A story by an Eastern Conference coach will tell you how fearful the former Sixers guard is of shooting, how all of that translates to his declining career, and how it started.
When Hack-a-Ben started for Ben Simmons
It was a game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Washington Wizards and the latter were trailing by 20 when Wizards HC Scott Brooks first tried Hack-a-ban. A career 59% free throw shooter helped him bring the gap down.
When Bradley Beal, the best Wizards player, also started fouling him, Ben started speaking, and it did not end up well for him.
“Ben said, ‘I’m tired of you motherf*****s fouling me on purpose, man. I’m going to step up here and knock these two down. Five thousand dollars says I will,’” told the anonymous coach recently to Heavy.com. “To which Beal replied, ‘You wanna make it 20?’ And then he went up and bricked one. I don’t think he said another word.
Not sure if the following (Sixers-Wizards game from the 2021 Playoffs) embed is the same the game that the coach was talking about, but if it was and the Wizards did win it after being 20-down, it worked better than Hack-a-Shaq.
That was some Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan-level trolling by Beal. Simmons’ confidence must have been shattered after that. But, nothing should affect him or any other athlete as much as this all shooting-struggle has. As that is not something that one can not overcome.
Simmons since the 2021 Playoffs
The coach who revealed that story also claims that Ben started developing a fear of shooting following that very game. And if it really was Game 4 of the 2021 Playoffs, the following Conference Semi-finals against the Hawks proved his last series with the Sixers.
That also probably brought down the curtains to a superstar’s career and has left him as the highest-paid role player in the league currently. Maybe if he kept quiet and gone about his business and hadn’t bet 5k to Beal, Hack-a-Ben would not have hit him this hard.
He didn’t, just maybe because he was too proud of his team being 3-0 up, or perhaps had too much money. Anyway, 2021 could have been his last postseason and the contract he now has might be his last lucrative one.
