Sixers toss disgraced ex player Ben Simmons out of practice, Embiid says he doesn’t care about Ben

Translation please. I don’t speak sportsball.

Sources: Doc Rivers asked Ben Simmons to join a defensive drill today. Simmons refused. Rivers asked again. Simmons said no again.

Rivers then told Simmons he should go home, and Simmons dropped the ball and left.

Why is he disgraced?

[quote]Why is he disgraced?

He divorced Nancy

[quote]Why is he disgraced?

His father is Richard

His playoff performance last season was disgraceful

He’s linked to a Kardashian

A word from Kwame Brown:

Simmons has 4 years and 147m left in his contract. Asking him to show up with a little enthusiasm at practice is too much to ask? Players like him really piss off fans. We would kill to have his job and life.

For real, R9. Forget being an all-star like Lebron, KD, or even Simmons....my dream job would be a middling role-player on an NBA team. Like the 2nd-3rd-4th guy off the bench on a really good team (or even a bad one!). Where you can still move through life with some degree of anonymity (depending on your height), but make $5-8 million per year, playing a GAME you love.

Kwame Brown appears to finally have his weight under control.

He was spitting facts

Ben is really cute but he'd probably snap on your ass

He’s hot

He is an Aussie so he's a pig. All Australian men are pigs.

[quote]Kwame Brown appears to finally have his weight under control.

major gayface

Why does he not want to play? Is that he just wants to be in NYC or LA?

He feels disrespected at Philly. He is correct

He is correct, r18, but it’s justified.

Facts. He doesn’t exactly seem To give basketball his all.

If the NBA thing doesn't work out, will he try gay porn?

🍆

[quote]He feels disrespected at Philly. He is correct

Disrespected by whom? Fellow players? Management? Fans?

How great that after his embarrassing performance in the finals where he completely let down the team (and especially Embiid who was redlining his fragile body to get them there), instead of putting in the work to get better he's decided to throw a childish tantrum and give up.

This is why he should never have received such a huge contract just based on his 'potential', without being a proven asset. He's been such a disappointment ever since they won the draft pick. Missed his first season, had one okay season (where people were still saying 'don't worry, he'll improve and get way better and learn to shoot 3s'), one middling season, and now the current floppery.

[quote] Why is he disgraced? He divorced Nancy

That’s a good one, that’s funny, I like your style

Yeah, he's fucking hot. We should do a hottest BB players thread in the near future

[quote]This is why he should never have received such a huge contract just based on his 'potential', without being a proven asset.

Couldn't agree more

R23, everyone. And rightfully so. He’s a giant baby who doesn’t understand he has a huge flaw in his game and refuses to work on it. See r24.

^ perhaps it’s better to say not respected rather than disrespected. Disrespected implies it’s not genuine or justified.

Yet they keep signing these athletes to these outrageous contracts.

He us ruining his image. He is now thought of as corrosive

R23, as others have indicated, he does not play hard (actually seems lost and disinterested) he shoots an abysmal 33% during a playoff series and a little more than 50% during the year. That really sets a team up for failure as other teams just foul him. And the Ben doesn't try if he thinks someone is going to foul him. Their star player, a really big guy shoots in the 90s on free throws, which is unusual for a big guy.

So free throws is something you can work on and he doesn't. His teammates rightfully resent that and there have been times when he doesn't play claiming injury (including COVID until a clear test came back) and his teammates resent that.

Like I said, he has no energy, desire and seems truly lost. So that's not fun to watch. And for teammates, it's frustrating and hurts their careers.

His journey reminds me a bit of tennis player Naomi Osaka's. When you have so much adulation, endorsements, success (well more in her case), and $$$ at such an early part of your career and in your early 20s, and then the going gets tough? Of course it's hard to have the desire and hunger. You have dozens of millions in the bank and are partying with Kardashians, rappers, or whatever.

Being flooded with endorsements and prize money before you've actually developed your game can also have a negative effect. Both probably would have been more interested in improving and actually having a hunger to compete, if this were the old days where athletes didn't make these exorbitant sums straight out the gate (of course they deserve them if they are proven successes).

Spot on r32. He should have spent the off season shooting free throws day and night. He has a tremendously poor attitude.

Anyone familiar with GAME OF ZONES? This one is about "Squire of The Year" with the 2018 rookie class -- Ben's second "rookie" year. The whole is hilarious, but the stuff about Simmons had me ROTFL the first time I saw it. Three & half years later, nothing's changed.

I was just thinking while watching that again...they cracked on Lonzo about his crappy shooting (and shockingly awful form) and deservedly so:

Lonzo Ball, 2017-18: 36% FG ~ 30% 3PT ~ 45% FT

His free-throw shooting was so bad, the Lakers couldn't play him in the 4th quarter of close games (although he was a starter). I remember Lavar Ball screamed & stomped his feet about that to anyone who would listen, but Luke Walton had no choice. You can't have a 45% FT shooter as your primary ball-handler late in a close game.

But unlike Ben, Lonzo has worked really hard to improve. Got a shooting coach, fixed that funky-ass form, and now:

Lonzo Ball, 2020-21: 41% FG ~ 38% 3PT ~ 78% FT

Philadelphia 76ers All-Star guard Ben Simmons plans to meet with medical professionals for an evaluation after telling the team Friday that he wasn't mentally ready to play to his expectations and needed time to step away, sources told ESPN. Simmons met separately with coach Doc Rivers, medical staff and teammates Friday morning at the team's facility in Camden, New Jersey, and started a process that is expected to continue to keep him from making his season debut, sources said.

I completely believe in the importance of mental health care, but at what point is it being used as a crutch for some of these athletes? Naomi Osaka couldn't do her press conferences at the French Open or play in Wimbledon due to 'mental health', but a few weeks later hosted the MET Gala? Simmons can party all over Miami for most of the off season, but isn't mentally ready to play basketball?

I just worry that it taints those people who genuinely suffer from debilitating mental health disorders and struggle to get out of bed in the morning, I have been there myself.

Rondo making an interesting hand gesture at that fan.

I'm a Lakers fan, but I hope the league fines and suspends rondo. Fans should not touch the players but NBA pros likewise should not be making gun gestures at fans. Rondo is a self professed asshole and he really lives up to it.

I agree r40. From what I read, Rondo made the gun gesture and the fan slapped it away. I don’t think the fan did anything wrong.

I agree

R40: Here's a longer clip, showing the entire sequence and the jawing back & forth.

At first....Rondo was merely pointing at the guy, while looking at the referee & then security (out of frame). If he could have just left it at that, everything would have been fine. The referee had already signaled for security to eject the fan! But no...because he's fucking Rondo, he went WAY over the line, making the bang-bang motion with his thumb while drifting closer to the guy. Like, "ha-ha, gotcha, you're gone". (which is when the guy swatted his hand away)

I am curious to know what the guy (who appeared to be recording the exchange on his phone) said right as Rondo inbounded the ball. Watch the Referee! His head snaps to the right, looking at the fan, as though even he was little surprised? Whatever he said, it definitely got the Ref's attention. At the next whistle, he immediately turned and moved back towards them -- and signaled for security to eject the fan (0:32). The fan was ejected BEFORE the hand-swat, not because of it.

Not that any of it excuses the gun gesture. I personally think it was more juvenile than menacing (in this instance), but still, ya' can't do that! Really fucking dumb on Rondo's part. As if the Lakers don't have enough problems already! If he was going to do something stupid and suspension-worthy, I would rather have seen him duke it out with Chris Paul again. 😈

Jokic and Markieff Morris both got ejected after exchanging fouls during Nuggets-Heat.

Morris was hurt but walked off the floor under his own power.