A New Low
Kyrie Irving is now literally begging Ben Simmons, a professional basketball player, to shoot the basketball
Given the year and change Ben Simmons has had, it's almost impossible for him to keep finding new lows. Nevertheless, he persists.
On Monday night, Simmons was getting clowned on for fouling out in Memphis, specifically the way he fouled out. Ja Morant, a former top-two draft pick who is actually panning out, brilliantly baited Ben into a sixth foul with some grandmaster-level chess sh-t. As embarrassing as it was, at least we were writing about Simmons actually playing basketball for once. Progress.
But Wednesday night was the latest reminder that Simmons actually playing is just as painful to watch as him not playing. Three minutes into the second half in Milwaukee, with the Brooklyn Nets already leading by 10 points, point guard Kyrie Irving drove to the bucket and found Simmons in the paint for what should have been a high-percentage shot attempt. Simmons, as we know, hates those, which is why he immediately looked to kick it out to Kevin Durant for a three. Irving was incredulous, and he could be heard screaming "SHOOT IT BEN!!" under the basket:
An impartial observer might say, hey, Giannis Antetokounmpo is directly under the basket, so maybe it wasn't the worst idea to kick it out to one of the top five scorers in the history of the sport, who wound up making the shot. But knowing everything we know about Simmons, it's just so maddening that he passes up shots that are literally a few feet from the hoop. This is not some 6-foot-1 point guard here, either. Simmons is almost seven feet tall and he weighs 240 pounds. Go up and freaking flush that thing, guy. But again, we know that shot is not in his bag:
"That's when you know the game is in your head." Spot on. Two years later and that still appears to be the case for the former Australian phenom. As of now, he's just another guy.