Imagine if you could resolve most of your problems and repair your damaged reputation by playing some basketball. What if you could do this for the NBA and you'd be paid millions?
This is the option Ben Simmons has had available to him for months, and he's basically decided, "No, no, I don't think I will."
The Sixers' All-Star holdout has rightfully been criticized for his stubborn posture as he tries to pressure Philadelphia to trade him ahead of next Thursday's NBA trade deadline, but it's frightening how little Simmons seems to have learned from this whole experience.
Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neil ripped into Simmons last week during an "NBA on TNT" broadcast, calling the 25-year-old a "crybaby" for reacting poorly to criticism and refusing to just play ball. He said the difference between how Joel Embiid and Simmons respond to criticism is night and day.
"That's why I like and respect (Embiid). The other guy, I don't respect him," Shaq said.
How did Simmons react to this? Apparently, by hopping on social media and complaining to Shaq. The four-time NBA champion revealed on "The Big Podcast" that Simmons sent him a salty DM after his stinging remarks last week.
"He kind of got in my DMs and he said some things, and I said some things back," Shaq said.
O'Neill didn't reveal exactly what Simmons said to him, but he described him as "mad."
"He was probably mad because I'm his 'LSU brother' — and I am," Shaq said. "I'm still his brother."
As for what O'Neill told Simmons, it seems to boil down to him being a bad teammate.
"All I said is you're leaving your man (Joel Embiid) out there and you need to play," O'Neill said.
Shaq had some other worthwhile points about Simmons' holdout generally making NBA players look spoiled, in some ways resetting the work of previous generations of stars, like himself, who helped the NBA become such a player-driven league. The implication is that Simmons' gripe is invalid and immature. It's based on hurt feelings that Simmons refuses to let go and channel into something productive — at a great cost to himself.
Is it surprising that Simmons got upset and reached out to Shaq about what he said? No, not really. It's more surprising that he'd think Shaq would keep it to himself when his actions are reinforcing the point Shaq originally made.
The truth hurts: this ugly deadlock is more about what it has turned into than where it germinated in that painful Game 7 loss to the Hawks, which was no shining moment for Doc Rivers or Joel Embiid, either. Their raw postgame remarks about Simmons don't shield them from the stain of another playoff meltdown or a crucial, sloppy turnover in the guts of the game.
This is professional sports. Everyone has moved on except Ben Simmons.
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A lot has been said about the fact that Simmons, for whatever reason, won't address this situation himself. He hasn't given interviews to explain his status and his rationale in his own words. It might go a long way toward balancing the conversation, straight from the horse's mouth, even if it all tracks with what's already been reported.
In effect, Ben Simmons is letting all of this negativity fester by doing nothing to publicly counteract it. If he reasons that hiding in the shadows will make him out to be a sympathetic bullying victim, then it's all the more disturbing that he doesn't appear to question what that perception even accomplishes.
The absence, the silence, the backbiting second-hand remarks fed to NBA sources — how is this the best plan Simmons and his support network have mustered? Why have they stuck with it? Is this good for Ben Simmons' mental health? His wallet? It doesn't look that way. Sure, some fans can be tasteless idiots who take their contempt for Simmons too far. That's not exactly a point in Simmons' favor, although the emotional torment should be acknowledged, assuming Simmons' pride wouldn't brush off the suggestion.
Shaq's larger point is that he, too, like so many other NBA stars, have been crushed by criticism and managed to absorb it as fuel. How many people trashed Shaq's foul shooting or minimized his success as the sheer result of an unfair, God-given advantage — his gigantic body? Even Embiid has spent most of his career being called out of shape or a jabbering loudmouth. No one would dare now. He found his priorities and he's making a case for league MVP.
If the Sixers don't make a deal to move Simmons by the end of next Thursday — and they certainly won't just for his sake — then he's only going to be faced with more of this for the remainder of the season. There won't be anything left for him to leverage until the cycle restarts in the summer. At that point, it's just a rerun.
The real question is whether Simmons is capable of growing as a person. Can he reframe how he responds when he doesn't get what he wants, when he meets resistance and when people are critical of him? That's one of the toughest pills for people in their mid-twenties to swallow, but they do it by working through what it means to overcome obstacles, regardless of whether they seem fair or what others may have contributed to them being there in the first place.
This entire depressing dynamic for Simmons will only start to change for the better if he's able to figure this piece out. It doesn't even matter where or when he plays basketball again. The Sixers are just his symbol of the problems he has to confront. It's actually kind of funny if you picture it as the goblin-like Benjamin Franklin logo.