Fear Didn’t Sink Ben Simmons, Satisfaction Did

When the Philadelphia 76er’s Ben Simmons passed up an open dunk under the basket with 3:29 to play in Game 7 of Sunday’s Eastern Conference semifinal, some saw it as simply the most egregious example of how the $30.5 million All-Star guard had become afraid to shoot when his team needed him most. During Philadelphia’s seven-game series with Atlanta, Simmons failed to take a fourth-quarter shot in five of the seven games and became a late-game liability by shooting a dismal 15-for-45 at the foul line.

But it wasn’t Simmons’ “fear” that raised the ire of basketball fans to a startling pitch, it was the nagging sense that at some level, it seemed the six-foot-eleven-inch Simmons felt it just wasn’t worth trying to finish the dunk. Much easier simply to shuffle the ball off to his teammate Matisse Thybulle who, it so happened, was covered by two players and was roundly rejected under the basket.

As I watched the Philadelphia-Atlanta series wind down, with the Hawks beating the favored 76ers in game seven to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals against Milwaukee, I was reminded of another moment in Simmons history, a moment that sheds light on his epic fail during this series. It happened in 2020 when the 76ers played at the Boston Celtics and lost big. Anybody who has played on a team and lost knows that the plane ride or bus ride back is never a barrel of laughs. But Simmons was in no mood for such downers and opted, instead, to head to South Beach and party with girlfriend Kendall Jenner at the Super Bowl.

That was a very bad move on his part, bad both for trashing team spirit in favor of indulging in personal pleasure and for exhibiting an astonishing lack of concern for his craft. I can’t help but compare him to Hakeem Olajuwan. Like Simmons, he was the number one pick, and in Olajuwon’s case, it was a draft year that included Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and John Stockton. Like Simmons, Olajuwan established himself as a force in the NBA early on. But the similarities end there.

Unlike Simmons, Olajuwon devoted his summers to improving his game, one drop step, pivot move and shoulder dip at a time. His commitment to his craft made him better and better and earned him two NBA Finals MVPs and a legacy as one of the best defenders to have played the game. When the game counted, his teammates could count on him.

It feels Simmons has not improved his game one iota since leaving college four years ago, and the signs indicate that his game badly needs a reset. There are two kinds of resets he must now undergo: first, he needs to focus on improving his mental as well as physical game rather than hobnobbing with celebrities; second, he must likely find a new set of teammates to whom he can prove his value.

I have a good friend who runs an innovative investment company where he compares the culture to “the nicest gym you’ve ever been in your life. It’s got all the beautiful, state-of-the-art equipment and yoga and step classes and staff who are there to help you become the best version of yourself.” But, adds my buddy, the real question is how you will use the gym? “Will you show up and work every day and improve your fitness. Or will you try to satisfy yourself with curling a few weights, chatting it up with other folks over a smoothie and calling it a day? You’ll have company doing this, but it’s not going to make you fit.”

The business lesson to be drawn from the Simmons example is that you can be technically gifted at what you do and, what’s more, enjoy the benefits of playing on a great team that is part of a state-of-the-art organization. That’s all well and good, but if you want to be successful and stay successful, you have to dedicate yourself to improvement every day of the week. This can be difficult to do for somebody who has grown used to being treated as a star, which many athletes and business leaders have been.

Perhaps Simmons, who is still only 24-years-old, is already intuiting this. After the game, Simmons told ESPN, "I didn’t shoot well from the line this series ... Offensively, I wasn't there. I didn't do enough for my teammates. ... There's a lot of things that I need to work on."

One thing is for sure: there’s not going to be any easy way back in.