Sooooo we gotta give props to the Denver Nuggets. They won and they deserved it. There’s been a lot of the expected Jokic doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the NBA lingo, post title win, and besides just being weird, to me it feels like it rolls off the same tongue that centers capitalism as the one and only thing that matters on this planet. In this case, it’s people getting excited about the fact that the undisputed best player in the world lost his finals mvp trophy, literally, like in a Rudyard Kipling suitcase or some shit, that he’s so refreshingly blasé about the — whole winning thing, he just wants to get back to Serbia, to his horses, they keep saying, though I’m pretty sure he actually says so too. It’s random. And I don’t want to celebrate his nonchalance because on one hand it distorts the fact that this man is a phenomenal competitor with a satanic level of cut throat warrior in him, and on the other who cares if he’s bored by all of the “extra things” that surround the process of being the best player on a championship winning team. In America, we turn everything into a thing. Jokic doesn’t care. Let’s make it a thing! Let’s talk about how that’s the way to do it now. To be the best, be like Jokic, and don’t give a fuck. I think it’s really cool he wants to spend time with his baby and go back to Serbia to play with his family, whether or not he has a horse.
Young Ben Simmons
The real thing I want to talk about today is Ben Simmons. Yes, Ben Simmons. You all still remember him right? In light of his collapse these last few seasons, in particular this last one, I can’t help but think of Ben Simmons as a true NBA horror story. Don’t get it twisted, it’s not like I feel bad for the dude. Hard to when he’s got that kind of skill and cash, but I do think it’s kinda important to tease out what happened to this Aussie from the perspective of my somewhat foggy teenaged memory.
Ben Simmons came into the league, and like many top prospects had the entire NBA media-sphere up his butt like crayons, talking about his superior never-been-seen-before potential. At the time, 2-0-1-6, he was considered to be one of best young prospects the league had ever seen. The hype machine had him pegged as a young Magic Johnson, a versatile passer with size who can run point-forward like Draymond while he slowly but surely developed his shot.
That’s not how things turned out.
At first, there was some hope. He played really well with the other young star drafted to his team. Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons were supposed to be the young core of an up and coming championship team. They had youth, size, passing ability, and the brilliant young point-forward Ben Simmons was a major cog in what was supposed to be their sublime future. That was until Ben Simmons didn’t develop the one thing everyone needed him to develop: His shot. As good as he was at rebounding and passing, his shot could never quite get to where it was “supposed to.”
So the fans and the media made his life hell. Think piece after think piece was written about his failure as a shooter, and Ben Simmons, who by this point had secured a multi-year contract for over a hundred millions dollars, simply couldn’t handle the pressure.
Cut To that game (👆🏻🤮👆🏻) against the Atlanta Hawks in the 2021 playoffs where he stopped shooting entirely, miffing on the opportunity to shoot a wide open dunk under the basket, and the rest is history.
His arc from media darling to pariah was complete, and there was no use for him anymore, not if he couldn’t dunk. Tragically, his confidence was smashed, so the chances for Ben Simmons to be the very player he was when he entered the league — a hard nosed defender who could pass the rock like Magic Johnson. To just be that guy, the raw talent prior to all of the pressure — yup — that dude was also dead and gone.
It’s easy to clown Ben Simmons, call him a diva, a Kardashian boy-toy overly concerned with his image, but I see something else in The Ben Simmons story — I see a young player with an enormous amount of potential that got crushed under the expectations the media (and fans) put on him, that attacked him relentlessly only to end up back in a place where we’re saying things like “if only he could get back to who he was as a rookie.”
It’s mad sad and unfair to the kid. We put so much pressure on these guys to “reach their potential” that we don’t give them any space to fail. It’s like we’ve all become helicopter parents desperate for our players to succeed at the absolute apex of their potential. But what if, like Ben Simmons, they’re not suited to our expectations, physically and/or mentally — to the apex we’ve assigned for them. What if like Ben Simmons they just want to fuck some Kardashians and chill.
Much love from the west coast & Happy Father’s Day