What Ben Simmons has sown

The league, players' union, sports media complex and fandom finds itself in quite a bramble.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

The Tragic Actor (Rouvière as Hamlet), Edouard Manet, 1866

To their credit, the Brooklyn Nets have in public never shown annoyance at Ben Simmons’ continued absence from the court. Steve Nash may have seemed exasperated at times about the questions from the media and the uncertainty. But he never had an edge to his answers about Simmons that made it seem like he was annoyed with Simmons. The players also avoided putting themselves in the position of shaming Simmons at all.

But finally, there was a crack at the conclusion of the Nets’ hell-spawned season from … what else? … anonymous sources. From Shams Charania in The Athletic ($):

With the Nets facing elimination on Monday in Game 4 against the Celtics, Simmons pulled himself from his expected season debut, with sources saying he informed team officials on Sunday that his back felt sore. Everyone around the Nets organization had been given the impression that Simmons had zeroed in on Monday’s Game 4 as his debut date. […]

Sunday’s events triggered frustration and disheartenment throughout the organization, multiple sources said. The fallout of Simmons being ruled out Sunday led to a meeting among franchise officials, Simmons and his agent, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, on Monday in Brooklyn. According to sources, Simmons told those in the room that a mental block exists for him, dating in part to last summer’s postseason, which is creating stress that could serve as a trigger point for his back issues. He added that he does want to play basketball and play for the Nets as he works on solutions in regard to his well-being. […]

Simmons had another workout on Saturday, after which Nash said Simmons had no issues. On Sunday, Simmons informed the team his back was sore. For Nets players, the confusion was not centered around Simmons’ ailment, but with the perceived lack of attempt to play, effort to be in uniform and push his body in these high-stakes playoffs, sources said. Nets players and coaches wanted to see Simmons show resolve and enter this series to start his on-court Brooklyn tenure, even if it was for limited minutes on Monday or none at all while still dressing for the game.

There’s a lot of information in here, more than we’ve had on the situation since Simmons was traded to Brooklyn. None of this reflects well on Simmons, so you know it didn’t come from his camp. Someone on the Nets or close to the Nets is annoyed enough about this to share the info with Charania immediately after it happened, either to absolve the franchise management of blame or to push Simmons’ camp to get him on the court for Game 1 next season.

This is officially now two NBA teams flummoxed by Simmons’ refusal to play this season. The Sixers were mad because they thought they had a chance at a championship if the All-NBA caliber player who crumbled on one side of the ball in a high-pressure playoff series last year simply showed up to work ready to play. The Nets are mad because they traded an All-NBA caliber player away for said non-performing player, assuming it was mostly about the team and not the game itself.

Simmons proved to us all it was about the game, not some grudge against Doc Rivers or Joel Embiid for a perceived (and maybe real) lack of support. And now that two teams have been burned by Simmons’ issues, it’s a league matter.

ESPN’s Zach Lowe, who historically has shown a great read on such issues, surmised on his podcast this week that “pay-to-play” rules will come up during collective bargaining negotiations between the league and players, which are on the horizon. The league likely knows that tying guaranteed, negotiated salary to performance is a dead end. The NBA players’ union is probably more proud of its guaranteed contract structure than anything else it has held onto over the past three decades of the league’s attempts to change the power equation. So any new rule will need to be narrower in scope.

And let’s be clear about the intent of any such rules related to Simmons: it’s not really about the money or the salary cap. NBA teams have devised plenty of ways to protect their money from player availability issues: contract insurance, amnesty clauses, medical retirements.

In my coverage of NBA labor issues over the years, I’ve been the first to say every battle is always about two things: money and control. But in this case, it’s not really about the money. It’s 100% control. It’s about making a player the team wants on the court to suit up. The money is a tool to enforce control, in this case.

Joe Tsai is not really concerned about paying Simmons’ salary for non-performance. Sean Marks is not really concerned (right now at least) about Simmons’ salary cap sheet slot. They want him to play, and any rule proposed from the league related to Simmons will be about finding ways to force the player, if deemed healthy by some third party arbitrator (I’m predicting here), to suit up. On the other side, players in Philadelphia and Brooklyn may be peeved at Simmons (think how Seth Curry must feel) but they are going to be straight up mad if he’s the reason the league starts pressing the “pay-to-play” issue in negotiations. Because they are going to be in the collective position of needing to defend his choices. That’s not going to be fun.

The details will matter, and this issue may never come up again anyway. I mean, it’s never happened before with a player at this level. The Royce White situation in Houston is a precursor, but White was a rookie with only two cheap guaranteed years and middling NBA prospects. Simmons is not that.

In the meantime, how we all talk about Simmons will continue to be strained and difficult. It’s a complicated situation. Ben Simmons is a human, with human suffering and a human body. The Nets and Sixers are soulless corporations (much like this newsletter!): the Nets are officially BSE Global, while the 76ers are a company controlled by a private equity investor that plays in an arena named after global bank with a cryptocurrency platform as their primary jersey sponsor. AND YET! Some vast majority of sports fans, players and sportswriters/talkers will side with the corporations over Simmons, because of various reasons, some completely valid and some a little gross.

That’s the thing with this situation: it’s not over. It’s not going to be over when and if Simmons steps back on an NBA court during NBA game action. Despite no apparent intent to do so, Ben Simmons has planted a real bramble for the league, the players’ union, basketball media and the fandom. It’s going to take real time and effort for all parties to untangle themselves from it. So don’t even try to say Simmons didn’t make any impact on the 2021-22 NBA season. Perhaps no player had a bigger impact.

Scores

Bulls 100, Bucks 116 (MIL wins 4-1) — After two games in this series the questions about Milwaukee reached fever pitch. So much for that. Note that neither Zach LaVine (a third spell in the protocols) or Alex Caruso (concussion protocol) played in Game 5, so the Bulls were certainly a zombie team down 3-1. You still have to beat the teams in front of you, and Milwaukee did that.

Bucks vs. Celtics is up next. I think all four second-round series have huge entertainment potential. But it’s hard to argue there’s any series with a bigger impact on the championship. Let’s go!

Lots of time to talk about the Bulls, but I think they re-sign LaVine and run it back, hopefully with a healthy Lonzo Ball. The other alternate is to see if there’s a better fit than Nikola Vucevic out there, should Vooch have enough trade value to recoup some of what the Bulls gave up.

Nuggets 98, Warriors 102 (GSW wins 4-1) — Hella entertaining game. Credit to the Nuggets for refusing to lay down in these past two games after being pretty well obliterated by Golden State. Nikola Jokic looked like a two-time MVP. So did Stephen Curry.

Gary Payton II played huge, impactful minutes. Crunch time was crazy.

Draymond Green fired a ball off of Otto Porter’s head and then yelled at Porter about it.

Action Network @ActionNetworkHQ

Draymond Green does it again! Otto Porter Jr. falls victim this time

DeMarcus Cousins had his highest scoring playoff game ever. There was just a lot. I think how the Nuggets finished this series should make everyone feel good. In my coaching carousel piece, I listed Michael Malone’s situation depending on how the season finished. I think he’s probably safe. I’m not sure I would have said that a week ago.

Jokic is a marvel. Here’s Draymond, the best individual defender in the league, talking about Jokic.

I’m going to miss not seeing him play again until October. Get well, Other Nuggets. I want to see Jokic in more high-stakes games next year. And also I care about your well-being as humans.

Schedule

Three Game 6s. Games 6-6-6, if you will. All times Eastern.

Sixers at Raptors, 7, NBA TV (PHI leads 3-2) — We briefly interrupt this schedule listing to present Doc Rivers explaining why those most of those 3-1 comebacks his teams have famously given up were actually successes:

Rob Perez @WorldWideWob

wow.

This is all accurate. But if the Sixers become the first team in NBA history to lose a 3-0 lead in the playoffs — despite the very real issue of Joel Embiid’s thumb ligament being torn! — the Slander Dealers of NBA Fandom will care ~not one iota~. Not one!

Suns at Pelicans, 7:30, TNT (PHX leads 3-2)

Mavericks at Jazz, 10, TNT (DAL leads 3-2)

Alright, be excellent to each other.