Ben Simmons is off to a great start when it comes to winning over fans. The No. 1 pick of the 2016 Draft, fresh off playing at Summer League in Las Vegas with the Sixers, was recently hanging out at a mall and decided to buy a kid a pair of sneakers worth $150 at a Kicks USA store. The kid’s older brother tells the story in the video above (mild NSFW language).
Simmons didn’t have to do that. He could have just taken a picture with the boys and everyone would have been happy. But Simmons is making a little less then $6 million in the first year of his rookie deal with Philadelphia and has a four-year, $20 million contract with Nike, too, while the kid in the video is talking about not wanting to spend too much of his $300 paycheck on shoes after his mom dragged him to the mall. He was even filling out another job application at the Kicks USA store while all of this was going on. He’s understandably a little upset that his little brother got a pair of shoes from Simmons and he didn’t, but he got a picture out of it, and it’s a story he and his brother are going to be able to tell for the rest of their lives.
(h/t r/nba)
