Ben Simmons is one of the brightest young stars in the NBA. The Philadelphia 76ers view him as a cornerstone of their franchise, and he and Joel Embiid as as bright of a young duo as there is in the league.
Simmons is one of the reasons Jimmy Butler is apparently thrilled to be on the team, he’s one of the young players who interested LeBron James in free agency this summer, and he is poised to be a force in the NBA for years to come. But there’s one thing that Simmons hasn’t done all that frequently in his career, and it’s something fans of opposing teams have certainly noticed.
To put it plainly: Simmons doesn’t shoot threes. Simmons has never made a 3-pointer in his NBA career, and with all 11 of his attempts from deep coming last season, he seems happy to impact games in other ways. This honestly isn’t much of a problem to anyone in Philadelphia, but a growing subset of opposing fans have taken notice of Simmons’ reticence to let it fly from behind the arc. As someone currently living in Boston, I can tell you I’ve seen a number of shirts that read some form of “shoot a three you coward,” and they’re all directed Simmons’ way.
The latest bit of Simmons banter takes this to the next level, as someone put together video of him shooting threes in practice with video of NBA stars and celebrities reacting in shock as the shots go in.
https://twitter.com/OprahSide/status/1073605628910743556
All of these clips are fairly famous reaction GIFs in their own right, as they’re all reactions to a big dunk in the Dunk Contest or an amazing block or something similar. Spliced together with ordinary practice footage of something that, well, Simmons has never done in a game, it’s all highly entertaining.
Simmons has played just a little over a season, and odds are this 3-point drought will be nothing more than a weird footnote in what should be an outstanding NBA career. Until he solves this problem by making a three in a game, though, opposing fans are certainly going to have their fun with things like this.
