Ben Simmons

About

Ben Simmons is an Australian basketball player in the NBA. As of 2024, he has played for the Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets. While early in his career, he was considered an elite defender and passer who struggled offensively, his offensive struggles and questionable injuries made him the brunt of jokes among basketball fans, particularly as he continued to make public appearances off the court. Additionally, he is one of the first players to be widely joked about as part of the NBA Players Going To China meme.

History

Ben Simmons is Australian-born and played one season of college basketball for LSU in 2015-2016.^[1] In the 2016 NBA draft, he was selected with the first overall pick by the Philadelphia 76ers.^[2] He performed well and racked up accolades in his first three seasons with the Sixers, earning Rookie of the Year, an All-Star selection, and made All-NBA.^[3] However, he famously was not an aggressive scorer, rarely took 3-pointers and shot below league average at the Free Throw line.

The positive trajectory of Simmons' NBA career had a sharp turning point in the 2021 playoffs when, in the fourth quarter of a 1-point game against the Atlanta Hawks, Simmons elected to pass to a teammate instead of take a wide-open dunk. The Sixers ultimately lost the game and the series, and that moment stuck out in the eyes of Simmons' teammates, basketball fans, and media as the turning point of the game^[4] (shown below).

Ahead of the following season, Simmons declared he did not want to play with the 76ers and demanded to be traded. He stated he would not attend practice until his demand was met. He eventually did return to the team in October of 2021 but was thrown out of practice just eight days after rejoining the team for refusing to participate in a drill. He then was suspended by the team for its season-opening game. Simmons claimed he was struggling with a mental health issue through last year with the 76ers.^[5]

In February of 2022, Simmons was traded to the Brooklyn Nets.^[6] Simmons did not play the rest of the season after a back injury. He eventually made his debut with the team the following season. He played decently in the first half of the season before being shut down in February of 2023 with a knee injury.

On June 6th, 2023, YouTube channel Nonstop posted a video tracking Simmons' career up to that point, gaining over 587,000 views in one year (shown below).

In the 2023-24 season, Simmons only played 19 games and missed the rest due to injuries.

Online Presence

Simmons' struggles have made him the subject of jokes for years, particularly since he passed up a dunk in the 2021 playoffs. Simmons was one of the first players to be the subject of NBA Players Going To China memes, as after the game, fans joked that Simmons would be so unwanted by the Sixers or any other team that he would be forced to play in China's CBA.

Following his February 2022 trade to the Brooklyn Nets, his now-former teammate Joel Embiid tweeted the RIPBozo meme, seemingly indicating his frustrations with Simmons.

In May of 2024, Ben Simmons appeared at the Met Gala, sparking a wave of memes about his lack of play.^[7] For example, on May 6th, Twitter user @asalciunas975^[8] joked that Simmons had put more effort into his outfit than he had into the previous three NBA seasons, gaining over 30 retweets and 560 likes in three weeks (shown below).

Search Interest

External References