Ben Simmons Punk'd Us All

 I haven't updated this since the start of COVID so alot has changed since my last post. However one thing remains the same -- the Sixers are still Championshipless. And Ben Simmons is on the way out. Let's talk about this for a minute.

Ben Simmons represents a lot of what's wrong with the NBA. Namely, a 25-year-old kid is making $200 million and everyone's upset at him for acting spoiled. Let me tell you something about having $200 million. Oh wait, never mind, let me not because neither I, nor most of you my dear readers, will ever come close to sniffing that kind of money in our lifetimes (no matter how much bitcoin you own).

The dude is loaded. He's an incredible talent that can't quite hack it yet in the bigs. Maybe he never will. But good lord, you earn that kind of dough, you play scared in front of millions of people, you WILL get flamed. You deserve to get flamed. 

Does Simmons gotta leave Philly, NOW? Yes, absolutely. Is he a bonafide fraud? I don't know. Dude's 25. This is the first year he's old enough to rent a car. Bol's a spoiled brat. But he's still got time to grow up. Twenty-five's a tough year. It's quarter-life crisis time. Even crazy rich people are bound to go through it. He's keeping his swagger and his "attitude" because that's what he's got. 

I'm not saying leave Ben Simmons alone. Far from it. Let him hear it. He's gotta learn. If he doesn't, well, then his time's not long for the league. 

And far as he's concerned, so what? Rakin' in that kind of kale at that young an age, he'll never have to work a day in his life ever again. "Philly be damned," he probably thinks, "They nothin but a bunch of haters anyway. I'll just move back to Australia and ride the waves with my family and friends and never look back. Or stay in LA with Adele where nobody cares about that much anyway. Life is good."

As a Philly fan, it's embittering, yes, and anger inducing. We've been bonafide punk'd by this dude and everyone around him. I said I'd never watch another Sixers game until he's gone, and I'm sticking by that. But still, the league isn't off the hook enabling this type of situation. 

Something needs to be done. Can they pay players less? Not a chance. It would end the league as we know it. But there's gotta be more stipulations regarding the rules surrounding what a player can and can't get away with. There's too much money flying around to continue to enable this type of situation. Look, I'm not an agent, I don't do law or contracts or any of that stuff. It's not for my head. But as fans, we don't just cheer the players on, our monetary investments into the team and the league help pay your paycheck. 

Geez.