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It's been months since an early August incident between an Australian casino and Philadelphia 76ers star Ben Simmons, who was asked for his ID along with his black friends, while the lone white friend of the group was not.
“I find it so crazy that the only guy who doesn’t get checked to go into the casino is this [white] guy,” said Simmons, who became the richest Australian professional athlete since signing a five-year, $170 million extension with the Sixers last year, according to Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. “They didn’t let me in, or him, or him, or this guy. Wow, we’ve got a long way to go.”
Even as the 2019-20 season-opener approaches, the incident is still vivid as ever in Simmons' mind.
“The first thing that comes to my mind is, ‘OK, obviously it’s not a random thing. This is you picking us out,’” said Simmons. “It didn’t make us feel good. You’ve probably been in situations where you felt lesser or just made you feel lesser of a person or just not good about yourself. But it wasn’t really about me not feeling good about myself. It was me knowing that’s not right, and me letting them know it’s not right.
“And knowing that there’s other people that have definitely experienced the same thing but can’t say anything because they don’t have the same platform. They can say something, but they might not reach as many people. And knowing I was able to do that and bring awareness to the situation, I was happy about it, and I didn’t really care what the media was going to say, what people were going to say, because it doesn’t matter.
“Everybody should be respected and treated the same way.”
Simmons faced plenty of backlash for this incident, as some alleged he wanted to be let into the casino just because he's famous, while others supported his message and advocated for equal treatment.
“I’m never going to back down, because I know I wasn’t in the wrong,” said Simmons. “It wasn’t a situation where I was making things up. It is what it was. It is what it is. …
“And I’m not afraid to let anybody know how I feel about it because I am who I am. At the end of the day, I’m from Australia. I was born there, I was raised. It’s where I’m from. And I want that respect too.”
Simmons has been proactive when it comes to being a black athlete, even producing a documentary called The Australian Dream, about Australian Rules Football star Adam Goodes, who is indigenous and dealt with racism. The Sixers star is hardly the first to deal with these kinds of issues, but it's one that the NBA is trying to clean up within its sport with the new zero-tolerance policy put in place.
While that won't apply to casinos outside of the U.S., it is still a way to make NBA arenas a safe place, encouraging others places to follow that same lead.
