Former Philadelphia Sixers guard and current Brooklyn Net Ben Simmons recently visited The Old Man & the Three podcast, hosted by JJ Redick and Tommy Alter. Simmons finally broke the silence on the time he infamously passed up on a dunk in Game 7 of the playoffs two seasons ago.
Redick mentions that everyone put the blame on Simmons for that botch– Simmons calling it the 100 point basket because of the gravity of the situation.
“In the moment I just spun and I'm assuming Trae is going to come over quicker,” Simmons said to Redick. “I'm thinking he's going to come full blown and I see Matisse going– you know, Matisse is athletic, can get up. So I'm thinking, okay, quick pass. He's got to flush it not knowing how much space there was. It happened. It happened so quick that you just make a read. And in the playoffs you need to make the right decisions the majority of the time.”
To Simmons credit, it was a bang-bang type of play, and it's hard to react that quickly to something. Simmons also admitted that he was just ‘spinning into a jersey.' He didn't know that it was the six foot one Trae Young. In the playoffs, you do need to make the right decisions the majority of the time, and this one was a crucial mistake that Ben Simmons should have just gone up with and jammed home.
“For that moment, I mean, bro, it happened and I was like, ‘OK. Now we got to go make another play.' That's how I'm thinking. Then I didn't realize how, you know, everyone was posting and I'm like, it was that big?”
Simmons' attitude on the play was the right one. It seemed that he moved on to the next play quickly, but Sixers fans clearly didn't.
In breaking down the play with Simmons, JJ Redick tried to soften the blow for Simmons. But, he also rightfully poked fun at him.
“But look, when it slows down, it looks really bad Ben,” Redick said.
“Yeah, it looks terrible,” Simmons responded.
Ben Simmons doesn't seem to be that bothered about his decision making, as the game is now obviously in the past, but admitted he made the wrong play.
“When I look at it now, I'm like, ‘Man, I should've just punched that shit.” But it didn't happen and I was okay with that.”
Follow Us
Subscribe