The heavens opened up on Wednesday night for Philadelphia 76ers star Ben Simmons, as the All-Star guard made his first ever 3-pointer in his NBA career. The 23-year-old's acumen from distance — or lack thereof — has long been identified as his Achilles heel, so Simmons' historic make from downtown is certainly a cause for celebration. Following the game — a 109-104 win for the Sixers against the New York Knicks — team head coach Brett Brown shared his two cents worth on Simmons' 3-pointer.
“Like I've said for a while now, other people get more excited about it than I do. But how can that not be a good thing?” Brown said, via Tim Bontemps of ESPN. “And really, if we're all honest, that's the first legitimate sort of 3 he's taken. A lot of them have been heaves at the end of periods and stuff like that. But I think his footwork, his confidence — he rose up and he didn't blink.
“He looked great.”
Simmons' teammate, Joel Embiid, seemed to echo his coach's thoughts. Philadelphia's prized big man admitted that it was indeed a milestone, but like his coach, also tried to played down what he claims to be nothing out of the ordinary.
“We need him to shoot,” Embiid said. “It's great to see him make it, take it, most importantly make it. That's great. He's going to keep getting better and make it happen. But it was nothing special. We see it in practice. We've seen it a lot, so it's not surprising to me.”
As much as they'd like to play this down, there's no denying that this is definitely a headline-worthy accomplishment for Simmons. Does this mean, however, that he's now going to start regularly making 3-pointers from here on out? Probably not.
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