Why the LA Clippers were right to not trade for Ben Simmons

One of the hottest topics of the NBA offseason this summer was the Ben Simmons trade saga, and the LA Clippers found themselves involved.

It was reported that Simmons was eyeing California teams, which put the Clippers in the mix.

The Clippers are a bit short on the cash, and very short on tradeable draft picks to make a deal like that work. They’d have to send over many key role players, which isn’t good for the chemistry of the team that they’re trying to build.

Recently, however, it’s become overwhelmingly obvious that the Clips made the right move.

Ben Simmons’ recent theatrics prove that the LA Clippers were right to not trade for him.

Ben Simmons has recently been continuing to make headlines for the wrong reasons.

First, he wouldn’t show up to 76ers practice.

Then, he finally showed up, but refused to do a drill when Sixers Head Coach and former Clippers Head Coach Doc Rivers asked him to. Rivers had to send him home, and suspend him for the season opener.

Ty Lue and this hungry Clippers team don’t have time for players who are too cool to participate in drills during practice. This act from Simmons even sparked a harsh (and justifiable) response from Philadelphia superstar Joel Embiid:

Simmons is exactly what the Clippers don’t need. As I mentioned early, the Clippers are trying to build chemistry after they didn’t get a ton of opportunity to do that last year with the amount of injuries they faced. The Clips can’t afford a divided locker room.

Next, Simmons then decided to claim that the reason he doesn’t want to play is because he’s “not mentally ready,” and he’s going to speak with medical professionals about this.

It’s a major slap in the face to the millions of people who struggle through mental illness daily to take something so serious and try to use it as a crutch for your unwillingness to be there for your teammates.

Simmons got paid over $30.5 million last season and is on contract to make $33 million this year.

He’s been complaining ever since last year’s postseason. It’s been reported that part of Simmons’ issue is that he doesn’t want to play in front of the Philly fans because of how much they will boo him.

Sixers fans are notoriously tough, but it’s hard to fathom using that as an excuse when he’s getting paid the tens of millions of dollars he’s receiving every year. He’s even under contract for three years after this season too, set to make over $113 million in those three seasons alone.

How weak-minded must a basketball player be to the point where getting paid this sort of king’s ransom to play a game is not worth it because the fans boo when he plays poorly? Also, they don’t boo him solely for playing poorly. Much of it is due to his effort on the court, most notably summed up by this moment in the postseason last year, where he chose not to jam an open dunk because he was scared he’d either miss or get fouled.

Fans can’t stand him because he stopped giving effort. The weak-minded Simmons decides that he won’t even try to shoot the ball anymore, blames Sixers fans for him not going to the job that pays him over $30 million per year, lets his teammates down and refuses to show up almost the entire offseason when they came to the facilities and put in the work themselves, won’t even participate in drills like everyone else when he actually does go to practice, and now we’re supposed to believe his newest excuse of him not being “mentally ready?”

Again, this is so disrespectful to all those who truly do suffer from mental health issues in silence. People who don’t have the luxury of getting paid well over $30 million every year to play a game, and battle uncontrollable hardships without being able to blame Philadelphia sports fans.

Many are speculating that Simmons is now claiming mental illness due to the collective bargaining agreement pointing out that players can’t be fined if their non-participation is caused by a mental disability.

The timing of this seems to work out perfectly, doesn’t it? He can disrespectfully claim a mental disability to excuse himself from his childish and weak behavior while finding a way out of these fines for missing team activities. I have always taken mental health issues very seriously, and it’s very problematic that people like Simmons want to treat it like a trend to hop on when he chooses to make selfish decisions in his career.

The Clippers have no need to deal with a character like this. Simmons is exceptional at everything on the basketball court other than shooting and gathering the courage to shoot. However, there is no chance the Clippers should be taking a chance on someone who clearly doesn’t care about his teammates and disrespects his coach when he simply asks him to participate in a drill.

Even when he does practice, he gets caught practicing with his phone just in his pocket.

How do we know he won’t pull this same kind of behavior in LA?

The Clippers were right to not trade for Simmons in the past, and it becomes more and more clear as the time goes on.