Ben Simmons was nowhere to be found Monday night, recusing himself from the Nets’ Game 4 loss to Boston. As reported by Howard Beck of Sports Illustrated, the embattled 25-year-old wasn’t even in the building, absent from Barclays Center as the Nets watched their season come to an end, bowing out to the Celtics in four games.
The three-time All-Star had previously joined his Brooklyn teammates on the bench for Games 1-3, garnering attention with his bold outfit choices. Simmons had been on track to return for Game 4, but, in a surprising turn of events, decided he wasn’t ready after encountering a setback to his injured back. Coming off a 10-month NBA hiatus, it’s doubtful Simmons would have played more than a handful of minutes, though his decision not to attend Game 4, even as a spectator, makes for some questionable optics.
The perception, at least among media members like Stephen A. Smith and Reggie Miller, is that Simmons, upon the Nets going down 3-0 in their first-round series with Boston, saw the writing on the wall and, with little chance of Brooklyn mounting a historic comeback, decided to pack it in, giving up on a season that, for him, never began. There’s probably more to it than that—we know Simmons has struggled with mental health issues in the past, short-circuiting before our eyes in last year’s playoff loss to Atlanta. However, at the same time, it’s hard not to get frustrated at a player squandering a year of his athletic prime, holding two franchises hostage while showing little sense of urgency, prioritizing clothes and video games (fans noticed he’s been playing an unconscionable amount of COD) over what was once a promising NBA career.
Throughout the season, the biggest criticism of the Nets was their defense, yielding over 112 points per game. Simmons would have been a huge help in that regard, though obviously it wasn’t meant to be. Even with two of the league’s top scorers and a perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate in Simmons, it’s hard to feel confident about Brooklyn’s trajectory in a loaded Eastern Conference with title contenders in Boston, Miami, Milwaukee and Philadelphia.
Before the series started, Kendrick Perkins of ESPN suggested the Nets should shut down Simmons for the season, believing rumors of his return had become a distraction. The Simmons drama isn’t why Brooklyn lost—the Celtics were a better, more complete team (Ime Udoka ran circles around Steve Nash, whose adjustments proved too little too late). But it couldn’t have helped.
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