Opinion
Why Ben Simmons made the right call with Boomers withdrawal ... for now
Roy Ward
Sports writerIt’s been almost a decade since Ben Simmons was cut from the Australian Boomers team, and the wait for his return will extend at least another year.
On Friday, Simmons and his NBA club franchise, the Brooklyn Nets, told Basketball Australia that he would not be available for selection for the FIBA World Cup in August as he needs more time to recover from the back injury that ruined the second half of his US season.
In the past, Simmons has pulled out of teams while appearing to be physically healthy, but in this situation, it seems an unavoidable decision – albeit one hoops fans across the country will again be frustrated by.
There will be those who still want to criticise Simmons, but him trying to play through a back injury at the World Cup would only hurt the Boomers, and hurt Simmons even more.
Some injuries you can battle against, but in a tournament where teams play almost every day from game one until the medal rounds, such an injury would surely be found out and leave his teammates down a man. They deserve better than that.
Ben Simmons.Credit: AP
Simmons’ decision now, a month before Boomers camp, removes any element of distraction around his status and lets coach Brian Goorjian plan for all that is to come.
Simmons turns 27 in late July and has two seasons remaining in his five-year, US$177 million NBA contract. This season he shapes as the highest-profile player left on the Nets’ roster after the departures of superstars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving during a tumultuous 2022-2023 campaign.
Simmons has been a shadow of himself and battled both physical and psychological issues since he was unfairly blamed for Philadelphia’s playoff loss to Atlanta in 2021.
Goorjian has done everything he can to make the national team desirable for Simmons and the veteran mentor, who has known Simmons for much of his life, remained confident that, if fit, the player would join the team this year.
Sadly, it is not so but with a full NBA season behind him next and, hopefully, Australia finishing high enough at the World Cup to qualify directly for Paris 2024, Simmons could still make his return next year.
As Goorjian said at a Melbourne United business lunch earlier this month: The Boomers are a better team with Simmons on the court. I drove from Melbourne to Canberra in 2013 to watch Simmons and Dante Exum, both then teenagers, play for the Boomers in a World Cup qualifier against New Zealand.
The pair were clearly loving their chance to play at home for the national team, and even in a modestly filled AIS Arena, fans went straight to the young duo post-game.
But the next year Simmons, then starring in US high school basketball, came home for Boomers tryouts and was cut from the team ahead of the 2014 FIBA World Cup.
At the time, some people feared he would never return to the national set-up and that has largely been the case as he rose into the NBA and became the nation’s first home-grown NBA All-Star.
Ben Simmons in an image posted to Instagram.
His critics will point to Josh Giddey being cut from the Tokyo team, admitting his disappointment, and still putting himself up for the Boomers this year as a demonstration of Simmons’ shortcomings.
I would say it says more about Giddey’s resilience – not to mention that he was able to still play in the Tokyo lead-up tournament and further boost his NBA draft stock.
Many in the national set-up understood why Simmons stood out of events in his draft year and early NBA career after a foot injury wiped out his first campaign.
After all, the likes of Andrew Bogut and Luc Longley have missed tournaments over the years when injuries lingered or their NBA sides demanded they withdraw – still, those players found a way to eventually star for their country.
Simmons’ escapades in 2019 still rankle many who love the Boomers as he infamously declared via a social media video that May that he would play for the Boomers in their “upcoming events” and then in July withdrew on the advice of his management and team, having just signed his NBA max contract.
Simmons did train with the Boomers ahead of their games against Team USA at Marvel Stadium, but that reversal left many to wonder if playing for the Boomers was just a “bucket list item” for the star player.
But as Simmons revealed to Good Weekend last year, his health issues have been real and debilitating so missing the Tokyo Olympics was accepted by Goorjian and senior Boomers.
Ben Simmons, photographed in New York last September.Credit: Ben Sklar
Injuries and contract issues are a way of life with elite basketballers, and the better the Boomers have become, the more headaches Goorjian and Basketball Australia have to face.
They still believe bringing Simmons back around fellow Australian stars could reinvigorate him after being burned so badly by the ruthlessness of the NBA, but that can’t happen until he walks through that door – healthy.
The Boomers have still become one of the world’s best sides, finishing fourth at the Rio Olympics in 2016, narrowly missing the gold medal game in China at the 2019 world cup, and claiming the bronze medal in Tokyo.
Health and NBA deals permitting, this Boomers outfit, led by Patty Mills, Josh Giddey and Joe Ingles, should still field a team worthy of a medal at this year’s world cup and the lead-up games at Rod Laver Arena in mid-August.
Giddey, Josh Green, Dyson Daniels and other young stars also have the side set for a bright future in Paris and beyond.
And Simmons could yet make a significant contribution to that as he enters what should be his prime years.
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