- [Narrator] Early in Ben Simmons's career
here's what everyone saw in him.
Limitless potential, a budding superstar, our next king.
Here's what Jared Dudley,
a 33-year old journeyman averaging 4.9 points per game,
saw in him.
Weakness.
Considering where Simmons's career is now,
the more prophetic vision came from the low-scoring old guy
who did I mention has the respect of young stars
around the league?
Not every young star, of course.
Let's take a look at where these two were in 2019,
the year of our beef.
Dudley was on the Nets as a 12-year veteran
averaging about 20 minutes a game
and not scoring a whole lot.
So what the hell was I talking about before?
Why do good players respect him?
Basically, two reasons.
One, he used to be better.
Lots of players would like to have that number
near their name.
Dudley was never the quickest, never the most athletic,
but for approximately the first half of his career,
he was a reliable role player, a three and D guy.
On Phoenix, he averaged double digits three years in a row.
As he bounced from team to team,
he didn't keep up that production
nor that three-point percentage
and he spent more and more of his time on the bench.
Yet he remained a desirable acquisition.
Which brings us to the second reason Dudley earned respect
from young players.
In the back half of his career,
he took on a new role, that of veteran mentor.
He was like a coach who was on the court
and in the locker room with the team.
What I'm saying could be fluff and just how you talk
about any old veteran who's still lingering
around the league after a decade,
but Dudley was really good at what he did.
He actually acted like a coach.
He wasn't afraid to pull players aside in games
and tell them they were doing something wrong.
Back with Phoenix in the 2017 and '18 seasons,
he had no problem calling out Devin Booker in film sessions
And it was effective.
Dudley actually helped Booker become
one of the game's brightest stars.
With Milwaukee in 2015,
Dudley served as a mentor to Giannis Antetokounmpo
during the multi-time MVP winner's sophomore season.
And on the Nets in 2019,
he was basically part of the coaching staff
who played 20 minutes a game.
Look what the Nets head coach said about him,
"He engages the coaches."
This isn't just the leadership of any old vet.
Dudley had something special going on
and that made him valuable to his teammates
even though he wasn't the best player in the world.
Which brings us to the other side of this beef coin.
I'll put the recipe in the comments.
We have Ben Simmons
who kind of seems like he could
actually become the best player in the world.
Before he even entered college,
Simmons was called the "ultimate modern NBA player."
What was so impressive?
Well, he was 6'10",
but moved and ran and drove and passed like a point guard.
That's the Magic Johnson model.
As a freshman at LSU,
he played forward where he looked more LeBron James-esque.
Still good to pretty good company.
After a year of college life, he declared for the 2016 draft
and scouts had very nice things to say about him.
The 76ers took him first overall
and he was expected to make an impact right away.
Well, right after his broken foot healed.
Simmons debuted in the 2017-18 season
and won Rookie of the Year with flair.
Looked like he was living up to the hype.
In his sophomore season, he became an All-Star
and have we talked about his defense yet?
Is there anything this guy can't do?
Yes, yes there is.
And also that caused a bit of a Playoff meltdown
in 2018 when the Celtics defense sagged off him
'cause they knew he wasn't gonna shoot.
But he was young.
And look, bottom line, Simmons was an All-Star
without being able or willing to shoot.
That's a feat.
Maybe it couldn't last forever.
Maybe it couldn't fly in the post-season
when the competition was higher, but maybe it could.
In the 2019 Playoffs,
Simmons had another chance to show us
if he could prosper without a jumper.
Or as Dudley more bluntly put it,
before the Net-Sixers opening round matchup,
"We will leave Simmons wide open
until he proves in this league he can hit shots."
Beef served.
Though "served" is too gentle a word.
Beef slopped onto Ben Simmons's unsuspecting plate
while an old man on the end of the bench says, "Eat it."
And in Game 1, Simmons ate it.
Mostly because of that old man at the end of the bench.
Dudley marked Simmons for 22 possessions,
in which the young star went one of five for two points.
In other meaner words, a guy who looked like,
what they said, shut down the guy
who was supposed to be elite.
Though that's not exactly how Simmons saw it.
He blamed himself and gave no credit to Dudley's defense.
In fact, he implied Dudley's defense was weak
and something he should take advantage of.
Then he went out and had a great Game 2.
While Dudley was injured I should mention.
Game 2 saw some team-wide beef.
Joel Embiid bloodied Jared Allen's lip with a hard elbow.
It was unclear if it was dirty or accidental,
but the refs gave Embiid the benefit of the doubt
with just a flagrant 1.
In the post-game presser, Embiid apologized,
but something about it didn't seem genuine.
- Obviously, it wasn't intentional
and I got him pretty good and I'm sorry about it but.
(Simmons and Embiid chuckle)
- [Narrator] Dudley was not pleased
with the foul nor the laughing.
And shortly thereafter, shove some more beef Simmons's way.
Average? Okay, he won't shoot, but average?
The guy can make plays. The guy can drive.
It seemed like Dudley was way off-base exaggerating
on the Fresh Prince's one weakness.
Reporters asked Ben Simmons to respond
and he essentially said, "Jared is a journeyman scrub.
Who cares what he thinks?" In fewer words.
- It's Jared Dudley, c'mon.
- [Narrator] Honestly, he didn't need any words.
His facial expression said at all.
Now this doesn't quite mesh
with how Dudley's young teammates of the past
and present view him.
But "teammate" is probably the critical word there.
An astute critical eye is less welcome
from an opponent during a Playoff matchup.
And to the public,
Dudley was simply a guy who looks like, you know,
who scored five points a game.
He didn't have the right to call out Simmons
and the PG was correct to brush him away like a summer gnat.
And in Game 3, it was Simmons who made Dudley,
back from injury, look foolish.
He was anything but average
and had the best Playoff game of his life.
The broadcasters took sides as they watched Simmons dazzle.
After this authoritative dunk,
they made fun of Dudley's seemingly overblown claim.
- [Commentator] I think that was in the half court too.
- [Narrator] All game long,
Simmons treated Dudley with zero respect.
Less than zero really.
When Dudley protested to refs, Simmons laughed at him,
enjoying the old guy's consternation.
And when Dudley air balled the wide-open three-pointer
with the Nets down 15, Simmons held his arms wide open
as if to sarcastically say,
"Ladies and gentlemen, Jared Dudley."
Dudley's Game 3 performance,
let's just say it's not the kind of performance
that puts one in a position to criticize others.
Post-game, the Sixers point guard said he was done feuding
with Dudley.
The subtext was it's beneath him.
And the general consensus was, look at the stat lines.
Simmons has shut Dudley up.
Now Dudley didn't think he'd been silenced,
but he'd certainly been tempered for those few sentences.
'Cause in Game 4, he was constantly chirping at Simmons.
In the first quarter,
he stole the ball from the young hot sho- er, hot passer,
and then said something to him.
And look, Simmons was willing to engage.
So much for him being done with the beef.
In the last two minutes of the second quarter,
Dudley hit his second three of the game
and threw Simmons's taunt right back at him.
Added a little something though.
Just before the end of the half, there was a little shoving.
Foreshadowing, middle of the third,
Embiid put a hard foul on Jared Allen.
The guy he got away with bloodying in Game 2.
Dudley was not about to let Embiid get away
with another assault on his team.
It's part of being a leader. Gotta stand up for your guys.
In the ensuing melee,
Simmons and Dudley did end up on top of each other,
but Simmons was kind of shoved into Dud.
Now, we don't know if there was any poking or scratching
or mean words being whispered in here.
But from what we can see, they weren't going for each other.
Dudley along with the Sixers' Jimmy Butler was ejected
and, seemed for the moment, Embiid overshadowed Simmons
as Dudley's enemy.
Embiid acted unbothered,
but still threw an insult Dudley's way.
One that echoed Simmons's analysis.
Before Game 5, Dudley refocused back on Simmons.
He clarified his "Simmons is average" statement,
saying he was talking as a coach and analyst.
It wasn't personal.
- My comments were directed as basically me being a coach
or analyst.
- [Narrator] Which makes it worse.
Like, "Don't worry Simmons, I don't hate you.
It's just an objective fact
that you're not good in the half court."
But then the beef kind of got lost
in an extremely lopsided Game 5.
The Sixers embarrassed and eliminated the Nets by 22 points.
The beef grew cold without the heat of the spotlight.
Nobody was asking for quotes from Jared Dudley anymore,
his team was out.
And Simmons was on to the next series.
So beef was flying back and forth
for just one Playoff series,
but the resulting splatter lasted a lot longer.
Let's take a look at where their careers went next.
Dudley signed a minimum contract with the Lakers
for the following season.
There were a few reasons posited
for why LA would want Dudley.
One, his reputation as a great leader in the locker room.
Two, his reputation for mentoring
and teaching young players could help out Kyle Kuzma.
And three, his brand new reputation built
in the Sixers series,
that he can be a very effective defender
and also he can be an irritant, which isn't without worth.
Dudley had a lot of fun with the Lakers in 2020.
The most fun you can have as an NBA player in fact.
He retired from playing a season later
and was immediately hired as an assistant coach
for the Mavericks.
He went out on top.
Meanwhile, Ben Simmons. Well, you know what?
Simmons really made Dudley look like an intelligent analyst
and that's the only positive spin I can put
on his depressing downfall.
In the 2021 post-season,
his shooting woes grew beyond anything
the NBA-viewing public had ever seen before.
Simmons was a 60% free throw shooter in the regular season,
but then he morphed into the worst free throw shooter
in Playoff history.
Opponents employed a late game Hack-A-Ben strategy,
which made him even more reluctant to shoot.
It was kind of unbelievable.
Let's take a look at the most damning instance.
Sixers versus Hawks, Second Round, Game 7,
Sixers down two with three and a half minutes left.
Simmons displayed his quickness,
the skills scouts saw early in his career.
Spinning away from his defender,
getting wide open under the basket,
and he made sure somebody else
would be shooting those free throws.
The beef didn't cause Ben Simmons's downfall.
In fact, there's so many storylines in the Simmons saga,
Dudley's hardly ever mentioned as part of it.
If you think about it, I wouldn't be surprised
if Ben Simmons looked back on the Net-Sixers series fondly.
He had his best performances
and he had people behind him, standing up for him,
defending him.
There hasn't been a lot of that ever since.
After a contentious holdout with the Sixers,
Ben ended up on the Nets
where he is not close to the predictions from his youth.
Everyone was wrong about Ben Simmons.
Scouts, the Sixers, journalists, Magic Johnson.
Except for one guy at the end of the bench.