Marc J. Spears: Nets’ Ben Simmons’ ‘swag’ is different now
Brooklyn Nets guard Ben Simmons has been through plenty of trials and tribulations to get to where he is now, which is being the healthiest that he’s been since his days as a Philadelphia 76er. From all of the reports that have come out over the course of this summer, it seems that Simmons can finally put his injuries behind him.
Marc J. Spears of Andscape and ESPN recently made an appearance on ESPN’s NBA Today show to give his takeaways from his in-depth interview with Simmons that he published at the end of August. On the show, Spears noted that Simmons’ demeanor during the interview was completely different from what the NBA world has been used to for the past two years.
Simmons, 27, has played just 42 games in the past two seasons as he has dealt with a combination of his holdout while being in Philadelphia and his back injuries/surgeries that have either prevented him from playing or have affected his performance level. Last season, he was ruled out in March for the rest of the 2022-23 campaign because of a nerve impingement in his back that he finally recovered from this summer.
Here’s a little bit of what Spears had to say about Simmons:
“This confidence and swag that he had (during the interview) certainly is much different than we’ve seen from him in the last two years. He (Simmons) told me this is the healthiest he’s been, which you know I’m sure a lot of Nets fans and NBA fans are saying that they heard this before. But, one thing he mentioned when we went to get a bite in Miami was, hey I drove here and my back didn’t hurt. A year ago, people had to drive me. I couldn’t even sit still. And, so he’s like, he’s out of a lot of pain, he’s talking about being an All-Star again.”
