NCAA president fires back at Ben Simmons

AUSSIE basketball star Ben Simmons has come under fire from one of the most powerful men in American sport.

Ben Simmons just wanted to get his hands on the NBA.

AUSTRALIAN basketballer Ben Simmons spent one season at American college LSU before going on to become the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, but it wasn’t because he had his sights set on an education.

Simmons was merely showcasing his talent in the United States for league personnel while he fulfilled the NBA’s minimum age requirement. The rule states that a player must be 19 years old and a year out of high school before he can become draft-eligible, and that makes for a one-and-done college scenario that essentially mocks the educational system.

In a documentary for Showtime chronicling Simmons’ LSU season, he was very outspoken against the unfair treatment that so-called student-athletes receive from the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which governs college sports, and made it extremely clear that he had no interest in attending class during what he perceived to be solely an NBA audition.

“I feel like I’m wasting time,” Simmons said. “It really was a joke. It was a class about preparing for better study habits or skills. I’m going to the NBA next season. So why bulls*** if it’s not going to help me?”

As it turns out, NCAA President and former LSU chancellor Mark Emmert is no fan of the rule, either. But he wants the blame for the one-and-done set up to be placed where it belongs.

It was an unhappy year at times for Ben Simmons at LSU.

“I was reading today where someone who played basketball at LSU was very unhappy with the one-and-done rule,” Emmert told The Advocate. “That’s not our rule. That’s the NBA’s rule. But (he says) it’s another stupid NCAA rule.

“If someone wants to be a pro basketball player and doesn’t want to go to college, don’t go to college.

“We don’t put a gun to your head. First and foremost, it’s about being a student at a university. We’re in the human development business.”

Academically, this set up doesn’t help either side. But universities receive a financial benefit from getting top-level talent for a season — which is something the documentary demonstrated, and Simmons sharply criticised.

This article was originally published by Fox Sports (US) and reproduced with permission.

Originally published as NCAA president fires back at Ben Simmons