NBA legend Isiah Thomas slams Ben Simmons

HALL of Fame point guard Isiah Thomas has ripped into Australian basketballer Ben Simmons during the NBA Summer League.

Ben Simmons continues to be a divisive figure.

IF you thought the Ben Simmons bashing would stop now that he’s settling into life in the NBA with the Philadelphia 76ers, guess again.

The Aussie continues to be an easy target for NBA commentators — this time Hall of Fame point guard Isiah Thomas at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.

The Detroit Pistons champion was covering the tournament for NBA TV when he discovered the No. 1 draft pick would be sitting out Thursday’s game against a D-League Select team.

It was the second preseason game Simmons missed after sitting out Philadelphia’s second game in the Utah Summer League last week after suffering cramp in both calves.

On the surface it seemed like understandable workload management from the 76ers for their newest young star. Simmons has a long year ahead, so surely ensuring he’s not overburdened at this point of the summer was a reasonable move?

Not according to Thomas. It was not only a bad idea — but Simmons fault. As the Victorian-raised youngster signed autographs and took photographs with Sixers fans courtside, the two-time NBA champion let rip.

“As a young player, he should be playing tonight,” Thomas said. “You’ve got people coming into the building, they want to watch him play. He’s a rookie. Taking selfies and signing autographs, I mean you’re 19. Earn your money, get out on the floor, perform and play. Don’t start developing bad habits right now.”

It was a typical old-school attitude from a member of the “Bad Boy” Pistons but one with little validity in today’s age. Perhaps Thomas was upset at 76ers coach Brett Brown daring to draw comparisons between him and Simmons last week.

Really, Isiah?

Asked if Simmons could play as a point guard in the NBA, Brown said: “Everyone gets all twisted on what their version of a point guard is. When I say point guard I mean point guard. You’ve got the ball. You could call him Isiah Thomas, the old Isiah Thomas of my generation. You could call him Chris Paul. I mean point guard, point guard. There are times I think that he can be a point guard. Not Draymond Green. Not LeBron (James). Not Lamar Odom. That’s a point forward. I walk both lines at different moments. To start him off, we’ll play him as a point forward.”

Whatever Thomas’s motivations, his views were ridiculed by Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Bob Ford. “Coming from a guy like Isiah — and let’s look back over his history a little bit. This is a guy who froze Michael Jordan out of the All-Star game, who took his team off the court after a playoff series without shaking hands with the other team, who was an utter failure as a coach twice, who completely ruined the New York Knicks franchise and his biggest accomplishment was getting a harassment suit from a female employee that was settled in the favour of the young woman for $11.5 million,” Ford said.

“So yeah, it really matters to me what Isiah Thomas thinks about a team-directed day off for a rookie against a D-League All-Star team. Yeah, that’s really important. Isiah, shut up!”

Simmmons is also sitting out Friday’s game against Brooklyn. We wonder what Thomas thinks about that.