Ben Simmons roasted in fiery rant as Nets star vows to put injury hell behind him

Outspoken American host Stephen A. Smith has torn shreds off of Ben Simmons after he stated he has overcome his injury issues.

Ben Simmons believes he will be free of his injuries going into the 2023 NBA season. (Photo by Justin Ford/Getty Images)

After plenty of talk about Ben Simmons all summer, the enigmatic Net finally opened up about his rehab, his status and relationship with head coach Jacque Vaughn.

In a lengthy, far-ranging interview with ESPN-run site Andscape, Simmons touched on his health (both physical and mental), his expectation he will be ready for this season, and fixing a relationship with his coach that he said started off “terrible.”

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And that’s just scratching the surface.

“For me to come back and dominate people will be great,” Simmons said.

“I don’t intend to come back the same player I was last [season], because that’s not even close to where I am. I get excited because I’m like, ‘Damn, I would [expletive] on the player I was last year.’ But I know where I was at last year, so it’s easy to say that. But it’s just fun to go and do the thing that you love when you’re out there.”

However, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith believes Simmons’ talk is cheap and he must finally deliver on the court to earn his sizeable paycheck.

“We know this much about Ben Simmons as well, the brother don’t miss the checks,” Smith said in a rant that last almost two minutes.

“The checks keep coming in. No matter what is going on with him mentally or emotionally, the brother shows up to the bank to get his money. At some point in time, you’ve got to earn it.

“I know he’s been through a lot and I understand that. But considering how great his talent was and considering me meeting him face-to-face last year, swearing down that he’s ready to go, and then you wet the bed the way you did last season? I’m sick of this.

Simmons has played very little basketball in the past two years. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

“This is a great talent that is putting his talent to waste. Nobody in their right mind would trust them in the future. The only reason he’s still in the NBA literally is because he got a guaranteed contract over the next two years because he hasn’t done a damn thing to earn it.

“It’s time for Ben Simmons to step up. I understand whatever it is you were going through, I get that, I’m not sitting here diminishing any of that stuff he was going through, but enough’s enough.

“You’re getting money, ain’t you? You’re getting paid, ain’t you? Ain’t nobody asking you to go on the front lines in Ukraine against Russia, it’s about basketball.

“What the hell’s wrong with you? Step the hell up.”

Simmons was the centrepiece of the James Harden trade to Philadelphia, but didn’t play at all in 2021-22 due to a bad back. Simmons said he was on the verge of suiting up in the playoffs when he aggravated his back, prompting a microdiscectomy surgery for a herniated L-4 disk on May 5, 2022.

“And then from there, I decided to have surgery,” Simmons said.

“Rehab was a little different because it wasn’t with people that I’ve been with before, so it kind of felt a little bit new. It was just one of those things where they didn’t really know my body, so they didn’t know what I really needed at the time.”

Simmons watching on from the bench. (Photo by Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images)

What Simmons needed at the time was more time.

Experts told The Post recovery time would be 18 months. Simmons tried to play through pain last season, but acknowledged that was a mistake.

“Yeah, definitely,” Simmons said. “I was definitely on the floor when I shouldn’t have been on the floor at the start of the season.

“But I also don’t think I was in a place not to play. That played into it too, but at the end of the day, my body is my career, so I do need it to be healthy. So, I made decisions based on just trying to please the people. I don’t think that was right, personally, for me.”

Simmons credits switching agents to Bernie Lee with helping him get to the bottom of his woes.

Test showed he’d herniated both the right and left side of his back.

Sources close to Simmons told The Post there was frustration at times between the Nets coach and the team’s only former All-Star.

Simmons admitted as much.

“I feel like our relationship, to start, was terrible,” said Simmons, who added he and Vaughn hadn’t built any rapport when Vaughn was Steve Nash’s assistant.

Ben Simmons has vowed to deliver for the Brooklyn Nets this upcoming season (Photo by ELSA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

“I’m not playing. I don’t really have a relationship with [Vaughn] like that because he wasn’t the head coach, because there’s a little distance, or a little gap between assistants and injured players sometimes. And I got mad at him because there was no communication. There’s none of that. So, [I’m] kind of a little frustrated with Coach. I know Coach is frustrated with me.

“One day, people are telling him [I’m] good, and next, it’s not. From the start, I wasn’t good. So, it was a tough situation for him and myself. But now having the right plan and team around me, now he’s seen, ‘OK, he is dedicated. He wants to work. He wants to win, and he’s willing to do what he needs to do to be on the court.’ So now, we’re in a great place. I speak to him every other day.”

Vaughn has visited with Simmons during his workouts in Miami three times this summer.

He reportedly reassured Simmons he’ll be playing point guard.

Simmons, who has been playing 2-on-2 for two weeks, said he will be ready to start the season and will be in far better form than a year ago.

“Definitely. Yeah,” Simmons said. “The version I’m at now, if I was playing against myself from last season, I would kill him. That’s how I feel.”

This story originally appeared on the New York Post and has been reposted with permission

Originally published as Ben Simmons roasted in fiery rant as Nets star vows to put injury hell behind him