Son of gun Simmons turns up heat

Brett Brown had the grizzled yet enthusiastic vibe of a veteran mentor, particularly whne he’s talking about Ben Simmons.

Ben Simmons drives against Miami Heat’s DeAndre Liggins.

Philadelphia 76ers coach Brett Brown was flicking through his stats sheet with a drawling accent and world-weary demeanour that was not dissimilar to Al Pacino’s character in A ny Given Sunday when he started offloading the superlatives about the alley-ooping, slam-dunking, no-look passing performance of Ben Simmons against the Miami Heat.

Brown had the grizzled yet enthusiastic vibe of a veteran mentor who’s been in the game for a bit. He’s been coaching basketball since forever ago, as far as Simmons knows forever to be. Their decades-long family connection began before Simmons was born; it began when it was rather more acceptable in Australian sport for a high-profile athlete to take a liking to one of his team’s cheerleaders.

“This is the real story behind it,” Brown once said. “Ben Simmons is the son of someone I coached for four years. David Simmons was from Harlem, New York. He could have been a linebacker, he could have been a prize fighter. He was a basketball player more out of athleticism and girth than he was out of finesse and skill. He was tough, tough six-eight and hard. I was Ben’s dad’s assistant coach when he was playing with the Melbourne Tigers and his mum was the head cheerleader and then here comes Ben Simmons.”

Brown was pleased enough with the 21-year-old Australian’s final hitout before his NBA debut against the Washington Wizards on Thursday morning (AEDT). Simmons drained 19 points while making seven rebounds and five assists in a commanding 24-point win over the Heat. His oft-stated mission to make an immediate impact on the NBA while turning the 76ers into playoff contenders will begin inside the 20,000-seat Capital One Arena in the nation’s capital.

“I thought he had the most complete game of any of the pre-season games,” Brown said. “There were a few times in the first half when he got blown by but then he played about six inches lower, defensively, and went to a whole other place athletically. I think offensively, he was just incredibly efficient. I don’t think he had a turnover and that whole thing weighed up to be his most efficient, productive game.”

Brown looked away from his stats sheet and added: “Ben was excellent moving off the ball. He’s a very underrated off-ball cutter. He can find places on the floor to navigate and find mismatches. We take great pride in the passing. The pass is king. The pass is everything.”

Simmons seems to be the sort of low-key athlete who will deliver an explosive quote as often as a stone might ooze some blood but it was undoubtedly his most satisfying outing before the biggest moment of his sporting life on Thursday. Every home match for the 76ers this season is a sellout as Simmons, the powerhouse Joel Embiid and the veteran JJ Reddick attempt to arrest a woefully barren era for the club.

“I took the sleeve off, maybe that had something to do with it,” Simmons said of playing without the medical sleeve he usually wears along his left arm. “I just felt comfortable. My mind was right. I just tried to fit myself into the game and it came through. It’s good for us to finish off the pre-season with a win for the team. That’s going to help us. Individually, I felt like I had a pretty good game but there’s still plenty to work on. Obviously. We’re getting better each game. We’re understanding each other.”