Somewhere in this blessed land, there may still be a man who saw Babe Ruth hit a home run. Bambino hit 22 home runs as a Yankee in 1934 and six more as a Brave in 1935, so that lucky guy must have been 95 years old or so, but the boy was only 5 or 6 years old at the time. It should be.
It may not be easy to find. But they’ll probably be there.
I don’t know if anyone will be similarly lucky enough to witness the fact that Ben Simmons was actually one of the NBA’s best 15 players, but even if league records say Ben Simmons was in the 2019-20 season, Despite his claims, he was on the third team All-NBA team along with Jimmy Butler and Jayson Tatum.
That’s sad. Unless you take it very seriously, or unless he’s a 76ers acolyte, the first 50 or so images of Simmons aren’t that he handles the ball incredibly well for a stand-up player. be. Whether it was his 6-foot-10 height, his deft ball passing, or his unselfish fast-break running style, or the lockdown tenacity that led him to first-team All-Defense two years in a row.
no. Most of your memories are of him on a bench somewhere, wearing a sweater or a business suit, maybe warming up, gently clapping for his teammates, or seeing him when the team huddled together. It’s about letting your eyes wander. , then return to the bench. It’s almost impossible to imagine him wearing Brooklyn Nets team colors.
Simmons was ruled out for the remainder of the season on Thursday. That means, by season’s end, he had played in exactly 57 of the 191 games he was a part of the Nets’ roster for, earning him roughly $86.3 million in compensation. As a net amount he is worth $1.51 million per game. This is amazing. And that makes him $58,907 per minute, which is amazing.
Per minute.
For anyone interested in basketball, this is a major disappointment. Simmons was supposed to be a cornerstone player in the sport, a big man with vision and grace who played well on both ends of the floor. He missed his entire rookie season with an injury and then the entire 2021-22 season (which the Nets acquired in a trade), but hasn’t had a chance to prove it since his career started to falter in Philadelphia in the 2021 playoffs. It was only on a regular basis.
For anyone who follows New York sports, even if you’re not a Nets fan, the Simmons case has become a regular wake-up call that you hear from time to time in a city with a team that has little fear of making big contracts. There is. It’s bad that players can’t live up to their salaries. Things get even worse when you can’t even post.
Almost every team has someone like that. The Yankees had Carl Pavano, who amassed $38 million and started just 26 games between 2005 and 2008. Of course, the Jets have Aaron Rodgers, but his record is incomplete assuming he plays for the Jets next year. The Knicks have Antonio McDyess, who appeared in a total of 18 games from 2002 to 2004 and cashed in $26.1 million in salary from the Knicks.
There is a separate category that Alan Houston and David Wright each belong to. Both were All-Stars and base players in their original contracts, but although they played well for the first two years of a seven-year extension that was extended to $100 million in 2001, Houston suffered two more injury-hit years and was signed in 2005. He never played again after that year. He made every penny from the first contract extension he signed in 2006, but after re-signing for seven years and $122 million in 2012, he played in just 323 of a possible 1,134 games, with one remaining. I retired in 2016.
In fact, the only contender for Simmons’ crown is Jed Lowry. He signed with the Mets as a free agent in January 2019 and cashed out $20 million in 2019 and 2020 due to a knee injury, totaling eight at-bats while wearing clothing. – Can you guess? who? – No. 4. On September 16, he walked Colorado’s Jairo Díaz in the ninth inning to score a run, got to second base on Rene Rivera’s single, advanced to third on a groundout, and that was it. If the Mets were to retire No. 4, it could be Francisco Alvarez. It wouldn’t be for Laurie.
(Which begs the question – no cheating! – What number is Ben Simmons wearing with the Nets?)
It was, or maybe ten.
