Not many athletes are as scrutinized as Ben Simmons and the three-time All-Star opened up to Tyler Tynes of GQ about his relationship with his Sixers teammates, tolerance for the media, and his expectations the rest of the way. The entire interview is worth a read but we’ll pass along some highlights:
On his teammates pushing him to be better:
[Dwight Howard is] great. He expects me to come out and do my thing every night and he knows I’m capable of that. He’s been somebody who’s been pushing me every game and letting me know how special I can be on the floor and what I mean to this team and that’s been great. Then Joel, of course. He’s telling me to be aggressive every game. I know that gets the team going when I’m out there being aggressive that gets everybody going.
On the media’s opinion of him:
When I first came into the league, I read a lot more of it. But I’m at the stage now where I try to ignore everybody. I don’t go on Twitter. I don’t read too much into what people are saying about me. I don’t watch ESPN. I don’t watch SportsCenter, none of that. They’ll tell you, if someone puts ESPN in my house it’s going straight off.
…There’s no SportsCenter, unless it’s a game going on or something like that. There’s no Stephen A., there’s none of that…Yeah, turn that off. Turn that shit off [laughs]. That’s just how I am. It’s gone from people watching and enjoying sports and a couple of people talking, to you’re in Vegas and you see the tickers on the bottom of the screen explaining all these comments and what this guy or that guy did. Less is more, sometimes.
When asked who the funniest person on the Sixers is:
Probably Dwight. He’s just funny, man. He cracks me up. He’s always happy, always smiling, always got positive energy. That’s how he is. Everywhere he goes. He brings that.
On declaring himself the Defensive Player of the Year:
It’s the same with people all around me. I tell them all the time, “Yo! I’m Defensive Player of the Year.” I’m not even questioning it right now. I know I am. That’s a fact. And numbers, certain stats, are cool with certain players. But, at the end of the day, you know….The example would be last night. I was supposed to guard [Kevin Durant]. We match up well size wise. KD’s out. The next person I’m guarding is Kyrie [Irving]. Like, who’s doing that? It’s not many players who are doing that. And to be doing it at a high level like that? I don’t think there’s anybody else really doing that. I mean, Kawhi [Leonard] when he was really playing defense like that, of course. But, it’s not too many guys.
On whether the Sixers will win a championship:
Win the championship. I genuinely believe that. I feel like there’s been years where guys would’ve said it on the Sixers, but I don’t think we really believed it. But, I genuinely think this is the year.
