Sixers' Ben Simmons Won NBA Coaches Over, And That's All That Matters
For the last two seasons, Philadelphia 76ers guard Ben Simmons hasn't had any issues making the NBA All-Star game. Not only did he impress other players around the league, the media, and NBA coaches, but the fans also had his back with voting.
This year, the fans shifted their interest elsewhere. While Simmons did place in the Top 10 in voting after the first wave of fan votes were revealed, he fell out of favor as the weeks went on. Overall, Simmons finished 11th in fan voting with 366,887 votes.
Since fan votes play a major part in who gets into the big game, it seemed Simmons might miss the All-Star game this season. However, the other categories saved his spot. Coming in sixth-overall for Eastern Conference player votes and seventh-overall by the media, Simmons wasn't knocked out of the picture at all.
And by the time Tuesday rolled around, Simmons found out that Eastern Conference coaches helped solidify his spot on an NBA All-Star roster as he earned the nod for the third-straight time in his four-year career.
“I think that means more than fan votes and things like that,” Simmons said on Tuesday in regards to winning over coaches. "Just because they see the game, they know the game. They come to the games every night. They see the talent out there, and there’s a lot of talented guys out there, but I’m the type of player who can do a lot of things on the floor. I’m glad a lot of coaches appreciate that and see that.”
Last week, Sixers head coach Doc Rivers spent some time phoning some of his fellow Eastern Conference coaches to campaign for Simmons and Tobias Harris. Funny enough, coaches were confused as to why Rivers felt he needed to promote the 24-year-old guard.
"Every coach I talked to, like, literally every Eastern coach I talked to when I said ‘Hey, I’m calling on behalf of Ben and Tobias’ and they were like, ‘Ben? Why are you calling about him?'" Rivers said. “It was funny how they looked at it and how the outside world looked at it. I thought that was interesting. I was pretty confident. I told Ben, there’s no way you’re not on.”
Rivers was right. Next month, Simmons will join his teammate Joel Embiid and the entire Sixers coaching staff in All-Star game activities next month in Atlanta.
Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_
