The Brooklyn Nets have had a rough start to the regular season with not only two losses but star Ben Simmons has fouled out twice, but analyst Stephen A. Smith thinks that his passion is encouraging.
Smith discussed Simmons’ play on ESPN’s First Take program:
I see a moment like last night and I’m encouraged, not discouraged. First of all, he’s arguing with the referee, he wants to be in the game. He obviously prides himself on being able to defend even though going against Ja Morant, good luck with that. The bottom line is is that he was fighting to stay in the game. So when I look at it from that perspective, and then arguing and then come into the postgame and talking to the media and having a conversation about that, he’s not plagued apparently by what he was plauged by last year. And that’s all I asked. He’s averaging seven assists, six rebounds, six assists, maybe seven rebounds either one or the other. He’s doing both in that regard. Obviously, he needs to play better. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not letting him off the hook by any stretch of the imagination. What I’m saying is at the end of the day, to see you ticked off that you got called for fouls and you fouling out of games, shows me you want to be in the damn game. We have to crawl before we walk.
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