Brooklyn’s Ben Simmons warns his doubters for next season: ‘Dominate people will be great’

Ever since the summer of 2021, Ben Simmons has been making the news headlines mostly due to how he’s been underperforming in Brooklyn. Before then, he was a three-time All-Star player who’d been dominating the NBA up until he decided to leave the Sixers. 

The Australian requested a transfer out of Philadelphia after a painful loss to the Atlanta Hawks in the playoffs two years ago. Unfortunately for him, he had to wait until February 2022 before joining the Nets.

But things went from bad to worse as he endured several injuries in the process and failed to return to his best version time and time again. Nowadays, right after his worst season yet, the 27-year-old says he’s putting in the extra work to come back stronger than ever this upcoming campaign.

You don’t have to believe in Ben Simmons and the comeback this year but I sure as hell do, the biggest addition this off-season is healthy Ben Simmons. #NetsWorld pic.twitter.com/QWRBd4bPLj

— Brooklyn Netcast (@BrooklynNetcast) August 29, 2023

“I’m excited because I know I can do it,” Simmons told the press this Tuesday. “I get to do something I love to do at a high level. Regardless of what people say, I’m a three-time All-Star, All-NBA player, [All-] Defensive Team. I’ve done things. I’m not somebody that hasn’t done anything.

“For me to come back and dominate people will be great. I don’t intend to come back the same player I was last [season], because that’s not even close to where I am. I get excited because I’m like, ‘I would [expletive] on the player I was last year.’”

The Nets star is convinced he feels completely recovered from any lingering health issue and will return to his old self this next season.

“I don’t think people realize how bad it was in terms of physically how I was feeling and what I was able to do on the floor,” he shared. “Being able to sit down now and not have to lean or slouch one way, it’s kind of crazy for me. But I feel I’m at 100% now.”

As a 76ers guard, Simmons made the All-Star game on three back-to-back occasions from 2019 to 2021. Nevertheless, the athlete said  “it was good timing” when he decided to leave Pennsylvania.

The Australian then admitted that there’s only one team he would consider playing for in the NBA, besides the Brooklyn squad

Apparently, Simmons still has love for Philly, as he recently admitted he’d return to wear the Sixers jersey in a heartbeat.

“Obviously, the injury and everything that was going on didn’t help. But I think it gave me a chance to really appreciate it,” he said. “I’ll always have love for Philly. People always ask me like, ‘If you were to get traded again where you want it to be?’ I always say, ‘Just Philly. Philly is a second home to me.’ And in time, you learn and grow as people. I don’t really have anything bad to say about Philly. It was a crazy situation at the end, but it is what it is.”

“Sometimes I think about [my recent struggles]. I’m like, ‘Damn, that’s a lot.’ Sometimes I sit down and break it down. ‘That was exhausting that I was having to deal with all that.’ But I feel like there are different situations you can handle, and this is a good test for me. How much worse can it get?” he expressed.

The 27-year-old is now about to enter his fourth competition of a five-year, $177m contract which was originally signed with the Sixers three years ago.