Ben Simmons on ROTY Race vs. Donovan Mitchell: ‘It Wasn’t a F*cking Race’
Written by SOURCE on December 28, 2018
LeBron James has said Ben Simmons has the opportunity to be better than him, which isn’t an aggressive reach since the Sixer has won 2018 NBA Rookie of the Year. It doesn’t hurt that Simmons is pretty self-confident. He raced against the Jazz’s Donovan Mitchell for the ROTY prize, and Simmons angered hair-trigger Jazz fans when he said he was “100 percent.”
After he dropped one of those Nets-era Jason Kidd triple-doubles (13 points, 12 assists and 14 rebounds) during Philly’s blowout over the Jazz on Thursday, doubled down on the belief that he’s the king of that class.
“It wasn’t a fucking race,” Simmons told the Salt Lake Tribune. “You saw the votes, right?…Did you see the votes? So what’s the question?” We saw the votes.
Simmons captured the 2018 Rookie of the Year with 158 more points than Mitchell, including 90 out of 101 possible first-place votes. His margin of victory wasn’t a first, though. Malcolm Brogdon won ROY in 2017 prior over Dario Saric by 148 points, and Karl-Anthony Towns nabbed every first-place vote when he won ROY in 2016 over Kristaps Porzingis.
Ben did acknowledge Mitchell is “a great player” who “can score the ball really well,” which feels like an IDGAF compliment given the context.
