Written by Adam Wells at Bleacher Reports.com
Ben Simmons put the NBA’s one-year college rule on notice last month when he admitted on Twitter (h/t For The Win) to not attending class last year at LSU. But now the Philadelphia 76ers rookie is calling out the NCAA.
In a new Showtime documentary titled One & Done about his life in Australia followed by a lone season in college and preparations for the NBA draft, Simmons talked about his feelings regarding the NCAA.
“The NCAA is really f–ked up,” Simmons said, per ESPN.com’s MyronMedcalf. “Everybody’s making money except the players. We’re the ones waking up early as hell to be the best teams and do everything they want us to do and then the players get nothing. They say education, but if I’m there for a year, I can’t get much education.”
It’s not a secret that Simmons didn’t get a lot out of his college experience, at least as it pertains to being a student. He was deemed ineligible for the Wooden Award because he didn’t meet the academic criteria when his GPA fell below 2.0, per Glenn Guilbeau of USA Today.
“You don’t go to some classes. You miss some classes, and you’re going to get punished,” Simmons told Guilbeau. “That’s how they handle it. I learned from it. I go to class now.”
As part of the film, Simmons acknowledged he didn’t want to go to class after getting his grades up to a point where he would be allowed to play for the Tigers.
“I got B’s and C’s; I’m not going to class next semester because I don’t need to,” Simmons said, per Medcalf. “… I’m here to play; I’m not here to go to school.”
Simmons went on to say he viewed his collegiate experience as a waste of time because he wasn’t there to get an education:
I don’t have a voice. … I don’t get paid to do it. Don’t say I’m an amateur and make me take pictures and sign stuff and go make hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars off one person. … I’m going off on the NCAA. Just wait, just wait. I can be a voice for everybody in college. I’m here because I have to be here [at LSU]. … I can’t get a degree in two semesters, so it’s kind of pointless. I feel like I’m wasting time.
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