Ben Simmons Flooded with Support from Star Teammates and Coach Ahead of Season Opener

The return under the bright lights could be a nerve-racking one for Ben Simmons but he certainly has plenty of support.

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After almost a year and a half away from NBA basketball and four preseason contests under his belt, Ben Simmons will play in the Brooklyn Nets season-opener against the New Orleans Pelicans Wednesday night at Barclays Center. 

Simmons, who combated a lingering back injury and mental health woes, has expressed consistently that he has put himself in a great position to embark on a new chapter in his NBA career. He hasn't been the only one to get him to this point. His new teammates and coaching staff have also assisted him in getting prepared for the big moment - a moment that can contain some anxiety and nerves. 

"Yeah man, you get some anxiety because you know that your peers are doing this every day,” Kevin Durant said. “If you don’t do something every day, and while someone else is, you can lose a little bit of confidence. You can lose some of that skill that you acquired because you’re not putting in consistent work just like your peers are. I got a little bit of anxiety, not knowing, for sure. The train don’t start going because you are injured.

“The whole league keeps moving. The game keeps evolving, so you don’t want to get caught behind. When you’re not playing NBA games you feel like you’re left out a bit. So you want to make sure your game is right, conditioning is right, and everything is solid like before you left. You can have a little anxiety creep in at times. It’s all about going out there and just playing your hardest when the ball is tipped.”

Durant is well aware of the emotions Simmons could be feeling heading into Wednesday's season opener. Durant missed the entirety of his first season with Brooklyn (the 2019-20 season) rehabbing his Achillies.

It is indeed Simmons' first official NBA game since June 20, 2021 - a game he was bombarded with criticism following the Sixers' second-round NBA playoff exit. After the long holdout with the Philadelphia franchise concluded that the 2022 NBA Trade Deadline, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows as well for the 26-year-old star. 

Outside of dealing with mental health concerns, Simmons was battling a bad back - an injury that was later revealed to be a herniated disc and required a microdiscectomy in May. He spent the offseason rehabbing before being physically cleared. 

Like Durant, Simmons' other star teammate acknowledged the emotions he can be dealing with as well come Wednesday night. Irving wants Simmons to go out there and simply hoop to kick off a long 82-game season - a season the Nets guard classified as 82 tour dates. 

“I don’t think I have to talk to him a lot because I understand from a human level what it’s like to go through being nervous or having anxiety or overthinking something before it happens,” Irving said. “It’s the first game of a long season. We don’t want him to put too much unnecessary pressure on himself. It’s just go out there and play basketball. Hoop. Work on what we’ve been working on in preseason and use these 82 tour dates to our advantage and just get ready.

“We’ve got to dance every night, 82 games, and perform well. I like to think of it as going on a tour, get to be able to bond. With Ben being one of our leaders on our team he’s going to get a chance to really work through circumstances that many people don’t think he can work through and they’re just waiting for him to fail. I want to focus on the love and keeping everything positive around here and making sure he has the tools and keys for success which is eliminating distractions No. 1.”

The Nets head coach, Steve Nash, has been very supportive of Simmons since his arrival in Brooklyn. Nash has even challenged his new star early on as well in avenues of the game he was commonly ridiculed about in the 2021 NBA Playoffs with the Sixers - to be aggressive to score and get to the foul line. The Nets head coach made it clear the demand for Simmons to shoot the ball isn't needed and he simply wants the star to gain confidence at the foul line, rather than focus primarily on a percentage increase. 

“I’ve always just supported him,” Steve Nash said. “I know it’s not easy. We want to push him to be more aggressive, to make mistakes so he can go through it faster. But at the same time I tell him I understand. It’s uncomfortable to be aggressive when you don’t have your rhythm, timing, confidence or at least a long kind of sample size or runway to produce and to try.

“I think that trial and error period is so important, and he’s still in it. I’m glad he took some steps the last week or so but that’s still a process you have to undertake because you can’t just get your game back in three weeks of preseason. So I think he’s on a good trajectory, I think he’s got a lot of work to do and I think that will understand and recognize how difficult it is to take a year off of actual NBA games and be at your best.”