Ben's issues started loooong before that. It's criminal to even use that as an excuse. As a young player Ben was asked to simply take 1 three point shot a game. His coach didn't even care if he made it. Didn't care what his percentage was. He just wanted Ben to try. Just the lowest level of effort to improve his offensive game. Ben Simmons attempted just 36 three point shots in 309 games. He outright refused to even try and improve as a player.
2025-26
Ben Simmons
Free agent
r/NBA's 19th most hated player.
Verdict
43.1%46.9%10.0%
43.1%Negative4,044 comments
46.9%Neutral4,391 comments
10.0%Positive937 comments
−33Net sentimentpositive minus negative
n=9,372 comments about Ben Simmons
Receipts
What the room said about Ben Simmons, verbatim: the highest-scoring comments in each class.
Exhibit 01Negative.no flair Exhibit 02Negative.no flair He doesn't care. That is the truth. Zero effort. You can see him just stand there. Beyond fustrating. He will be out of the league soon. Lakers were desperate and that is why they gave him a chance He is Ben Simmons 2.0 and both were first picks of the draft.
Exhibit 03Negative.no flair Most pathetic thing ive seen from an NBA player since Ben Simmons game 7 vs hawks which essentially killed his career
Method
A receipt is a top-scoring comment about Ben Simmons that cleared the classifier's confidence bar
and a second pass confirming it is about him. No usernames: the site judges players, not commenters.
Fans
Of what r/NBA says about Ben Simmons, flaired fans 42%, unflaired commenters 45%. Among the 8 fanbases with at least 200 comments, 76ers fans are hardest on him at 55% negative and Thunder fans kindest at 13% positive.
42.0%Flaired fansevery flair · 5,618 comments
44.9%Unflairedno flair · 3,754 comments
Method
A fanbase is the flair its commenters wear. Flairs with fewer than 200 comments about Ben Simmons are left out of the lists;
the tick is his rate across every flaired comment, from summed counts, never a mean of rates.
Rooms
Ben Simmons was talked about most on the front page: 5,223 of his 9,372 comments, −32 net sentiment against −33 across his season. His harshest room was news posts, −36 on 23% of his comments; his warmest the post-game threads, −30 on 3% of his comments.
Game threads7% of his comments38.48.0666
Post-game threads3% of his commentsWarmest41.010.7307
Front page56% of his comments42.010.25,223
Highlights8% of his comments47.413.0723
News23% of his commentsHarshest44.68.92,197
Method
A room is the kind of post a comment sat under: a game thread, the front page, a highlight. A room is drawn when it holds at least 200 comments about Ben Simmons; left out here: Lowlights (168), Discussion posts (46), Daily chat thread (25), Injury posts (11). The bar is the room's share of his comments, its split the room's sentiment. Harshest and warmest are by net sentiment, positive minus negative, from summed counts, never a mean of rates.
Timeline
Over 4-week windows, the negative share of comments about Ben Simmons ran between 38% and 50%. His worst week was the week of Jun 29, 54% negative of 345 comments; his best the week of Sep 29, 15% positive.
Method
Lines are 4-week rolling rates from summed counts (Σ negative ÷ Σ comments), drawn only where the window holds at least 30 comments. Dots are single weeks, sized by n. Bands follow the season calendar.
Games
Ben Simmons sat out the whole season with back and leg injuries, then agreed to a one-year deal with Sacramento in September 2026.