Dwight Howard Explains Why 76ers Teammate Ben Simmons is On His Way to be an NBA Legend

Published 11/26/2020, 7:06 AM EST

Ben Simmons is one of the best young players in the NBA. The Australian was the number one pick in the 2016 NBA Draft for the Philadelphia 76ers. But he got injured his first season and didn’t play for the entirety of the first year.

In his second year, Simmons completely took over. He played an amazing season and won the 2018 Rookie of the Year award.

Simmons is a fantastic scorer and passer. However, the one criticism levied on Simmons is his inability to shoot the ball. If he develops a decent shot, he would become a fantastic player.

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Simmons’ new teammate Dwight Howard, who left the Lakes, has given him a fantastic seal of approval. Howard compared Simmons to NBA superstar LeBron James and said, “It’s a very real comparison, and I’ve been seeing this for a couple years. Ben Simmons is a young LeBron who’s developing an overall game.”

Howard praised Simmons’ unselfishness in play and his playmaking prowess and said, “I love the way he plays, I love how unselfish he is, and how mean he can be to other teams and that’s important.”

Howard heaps praise on Ben Simmons

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Howard talked about how good Simmons was as a point guard and was able to do things that forwards are more known to do. He said that Simmons’ play drives his teammates to be better. Howard added, “When you have your point guard coming down, dunking on people, flexing, getting big rebounds, talking trash, doing all those things, it drives you to want to be better.”

Howard continued to praise Simmons, and the former three-time Defensive Player of the Year said that Simmons had room to improve and could go down as one of the greatest ever players in NBA history. He also noted how excited he was to help Simmons achieve that status in Philadelphia.

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Howard said, “Watching him over the years, I see it. He has an opportunity to be one of the greatest to ever play the game, and I’m glad I have the opportunity to actually give him some things that can help him along the way.”

Ben Simmons and Dwight Howard will take on the court together with the 76ers when the NBA season resumes on December 22. Now under new coach Doc Rivers, the 76ers will be hoping to finally become championship contenders this year.

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Aaditya Krishnamurthy is an NBA & NFL journalist for EssentiallySports, before which he worked at BusinessWorld magazine. He has been a fan of Basketball for over 10 years now, since Shaquille O’Neal was a Phoenix Suns player. During his time at Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts, he started a sports magazine for the college called the Overtime Tribune and hosted the Overtime Tribune Podcast until he graduated.

Dwight Howard Explains Why 76ers Teammate Ben Simmons is On His Way to be an NBA Legend

Howard heaps praise on Ben Simmons

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