Ben Simmons Responds to Jared Dudley’s Criticism

The series between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Brooklyn Nets is starting to get very interesting. After a devastating upset pulled off by the Nets during Game 1 in Sixers' territory, Brooklyn seemingly had Philly shook for a day. All of South Philly was booing, while the Nets made everybody think they were going to go on a tear.

Fast forward to Game 2, and it's all a different story. The Sixers were out for revenge, and they got it, as they nearly put up 150 points in a blowout victory at home. Although the Sixers won with a 'haymaker,' their big win on the scoreboard isn't what everybody continued to talk about. Instead, the Nets wanted to focus on what happened after the game when Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons laughed when discussing Embiid throwing an elbow at Nets' center Jarrett Allen. As expected, Brooklyn is not happy about it.

Not to mention, the Nets haven't really had respect for some of the Sixers' players ever since this series had begun either. Before Game 1, Nets' veteran Jared Dudley made it known that they won't even attempt to cover Ben Simmons if he's not around the net. As we all know, Simmons hasn't been much of a shooter during the first two years of his career. Therefore, the Nets won't respect that.

However, Dudley doubled-down on his talk of Simmons by mixing in that the former Rookie of the Year is great in transition, but when they are playing half-court offense, Simmons is just 'average.' That now marks the third game where Dudley continues to criticize Ben's game. And how does he respond? He shrugs it off.

Clearly, Ben Simmons heard what his opponent said about him, and he can't help but smirk and laugh it off as the comments are coming from Jared Dudley. While Dudley did raise a good point, it's likely funny to Simmons considering Dudley's numbers define average in the NBA. This past season, Dudley average 4.9 points-per-game. Simmons, on the other hand, averaged 16.9 points-per-game. A big difference for Ben.

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