The Moose wrote:Chuck Diesel wrote:Sphynx wrote:
No one is up in arms. Thybulle has been great for the Boomers and will be for multiple Olympics I imagine.
Though the insinuation that it's anything like the Slovenian naturalizations are fairly hilarious.
I can't see much regarding Simmons being called a yank. He legitimately grew up in Australia, played a lot of Australian rules football etc growing up and moved to Montverde when he was around 15/16. People are just tired of his excuses.The concerns about Simmons’ character didn’t magically appear the moment he arrived on campus in Baton Rouge. Those sentiments also have been expressed by members of the Australian national team who have spent time with him at the junior and senior levels. Australian players and coaches who have been around him don’t speak about him in flattering terms, calling him “the Yank” to highlight how different he is compared with most of the players from that country, and perhaps highlight how much moving to the United States at a young age and immersing himself in the AAU world has shaped him.
From even before he shunned the national team in 2016 and 2019.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/sports.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/why-ben-simmons-isn-t-the-top-prospect-in-the-2016-nba-draft-190023711.html
As recently as 2020 Andrew Bogut has talked on his podcast about how he feels Simmons changes his accent to sound “more Australian” when he’s Down Under, strickly for marketing reasons. I also have a couple Aussie buddies who do nothing but **** talk the dude who I’ve been going back and forth with, so maybe I’m projecting their “up in armsness” on to some of you.
Simmons accent does a good job of highlighting one of the many reasons why he's a clown. He developed a pretty much full on American accent after a year in the US, meanwhile guys like Mills/Bogut/Ingles/Exum sound almost exactly the same now as they did 10 years ago.
IMO, that alone says enough about the type of guy Simmons is
As itsxtray says above, it gets more complicated than white Aussies are willing/able to understand when you’re talking about a young POC with a Black American father trying to fit in amongst a mostly Black American NBA world. Bogut types would certainly be the ones to judge him harshly/call him out for that. The fact of the matter is most Aussies wouldn’t be half as hard on him if he’d chosen to suit up for one of your perpetually 4th place teams over the years.
Anyway, U.S women giving the Opals a little taste of what’s gonna happen to the Boomers tomorrow. Love to see it.
