Nets Star Snaps at Heckler in Public: ‘Don’t Play With Me’

Getty Ben Simmons, left, and Kevin Durant of the Brooklyn Nets.

The Brooklyn Nets have had a rough offseason between their two stars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.

Irving had the team worried he would opt out of his contract and leave this offseason before he finally decided to opt in, only for that to immediately be followed by a Kevin Durant trade request.

Now, Durant wants to see both head coach Steve Nash and general manager Sean Marks fired, and it doesn’t look like the team is really open to that idea.

Meanwhile, Ben Simmons, the source of drama for the Philadelphia 76ers last season, has remained relatively quiet this offseason, with some exceptions being tweets about the news of the day.

All indications are that he’ll be ready to roll with the Nets by the time the season starts, and that can’t come soon enough so he can silence the trolls with his play. On August 17, a video of Simmons at a store went viral after comedian Gerald Huston came up to him and started heckling him.

Simmons Strikes Back

The viral video shows Huston running up to Simmons for a fist bump while exclaiming his excitement of meeting “Russell Westbrook,” seemingly a jab at the Lakers guard’s shooting woes.

Simmons didn’t look amused at all, and even shot back at the comedian

“Don’t play with me,” he said. “Don’t play with me.”

The video ends with the troll walked away as Simmons stared him down, and it looked to be all over with after that.

Huston has amassed over one million followers on Instagram and 1.6 million followers on TikTok with videos of this sort, and while it was clear Simmons wasn’t a fan of the antics, there are a lot of people out there who are.

Simmons has received a lot of hate over the past year due to how his tenure ended with the Sixers and the fact he never played in a single game for the Nets yet, despite being the headliner in the James Harden trade.

He underwent back surgery after the season ended, but there were reports coming out that he avoided playing in games before that.

Simmons Has to Win Fans Back

With all of the drama surrounding him, Simmons has in a way become an underrated player.

While his shooting has never been a strong point, his playmaking and defense is among the best in the NBA, and it seems like that has been forgotten. Of course, there are questions to be asked, with one notable one being what type of player will he be coming off a surgery and over a year away from the game?

If Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving stay in Brooklyn, a rather big if at this point, then Simmons can settle in as the third option on offense, and that would possibly open his game up a lot more. The Nets have talked about possibly using him at center this season, so him being in the lineup will create all sorts of options for the team.

None of this is as exciting if Durant and Irving are off the roster, so fans have to be holding their breath that it all gets worked out and the three of them play together to start the year.

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