The hometown Sixers Ben Simmons replied to a reporter’s question about last season’s NBA Rookie of The Year race between he and Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz, a race that Simmons won convincingly (Ben received 90 of 101 possible first-place votes).

“It wasn’t a [an expletive] race,” Simmons said. “You saw the votes, right? … Did you see the votes? So what’s the question?”

Ben Simmons has been widely criticized and ridiculed for his inability unwillingness to shoot jumpshots. Watch a game, and you’ll see: Ben literally will not shoot the ball from anywhere more than ten feet from the basket, which is peculiar for a point guard. But it’s worked just fine for Ben, who won the aforementioned ROY award last season and may very well make the All-Star game this season.

One thing no one can criticize Ben for — and this is the part that matters more than the jumpshot thing, to me — is his competitiveness.

Ben seems unlike many of today’s NBA players that he doesn’t go out of his way to be chummy with fellow players. He stares down opponents after dunks (a practice that will earn you a technicality foul in today’s game, a dumb rule that I see changing soon).

Ben Simmons has an edge.

Ben could have easily took this softball question, said some complimentary things about Mitchell and moved on from the subject. But he took the opportunity to throw a “shot” in the direction of Mitchell and the Utah Jazz fans (the aforementioned exchange happened prior to a game in Utah against the Jazz) just for the hell of it.

I like love it.