Ben Simmons' year at LSU shows the worst of the college basketball system

The more Ben Simmons speaks about his lone season at LSU, the clearer his legacy in college basketball becomes.
This year’s No. 1 draft pick is a living,
breathing monument to the hypocrisy of the flawed one-and-done system.
He arrived at LSU with little desire to achieve anything more than showcasing his talents to NBA scouts. He stopped attending classes as soon as he had guaranteed his eligibility for the entirety of his freshman season. And he escaped punishment for it because LSU was more interested in profiting from his presence on its basketball team than
making sure he received an education during his brief time on campus.
In “One and Done,” a documentary about his path to the NBA that will air Friday on Showtime, Simmons grouses that for him college was “pointless” and “wasting time.” ESPN.com received the documentary ahead of time and provided the following excerpts .

“Everybody’s making money except the
players. We’re the ones waking up early
as hell to be the best teams and do
everything they want us to do and then
the players get nothing. They say
education, but if I’m there for a year, I
can’t get much education.
“I’m here to play. I’m not here to go to
school.”

Simmons kept his GPA high enough to remain eligible after the fall semester of his freshman year, however, he seldom went to class during spring semester. At one point in the trailer, he remarks, “I
have to be getting better every day. I’m not worried about my oceanography class.”
Even though Simmons has a strong
argument about the need to relax rules preventing college athletes from earning what they’re worth, here’s what rings hollow about his stinging criticism of the NCAA: For him, attending a U.S.
college was a choice, not a necessity.
Simmons could have entered the 2015 NBA draft had he attended high school in his native Australia instead of enrolling at a prep school in Florida. Or
he could have turned pro after his senior year at Montverde Academy and spent a year playing in the D-League or overseas.
But instead, Simmons chose to play last season at LSU, where his godfather David Patrick was an assistant coach. And while that doesn’t negate his right to lambast an exploitative system, it does make it tougher to swallow some of his complaints about being forced to play for free or being made to attend classes.
By making no attempt to complete the spring semester, Simmons revealed plenty about his own character. He clearly had no qualms about damaging LSU’s APR score, which if it drops low
enough could saddle his former teammates and coaches with scholarship restrictions or even a
postseason ban.