The NCAA Is Really Not Going To Like This New Ben Simmons Doc

Ben Simmons is done with the NCAA, in more ways than one.

After one uneven season at Louisiana State University, the point forward prodigy has escaped to the NBA, where he was drafted as the No. 1 overall by the Philadelphia 76ers in June. Simmons’ lone year in the NCAA was mired in controversy, capped off in March when ESPN reported Simmons hadn’t met the academic requirements to win the Wooden Award, given to the best player in college basketball each year.

His time at the school quickly soured his once-sterling reputation, and left NBA teams and fans alike whispering about issues related to maturity and dedication. But in “One and Done,” a new Showtime documentary about Simmons set to debut on Friday, the Australian-born phenomenon hopes to give his side of the story. And his side of the story is none too kind to the institution he felt forced to play under due to an NBA rule that requires athletes be 19 years old and one year removed from high school before they join the league.

“The NCAA is really f**ked up,” Simmons reportedly says in the documentary, according to ESPN. “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.”

The trailer for Showtime’s “One and Done,” premiering Friday, Nov. 4

Simmons apparently spends much of the documentary, created by Maura Mandt and Josh Swade, lambasting the NCAA for forcing him to do things that won’t benefit the players, but will benefit the people who control them. “Don’t say I’m an amateur and make me take pictures and sign stuff and go make hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars off one person,” he says at one point.

While Simmons is exaggerating slightly when he says the NCAA is making “hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars” off him alone, the money-making capabilities of the organization are unambiguous. Earlier this year, the NCAA announced it had agreed to sell the rights to eight years’ worth of its March Madness basketball tournament for $8.8 billion. Any way you measure it, the NCAA is making big-time money off a system that provides its most valuable employees with a scholarship and little more.

“I’m going off on the NCAA. Just wait, just wait,” Simmons says in the documentary. “I can be a voice for everybody in college.”

“One and Done” premieres Friday on Showtime at 9 p.m. ET/PT.