The title of the latest Showtime sports documentary One & Done is quite fitting. Not because of the obvious subject material, but the fact that Ben Simmons’ name is missing from it. The doc focuses more so on what it means to be a top-flight NBA prospect in the NCAA’s currently constructed system than it does Simmons. And it serves to make the NCAA, at best, look archaic and, at worst, like the most corrupt sports organization this side of FIFA.
This isn’t to downplay the human side of Simmons that’s on display throughout. From his upbringing in Melbourne, Australia with his sister and step-siblings, to the impossible task of trying to have a normal day on a college campus as the talk of the basketball world, to his heartfelt Skype conversations with his bipolar disorder-suffering sister, this works well as an intimate look at what’s made Simmons the person he is today.