Basketball Movie Review
One & Done
Ben Simmons goes from an Australian upbringing through American high-school basketball, LSU and the number-one draft pick while openly questioning the college system carrying him there.
A useful prospect-system documentary because Simmons is not pretending the one-and-done arrangement works for everyone just because it worked as a route to his draft night.
Movie details
2016 · 1h 31m · Documentary
Director Maura Mandt & Josh Swade
- Ben Simmons
- Dave Simmons
- Julie Simmons
- Maura Mandt and Josh Swade directed One & Done, following Ben Simmons from his Australian background through American high school, LSU and the 2016 NBA draft.
- The documentary includes Simmons criticising the NCAA's treatment and commercial use of college athletes before Philadelphia selected him first overall.
01
The Take
One & Done catches Simmons in the most transactional year of an elite prospect's life. Everyone knows he is NBA-bound, LSU knows the stay will be brief and the documentary gives Simmons room to say the quiet part out loud about unpaid college athletes and a system using his image while everyone waits for draft eligibility.
02
Does the Basketball Hold Up?
The journey connects Australian development, American high-school exposure, NCAA basketball and the NBA draft in one pipeline. Simmons's unusual size and playmaking are obvious, but the more interesting basketball question is how little a single college season can tell you about a player already treated as a professional asset.
03
Best Basketball Moment
Draft night, because the first-overall selection closes a journey that the film has spent 90 minutes showing was treated as inevitable while still being full of institutional friction.
04
Ball Cred
The Showtime documentary follows Simmons and his inner circle through LSU and into the 2016 NBA draft rather than retrospectively rebuilding the prospect story.