Before Ben Simmons faced the wrath of Philadelphia fans Tuesday night, he spoke to the media about his relationship with some of his former Sixers teammates and admitted that he hasn’t been in contact with Joel Embiid, writes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Simmons and Embiid were an uneasy pairing as the Sixers’ two stars during their time together, and they’ve remained distant since Simmons was dealt to the Nets.
“I mean, you’re not cool with everybody,” Simmons said. “You are not texting everybody. I mean, there’s certain people that you don’t talk to all the time. I have friends that I don’t talk to all the time, but we’re still cool. But that’s how life went.”
Pompey notes that the two stars’ games never fit together well and their personalities prevented them from connecting off the court. People close to Simmons thought he was more effective in games that Embiid didn’t play, according to Pompey, and Simmons believed Embiid was taking shots at him through his public comments during last year’s holdout.
Simmons took the high road on Tuesday, telling reporters that he enjoyed his time playing alongside Embiid.
“Obviously, it didn’t work out,” he said. “But you know, that’s life. Not everything works out in your favor. So I wish him the best. Obviously, not a championship … but the best.”
There’s more on the Sixers:
- Simmons believes Philadelphia has a future star in third-year guard Tyrese Maxey, who is currently sidelined with a fracture in his left foot, Pompey adds. “He’s incredible,” Simmons said. “He’s growing. He’s playing with great confidence. For me, when I see him, I love seeing him with the ball. I think he should definitely handle the ball a lot more than what he is, but he’s growing. He’s young. And I can’t wait to see in the future.”
- When considering Simmons’ fallout with the franchise, Sixers management doesn’t get enough criticism for trying to trade him one month into his new contract, Marc Stein argues in his latest Substack piece. Simmons’ five-year extension had just taken effect during the 2020/21 season when president of basketball operations Daryl Morey offered him to the Rockets as the centerpiece in a potential James Harden deal.
- With Maxey, Harden and Embiid all currently injured, the Sixers are in danger of sliding down the Eastern Conference standings until they can get healthy, per Brian Windhorst of ESPN. The team already went through the adversity of a slow start, with Doc Rivers briefly becoming the betting favorite as the first coach to fired. Windhorst notes that part of the problem is limited production from offseason additions, as P.J. Tucker is averaging just 4.0 points per game and Danuel House is contributing 4.5 PPG.
Criticism or credit? Morey saw what he had and tried to move on. Nets will end up dealing Simmons too.
Morey is an overrated GM with tunnel vision for his ex Rocket players. He gets an F for creativity.
Ben Simmons is also better than Harden, and pretty soon the narrative will change from Philly winning the trade, to Brooklyn winning the trade, pretty heavily.
Daryl Morey will always have a man crush on Harden
Again talking like the Sixers will lose every game with these guys out but no mention to beating the nets which had KD Kyrie Simmons and Joe Harris was back ….
It’s called a fluke
I don’t care what Simmons thinks about Maxey, or anyone else on the roster. Full Nets team just got spanked by the 76ers bench! Instead of writing about that, the media is making Simmons out to be a hero.
Between Embiid, Harden, Maxey and Harris. 76ers have 4 players who can put a game in their back, coupled with huge depth of good role players, they should be one of the first names on a list of contenders.
Unfortunately Doc doesn’t seem to be utilising the players as much as they could. Plus the fact Morey is trying to creat Rockets 2.0. I’m sure he’s in talks of making D’antoni HC and trading Harris for Robert Covington! Joking aside, they do have a really good team, if I was a betting man they’d be my sleeper.
Harden hasn’t been the Rocket Harden. Since his last yr there. When he showed up over weight and out of shape. Hence he has had hamstring issues since. Classic out of shape injuries for athletes.
If he can get in good shape. And just try and lead the L in ast. He will always get his 20 pts. Let Embiid, Harris, Maxey handle the scoring load. And this team can go far. Needs to be right for playoffs. Cause Philly ain’t doing anything unless they are 100% right.
Ben is still finding his groove. Nets have much bigger issues. Ben n KD can make up best front court in history imo. Both can play SF or PF. If they had a pass first PG like Haliburton or Garland. They could dominate.
Considering most of Nets problems are on the defensive end. Makes you wonder why they don’t sign those players.
Howard – at the minimum can only help
Whiteside- at the minimum can only help
Agreed Harden isn’t the MVP he once was but he still a top 10 guard. But his in better shape than he’s been in 5+ years and he’s posting triple double year numbers. I’m not keen on using him as a facilitator. The guy is one of the best scorers the league has ever seen. And he’s shown a few times this year he still can quite easily. Let the guy ball. He’ll still feed Joel and the others. If they can figure it out they’ll be favourites behind the Bucks & Celtics in the east.
And I half agree on Simmons, I still think he’s a PG, a pass first one at that. The issue is how ball dominant Kyrie and KD are. With those two he’ll never get the opportunity to be the PG he was. The smart move is what it looks like they’re doing, get him playing, a few good games get his value up and trade him and then poss make those defensive moves.
Maybe for an actual 4 like a 3 team for Collins or Crowder or something. He’d be better suited on a rebuild, he’s still youngish and needs to start from scratch with how low his confidence is. The guy is shooting 61% on a lowly 6 shots pg that’s not enough attempts from a guy on his salary and his talent level. He should at the very least be going for the 10 shots he used to. Let alone the 15+ a player like he should be hitting nightly.