Former Philly 76er Ben Simmons will battle his one-time b-ball brothers tonight.
Tonight, in Brooklyn, the ultimate bad breakup and first-time reunion scenario – the one you see in lousy rom-coms all the time – takes place when one-time Philadelphia 76er Ben Simmons plays against the Sixers for the first time, tonight, in his role for his new team, the Brooklyn Nets.
Doc Rivers will not be happy.
For those with shamefully short memories or a wide capacity for forgiveness, point guard Simmons played for the 76ers from 2016 until 2022. In reality, Simmons only truly played for the Sixers until 2021, when, during Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, he passed up an easy shot open dunk opportunity handed to him by fellow Sixer Joel Embiid. The 76ers lost their shot, and when asked if Simmons had the right stuff for a championship basketball team, Doc Rivers said “I don’t even know how to answer that right now.”
No vote of confidence that, Simmons, with four years left on his contract, demanded to be traded, missed training camp for the upcoming season, did not play in the preseason and put his house in Philly on the market for a little over $3 million. In response, Michael Rubin and the 76ers organization withheld $8.25 million of his pay, threw him out of practice when he did (barely) show up, and fined him $1.4 million due to his absence from four preseason games, missed practices, on-court workouts, and meetings. Simmons got traded. The Sixers got James Harden. The rest is history.
Bad blood history.
Nope. Monday night will not be pretty.
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