Because Ben Simmons hasn’t talked with reporters on the record since the Sixers’ Game 7 second-round playoff loss to the Hawks in June, there isn’t complete clarity on why he’s yet to play during the 2021-2022 season.
The fundamentals are known — Simmons requested a trade in the offseason, held out of training camp and told the team he wasn’t mentally ready to play — but the details are less clear.
ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne filled in some gaps Tuesday in a feature story. Shelburne lists several reasons for why Simmons became displeased with the Sixers, including discussions the team had about dealing him away and acquiring James Harden before last year’s trade deadline, that head coach Doc Rivers didn’t visit him while he was training in Los Angeles last summer, and “critical postgame comments” from Rivers and Embiid following the Atlanta series loss.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Specifically, Shelburne reports Simmons is “upset that Embiid seemed to blame him for last season's playoff loss, when Simmons did not blame Embiid for Embiid's poor showing in the playoffs against the Toronto Raptors in 2019.”
Embiid didn’t single out Simmons after the defeat to Atlanta, though he did allude to the 25-year-old passing up a layup or dunk opportunity late in the fourth quarter when asked about the game’s turning point. Simmons passed to Matisse Thybulle, who split two foul shots.
“I’ll be honest," Embiid said, “I thought the turning point was when we … I don’t know how to say it, but I thought the turning point was just when we had an open shot and we made one free throw and we missed the other, and then they came down and scored. And we didn't get a good possession on the other end and Trae (Young) came back and he made a three. And then from there, down four ... it's on me, I turn the ball over and try to make something happen from the perimeter. But I thought that was the turning point."
The characterization of Embiid’s 2019 series against Toronto as a “poor showing” is certainly debatable. Though Embiid’s traditional numbers weren’t to his usual standard (17.6 points per game on 37 percent shooting from the floor), the Sixers had a plus-18.6 net rating with him on the floor and a minus-52.5 net rating with him off it.
NBA
Shelburne reports Simmons has resumed privately working out at the Sixers practice facility in Camden, New Jersey, and that he attends shootarounds and film sessions to avoid being fined for missing those team activities. However, per the report, Simmons has been fined over $19 million since the start of the season and could lose $12 million more if he doesn’t play for the Sixers (or another team) the rest of the year.
Despite maintaining that he doesn't intend to return to action as a Sixer, Simmons watches all of the team's games, Shelburne reports. There have been 50 of them so far without him, and 31 wins for the current No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference.