As Lauryn Hill once famously crooned, “It could all be so simple, but you’d rather make this hard.”
Ben Simmons has made it abundantly clear that he has no desire whatsoever to play for the Philadelphia 76ers, and instead of working with the team to make this transition as smooth as possible, he killed his own value in last year’s playoffs and finally showed up to training camp just to pull shit like this:
And as if his refusal to engage with his teammates on the court wasn’t enough, the LSU product kicked his petulant child act up a few notches on Tuesday when he refused to participate in practice—which, of course, led to coach Doc Rivers giving him the boot and Simmons being suspended for conduct detrimental to the team, per The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
Bruh, I completely understand your burning desire to give this whole NBA thing another go elsewhere, but I assure you, continuing to kill your own trade value ain’t the way. Neither is getting your ass suspended without pay when you only showed up at training camp so you could get paid in the first place.
This is what we call “hustling backward.”
His teammate, Joel Embiid, already expressed his frustrations with Simmons’ “borderline disrespectful” antics earlier this month, and after this latest stunt, Embiid let the chopper rang when he spoke to reporters on hand after practice.
“At this point, I don’t care about that man, honestly. He does whatever he wants,” Embiid said. “At the end of the day, it’s not our job to babysit somebody.”
Doc Rivers sounds fed up with Ben’s bullshit, too.
“As a coach, I have to protect the team,” he said. “The team first, and then we get to the other part. Today I just thought it was more important to protect the team.”
I don’t know what the hell Simmons is trying to accomplish by pulling this shit, but considering exactly nobody made a trade offer for him this offseason, it’s safe to say it’s not working. Because not only is he driving his trade value even further into the dirt, but it’s making teams even more reluctant to trade for a dude who refuses to take accountability for his own shortcomings on the court.
Stop being a dumb ass, Ben. If you want a trade so damn bad, here’s a novel idea: Prove your value on the court instead of throwing childish temper tantrums at practice.