When the Philadelphia 76ers suffered a humiliating playoff defeat at the hands of the Atlanta Hawks, team star Joel Embiid didn’t bite his tongue. He squarely laid the blame at the feet of his teammate, Ben Simmons.
“I don’t know how to say it, but I thought the turning point was we had an open shot, we missed and we made one free throw,” Embiid said.
The play he was referencing there was one where Simmons seemed to have a clear path for a layup but instead passed the ball off to Matisse Thybulle, who was fouled on a shot attempt. Thybulle made one of two free throw attempts.
Ben Simmons did not just pass this up… pic.twitter.com/4JyM7ZHNkJ
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 21, 2021
Embiid’s reaction, in the moment, spoke for itself:
here is Joel Embiid’s reaction when Ben Simmons passed up the wide open dunk pic.twitter.com/lrfdYiYpkv
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) June 21, 2021
In the weeks that have passed, rumors have run rampant of Simmons’ departure from Philly being inevitable. Clearly that has worn on him and his family – leading to his brother, Liam, lashing out this week on Twitter.
Liam’s liked posts were all shots at Embiid:
As things currently stand, the Sixers have made their asking price for Simmons explicitly clear. There have been murmurs of a blockbuster trade on the horizon, but it has yet to fully materialize.
One way or another, though – it’s clear that the relationship between Embiid and Simmons doesn’t appear to be on the mend. And that means a trade is almost certainly going to happen. At this point, it’s a matter of when, not if.
Yikes. https://t.co/rP9DViKpei
— Game 7 (@game7__) June 14, 2021
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