Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers continue to be locked in a brutal stalemate.
After Philly’s discouraging dismissal from the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs last year, Simmons was thrown under the bus by teammate Joel Embiid and head coach Doc Rivers for being scared to shoot.
That caused irreparable damage to the relationships between all parties involved.
Simmons requested a trade ASAP and promised to not play any further games for the organzation. Because of Simmons’ refusal to play, the Sixers stopped paying him.
In the meantime, the Sixers have rejected all trade offers for Simmons for not being good enough.
During a recent appearance on his Spotify Greenroom, NBA inside Marc Stein revealed that the topic of Simmons and a potential trade is something folks around the league have really stopped caring about.
“I have to say, just having spent three days in the gym with lots of NBA executives, I heard so little about Ben Simmons in Vegas. Just remarkably little,” Stein said.
“That just illustrates, to me, just what a secondary thing trade pursuits are at the moment whereas normally, I think in that kind of environment, even if there was nothing happening with Ben, just kind of Ben predictions would have been flying around the gym and you just really didn’t get much of that.”
That doesn’t sound like a great thing for Simmons’ trade value.
By all accounts, Simmons is facing legitimate financial consequences as a result of his time off the court. He has made it clear that there is one team he would prefer to land with, but at this point he will probably take anything.
There have been talks with the Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder, but thus far nothing has materialized.
Between how he treated team staff and just all the bad blood that exists, clearly a reconciliation between Simmons and the Sixers isn’t in the cards.
That’s one way to make a hospital visit less scary. https://t.co/1caZtYH4iq
— Game 7 (@game7__) December 25, 2021
That said, a trade doesn’t appear to be brewing either.
What’s the solution here? At this point, it’s very unclear.
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Charles Kruger has been credentialed to cover two Super Bowls, four NBA Finals, and one World Series. A 20-year veteran in the sports world, he has sources spanning the NBA, MLB, NFL, UFC and NASCAR. Currently residing in Los Angeles, Calif., he is Game 7’s go-to source for rumors surrounding the Lakers, Clippers and Dodgers.
