Joel Embiid is fed up with Ben Simmons, and he isn’t even trying to hide it.
I understand his frustration as he has tried to make it work with Simmons and even offered to fly to California to make things right with Simmons, who said he wouldn’t answer the door if they came. After losing about a million dollars, Simmons decided to show back up at the Sixers facility, but it seems to me at least he had clear instructions to be as disruptive as possible.
He showed up unannounced without giving anyone a heads up. He didn’t even think about the people he inconvenienced about that. I am not even talking about the Sixers by the COVID testers who had gone home for the evening and had to come back because he couldn’t get in the building without a COVID test.
The other day, he came to practice in gray sweatpants and kept his cell phone in his pocket the entire time. He refused to engage in the team huddle and left immediately after the practice was over. Today he simply refused to participate in team drills to the point that Doc Rivers had to kick him out of practice, and the team had to suspend him for a game.
This is a terrible look for Simmons, but he is trying to get traded by any means necessary. If they put him on the court, the Sixers have to be concerned, will he tank on purpose. He doesn’t even like to take shots when he is fully engaged, so it would be interesting to see how he would play when he isn’t.
What would you do if you were the Sixers?
They asked Joel Embiid what he thought, and he said he doesn’t care about Simmons anymore and will concentrate on the players who want to be there.
Flip the pages for Embiid speaking on Simmons and the Twitter reactions.