Ben Simmons surprised everyone and finally showed up to the Sixers facility Monday without telling anyone.
It officially ends his holdout, and it looks like he’s going to try to play and raise his trade stock.
According to Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer, Ben met with head coach Doc Rivers and it got pretty messy with a few f-bombs.
“Dating back to those Combine dialogues, Philadelphia was adamant in its plans to withhold Simmons’ pay for not complying with the terms of the five-year, $170-plus million agreement he signed in July 2019. Later, at Rich Paul’s home, Rivers even shouted, “It’s in your f–king contract”
“By all accounts, the head coach, a former point guard, has never managed to build a strong rapport with Simmons. Perhaps that’s due to the additional demands coaches typically place on their nominal floor generals, or it may simply be a case of two differing personalities in a competitive industry failing to mesh.”
Not sure how this is going to work with the two sides not liking each other. We could see a situation like James Harden in Houston where he only played at 50% because he wanted to be traded.
They asked Simmons to his face why he wanted to be traded, and he didn’t really have a good answer.
In this most recent sit-down, as was the case during that August gathering, Morey and Rivers once again asked Simmons for his reasoning for seeking a trade elsewhere. While the overwhelming majority of communication between Klutch and Philadelphia this summer has persisted between Paul, Morey and Brand, sources said, Simmons has only directly mentioned a general interest in a new start, sources said. And on Tuesday, Simmons didn’t explain why he chose to report this week, either.
He has only alluded to wanting to grow his game in a different situation, one that has not been clouded by longstanding questions about his relationship with and a perceived on-court fit issue alongside Embiid.
At the moment, it looks like on opening night Ben Simmons will be playing for the Sixers. They have a shooting coach and sports psychologist on staff ready to help him get over his shooting phobia.
What do you think will happen?
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