Ben Simmons has been making life hard for the 76ers ever since he made it public that he wants out of Philly. Simmons has been holding out from all team activities since. Head coach Doc Rivers tried talking to Simmons and multiple players, even flying out to LA to convince him to come back.
Simmons stands to lose a lot of money during his holdout. NBA insider Shams Charnia dropped the news that the 76ers would not be paying him his money which was due today. The three-time All-star was set to make $8.25 million, but he won’t be seeing any of it due to the holdout.
Simmons has missed media day and practice all week and doesn’t plan on reporting to the team until his trade demands are met. According to ESPN’s Ramona Shelbourne, he is willing to sit out the entire season just to do so.
“When you talk to people close to Ben, I say, okay, worst case scenario it takes all year, would he sit all year? And the answer right now is yes. Now, you can say that right now at the beginning of training camp, you can say that you’re willing to sit all year if that’s what it takes to get traded to a team that you feel more comfortable on. But let’s see what happens when you really start missing checks, you really start missing basketball, and the league moves on without you.”
I’m all for player mobility, but Simmons is going about it the wrong way, and if you were to ask any media members or former players, they would say Simmons isn’t a good enough player to be moving the way he is. Simmons is under contract with the Sixers for the next four seasons. He is reported to make $33 million this year.