The saga between the Philadelphia 76ers and their All-Star Ben Simmons has taken a lot of turns over the last few months. Despite the obvious interest from a few NBA teams, Simmons is yet to find a new place to play. Moreover, due to the constant drama, his relationship with the 76ers has become broken beyond repair.
While some have taken the side of the Sixers, others have supported Ben Simmons. After all, Simmons is still a decent enough player to have on your team. NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas recently talked about how the 76ers have treated Simmons and he is not happy with it.
“Oh, they dogged him. Well, here’s what happened. Yeah, he had a bad moment. He has some bad moments in the playoffs, right? What your team, your coach, and your organization is supposed to do in your bad moments, they are supposed to protect you. They ain’t supposed to air your dirty laundry out. Your teammates ain’t supposed to be like, ‘Oh man, he didn’t’ nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.
“They’re supposed to protect you. Now the fans and everybody else, when Shaq was going 4-for-18 from the foul line, I didn’t hear Phil Jackson dogging Shaq. I didn’t hear the inside that Lakers organization. Now, they may have been saying ‘Hey, big fella, we need to work on the free throws’, but they weren’t publicly dissing him.”
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As Isiah explained, the 76ers never even tried to get back Simmons. Since his underwhelming outing in the last playoffs, it appears that the organization has already given up on him.
Even if that was the case, they could have tried to bid farewell to their superstar much better. Now the situation is beyond repair and it is just a matter of time before Ben gets traded.
The only question is which team will approach the unsettled star. Moreover, a few teams are obviously concerned about his poor 3-point shooting. It is true that he is a below-average shooter from beyond the arc, but he has many pros in his game as well. Those pros outweigh the cons, so let’s hope that Simmons starts the new chapter of his life sooner rather than later.
