Once former teammates, Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid are more closer to rivals now than anything else. And while Joel Embiid did not play to face off against his former teammate on Tuesday night, his presence was all over the court as the two teams faced off.
Despite a lot of widespread belief in what the pair could accomplish together, Embiid and Simmons failed to accomplish anything of note with the 76ers aside from finishing near the top of the standings.
Looking back, one could say the Simmons/Embiid duo was a complete failure for Philly. For Simmons himself, he’s proud of his run with Joel, but also had no problem admitting that he will never be friends with the superstar big man.
“You’re not cool with everybody… I think there’s certain people that just you don’t talk to all the time.”
Ben Simmons on his relationship with Joel Embiid:
“You’re not cool with everybody… I think there’s certain people that just you don’t talk to all the time.”
Says he had a lot of great times with Embiid and wishes him the best. pic.twitter.com/8DZB4RMYTV
— Erik Slater (@erikslater_) November 22, 2022
Ben Simmons Still Salty For Joel Embiid Throwing Him Under The Bus After 2021 Playoffs
The situation grew toxic in Philly when the team got eliminated by the Hawks in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. While Ben was not the only one to blame, he was the one primarily targeted by the critics and had to call out his own co-star and coach for feeding into the narrative.
Simmons: I’m already dealing with a lot mentally in life, as a lot of people do, but it got to a point where after that [Hawks] series I’m getting – it’s from the people you’re supposed to have the support from, that comfort from, and I wasn’t getting that either. So it was a toll on me. And then mentally I just, it killed me. I was like, ‘F***.’ No energy for anything, I was in a dark place. It took me a long time – the first thing for me was to identify, ‘Okay, I’ve gotta really get right. It’s not a physical thing, it’s mentally.’ I think that first thing of acknowledging it was a huge step for me. […] I think that was tough for me, knowing I didn’t really have that support either, from teammates or whatever it was at the time –
Redick: No, let’s call it like it is. Let’s call it like it is. You know that I love Joel [Embiid] and you know that I love Doc [Rivers], but they essentially threw you under the bus after Game 7.
Simmons: For sure, for sure.
It should be no surprise that Ben and Joel are not friends at this point. After all that they went through together, it makes sense that they’d want to avoid each other whenever possible.
It’s just a shame that things never worked out for the two of them on the court because they are still two of the top players in the game. Hopefully, we’ll at least get to see a playoff series between the two.
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