The Ben Simmons saga with the Brooklyn Nets last season was short-lived, but it made a lot of noise around the league. Following a tumultuous exit from the Philadelphia 76ers, the talented point guard landed in Brooklyn, ready to get a fresh start with a team with two superstars on the roster.
However, things didn’t go in the Nets’ favor, with the Boston Celtics easily handling them in the first round of the playoffs. It was expected that Simmons would make his debut with the team during the postseason, but that never happened. That was a big blow for the Nets, and fans had no mercy when criticizing the Australian player.
More recently, one NBA insider claimed that Kevin Durant was frustrated with Simmons after he refused to play in Game 4 of the first-round series against the Celtics and exited the team’s chat group.
Simmons reacted to these claims, using a short but direct phrase to make it clear that it never happened between him and his teammates. Moreover, Shams Charania of The Athletic doubled down on those comments, stating that the story never happened.
"This NEVER happened.. it's an amazing story but it didn't happen"@ShamsCharania on the rumors that Ben Simmons left the Nets group chat after they asked him to play in game 4 against the Celtics #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/wzWShQzG9m
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) August 9, 2022
“All I’m gonna say on this is, this never happened,” Charania said on the Pat McAfee Show. “For everything I’ve been told, he’s doing more on the floor, looking good, I think the Nets have high, high expectations for Ben Simmons next year. You talk about a guy 3x All-Star, 2x All-NBA, I think there are high, high expectations for Ben Simmons. He’s supposed to be ready for training camp in a month and a half, so he’s doing more on the court. Good news on the Ben Simmons front, this was not something that occurred… It sounds amazing, but it didn’t happen.”
If anybody didn’t want to take Simmons’ word for this, then Shams came in clutch to confirm that the player never left his teammates hanging, and they didn’t push him to make an early return to the court. Amid the Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving situations, it’s good to see that Simmons is focused on the job, ready to prove what he’s capable of on the court.
We’re yet to see if the other two stars will remain with the team and if they plan to play with them this next season, but right now, Ben seems to be locked in and ready to have a revenge season.
