Ben Simmons made his anticipated return to Philadelphia on Thursday night, joining his new team, the Brooklyn Nets, as they took on the 76ers at Wells Fargo Center. Even though he didn’t take the court, the Australian point guard received a lot of attention from everybody in the arena.
Fans that used to cheer for him booed him a lot, showing no mercy with the playmaker. He was seen laughing and having a good time as his new team destroyed his old squad, making it clear he’s happy with his new situation.
Still, the boos were very loud and everybody had something to say about them following the match. Nets players came in Simmons’ defense, including Kevin Durant, who trolled Sixers fans for being quiet at the end of the game. Moreover, Kyrie Irving also gave his two pennies on this situation, stating that wherever they go, the Nets will be received the same way.
“I don’t think it’s gonna go away, really, all the noise around our team,” Kyrie Irving said, via The New York Post. “But it makes for good fun. As we talked about, we just want to stay even keel with it. The noise is going to continue, but we just have that focus, just no fear. Just play free, and go out there and do your job and we’ll be right there for each other supporting. So it feels good when we do that.”
He also sent a message to those trying to bring Simmons down, making it clear that the Nets won’t back down and will fuel themselves when somebody attacks Ben, no matter who they are.
“I think playing for Ben and this night means something to Ben — and not only Ben — [Andre Drummond], Seth [Curry] — when you get traded in this league it’s not easy to deal with,” Irving said. “We’ve tried to welcome them in with open arms. So when we played [the 76ers] we definitely felt like Ben was on our heart, you could see it.
“He was wearing it and we just wanted to go out there and play for him and play well. But again, it’s not an individual thing for us. We all felt it. We’re all there. We all deal. If you come at Ben, you come at us. You come at anyone else on our team, you come at all of us. And that’s the mentality.”
It’s been a month since the Australian player went from Philadelphia to Brooklyn in a blockbuster trade. He apparently has gotten along very well with his new teammates, and Thursday night’s game was the biggest proof of that. The Nets are trying to win some games and climb up in the Eastern Conference standings and the first step to do that is the chemistry. They seem to be on the same page and ready to go against anybody. Once Simmons returns to the court, they’ll be a terrible team to face for anybody in the conference.
