Shaquille O’Neal was really pissed off at Ben Simmons following the Philadelphia 76ers’ elimination at the hands of the Atlanta Hawks. Shaq urged Simmons to stop messing around before Game 7, but the Australian didn’t hear any of that.
Once again, he struggled in crucial moments, hurting his team’s chances to get a big win at home, leaving the door open for Trae Young’s Hawks to steal the game and the series. Now Atlanta is headed to the ECF while Simmons and his Sixers start a new offseason.
Shaq went off on Simmons in the post-game show, calling him out for not playing well and waiting until Game 7 to address his bad level.
Shaq is very critical of Ben Simmons:
"if he was In my locker room I'd knock his ass out" https://t.co/uNIgiFzHCd
— , (@dubs4o8) June 21, 2021
“If I played game one and two and I know I’m not helping my teammates what do you think I’m going to do in game 3? It don’t take seven games to realize that, I don’t wanna hear that man.
It don’t take seven games for you to know that you’re not playing right, get right. He didn’t get double-teamed, just be aggressive, that’s all I want. I don’t want to hear all that, stop that.
If he was in my locker room I would have knocked his ass out. I don’t want to hear that, get out of my face with that.”
Simmons finished this postseason with the worst FT% in a single postseason in NBA history. That should say how bad he played in the playoffs.
Ben Simmons' 34.2% free throw percentage this postseason is the worst in a postseason in NBA history @ESPNStatsInfo pic.twitter.com/N1cpQeMgDT
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) June 21, 2021
He even pissed off Joel Embiid with his decisions on the court, but there’s nothing he can do to change that now.
The Sixers have a lot to figure out this offseason, starting with Ben and Embiid’s association. They’ve been unable to lead this team to the ECF Finals, and that was their main goal before this campaign. It seems like air of changes is headed to Philly this summer.
