Philadelphia is known for having some of the most passionate sports fans in the entire country. The love they show to their superstars is well documented, but the flip side of that is that if they feel a player has wronged them, they will stop at nothing to let that player know about it every chance they get. No player has perhaps received the kind of treatment though, that Ben Simmons can expect when he goes back to play in Philly with his new team, the Brooklyn Nets.
Simmons sat out most of this season to force a move away from the franchise and while he is set to miss the regular-season game the two sides will play in a few days, there is a chance that the Nets and the Sixers could face each other in the playoffs. And if that happens, Simmons will feature heavily, something Stephen A. Smith says that Philly fans will be waiting for.
“It would be very very bad for him (Simmons),” said Smith. If it’s a mental issue as it pertains to the Philadelphia 76ers fan base, as a guy that was a reporter and columnist in Philadelphia for the Philadelphia Enquirer for seventeen years, I can assure you as much as my skin is black, I can guarantee you, that moment when that brother shows up in Philadelphia, they will be waiting for him. Because they know, in their minds, they can get to him. And now that he’s a part of the opposition, they are going to eat him for breakfast.”
Simmons has famously struggled in the playoffs in his career, his poor performance against the Hawks last season was actually the catalyst for the fallout he had with the franchise. An entire stadium filled with fans trying to put him off his game would only add more pressure onto the young star’s shoulders.
Considering that the Sixers are the 2nd seed in the Eastern Conference and the Nets look likely to finish as the 7th or the 8th seed, a first-round series is quite probable at this point. However it turns out for Simmons, it will certainly be one of the most compelling playoff series the NBA has seen in a long time.
