Ben Simmons appears to be sticking to his guns of never playing for the Philadelphia 76ers ever again.
The standoff between Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers could last quite a while, and when we saw a while, we mean the entire upcoming season. Simmons has asked the Sixers for a trade and if he is not granted that wish, he plans to take things to the next level.
Simmons is looking at forfeiting his entire salary by sitting out the year, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, who had the following to say during an appearance on The Jump this week:
“When you talk to people close to Ben, I say, okay, worst case scenario it takes all year, would he sit all year? And the answer right now is yes. Now, you can say that right now at the beginning of training camp, you can say that you’re willing to sit all year if that’s what it takes to get traded to a team that you feel more comfortable on. But let’s see what happens when you really start missing checks, you really start missing basketball, and the league moves on without you.”
Simmons, who is under contract with the Sixers for the next four seasons, is owed more than $33 million for the upcoming campaign.
“Ben is a very good player, a big part of this team,” Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey said. “We’re disappointed he’s not here. We expect him to be back. We expect him to be a 76er … Every situation is different but we have a lot of optimism that we can make it work here.”
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“I still think the world of him,” Sixers coach Doc Rivers added. “I think the world of him as a player.”
The team would love to have him back, but there was so much said about him after they were eliminated from the playoffs by the Atlanta Hawks that it soured the relationship and it appears there is no going back.
