The big question on the minds of a lot of fans of the Philadelphia 76ers regarding the Ben Simmons saga is “why?” Why did everything go down the way it did following the team’s elimination from the 2021 playoffs against the Atlanta Hawks?
Going back to June 20, 2021, Simmons has gone through a lot. He passed up a dunk late in that Game 7, which Hawks star Trae Young defended the decision, he then was criticized in the aftermath of the game, involved in a ton of trade rumors, and then requested a trade a few weeks before training camp for the 2021-22 season.
Simmons then held out from the team citing mental health issues, he then reported to the team in the middle of the preseason, returned to practice, was kicked out of practice, and then didn’t play a single game before being sent to the Brooklyn Nets in the James Harden deal.
Simmons sat down with former Sixers guard JJ Redick on his podcast “The Old Man and the Three” and Simmons opened up on a lot of questions that are on the mind of everybody:
In the moment, I just spun, and I’m assuming Trae’s gonna come over quicker. So I’m thinking he’s gonna come for the ball and I see Matisse (Thybulle), and Matisse is athletic and can get up, so I’m thinking ‘OK. Quick pass, he’s gonna flush it’ not knowing how much space there was. It happened so quick that you just make a read. In the playoffs, you need to make the right decisions the majority of the time and then it happened and I’m just like ‘OK. (Expletive), now we gotta go make another play’. That’s how I’m thinking and I didn’t realize how everyone’s posting and I’m like ‘It’s that big?’
You’re spinning into a jersey…It (expletive) looks terrible! When I look at it now, I’m like ‘Man! I should’ve just punched that (expletive).’
I think it was—I’m already dealing with a lot mentally just in life, as a lot of people do, but it got to a point where after that series, I’m getting—it’s like from the people that you’re supposed to have the support from or that comfort from and I wasn’t getting that either and it was a toll on me. Like, mentally it killed me. Like ‘(Expletive)!’ No energy for anything. I was in a dark place. It took me a long time. The first thing for me was really to identify I gotta get right. It’s not a physical thing. It’s mental and I think that first thing of acknowledging it was a huge step for me and I was…
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