The Philadelphia 76ers have suspended Ben Simmons for one game for inappropriate conduct for the team, as announced by the franchise itself. As a direct consequence, the player will not be available for the season opener this Wednesday against the New Orleans Pelicans.
The 76ers’ statement was very limited in terms of details and journalists from various media would be in charge of gradually adding light. Adrian Wojnarowski and Keith Pompey would uncover the jar of essences reporting that Simmons was expelled from the team’s training held on Tuesday. Shortly after, Shams Charania would tighten the fence. According to him insider from The Athletic, the player twice refused to participate in a defensive drill at the express request of Doc Rivers. Faced with both refusals, the coach told him to leave, which he did after “dropping the ball.”
“It was a distraction,” Rivers himself said according to other parallel information from journalist Serena Winters. I thought I didn’t want to do what everyone else was doing. It was no big deal. I just told him that he should go now and we continue with the training. “
The established plan was for the All-Star to attend to the media after the session but this incident will maintain the informational silence around his figure, who has not yet spoken publicly about it. The player returned to Philadelphia last week and had been marked as a doubt for the first meeting of the course.
Although Rivers has expressed his desire to continue counting on Simmons as long as he remains with the team, the player’s desire to leave the 76ers remains unchanged. Thus, their return would be justified only as an action to avoid economic repercussions.
If anyone still believed that there was a slightest chance of reconciliation, it seems to have vanished. “Our job is not to take care of someone”, stated Embiid as shared by journalist Kyle Neubeck. “I’d be willing to babysit if someone wants to listen, but that’s not my job.”
In this way, everything indicates that it is only a matter of time to see Ben Simmons with a different shirt than the Philadephia 76ers.
(Cover photo by Mike Ehrmann / Getty Images)