Ben Simmons is still on the Philadelphia 76ers. While we’re a few months into the offseason and the NBA Draft has come and gone, but despite Simmons’ name being thrown around in trade rumblings ever since the Sixers were bounced in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the team hasn’t found a deal to send him elsewhere that they like.
Apparently, things have gotten quite messy, according to Jason Dumas. In an appearance on 95.7 The Game in the Bay Area, things are “getting worse by the day,” to the point that things are “beyond repair.”
Ben Simmons’ relationship reportedly “beyond repair” is ignoring Joel Embiid’s phone calls. Doesn’t want to get traded to Raptors or Blazers. Open to getting traded to one of the California teams according to @JDumasReports on @957thegame pic.twitter.com/ouFTf7eBnw
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) August 5, 2021
“He doesn’t wanna go to a bad situation,” Dumas said. “He sees Toronto, he sees Portland, and Ben, being — just to be frank — the young socialite that he is, he’s not really trying to go to any of those situations. He’s open to the California teams, is what I’ve been told.”
In fact, Dumas reports that Joel Embiid has made a few attempts to contact Simmons, but those various calls have not been returned, something that has been the case with “many other of the players.”
“He’s essentially taken a step back and said, ‘Hey, all my communication is gonna be through my agent,’” Dumas reports. “And we know what that essentially means — don’t talk to me anymore, I’ll just figure out where I’m playing next. He doesn’t wanna return to the Sixers, damage has been done.”
There have seemingly been weekly updates on the situation with Simmons, and this is probably the most damning of the bunch. Now, we sit and wait and see if this is, indeed, the end of the road, or if he’s going to make it to the start of the regular season in Philly.