Ben Simmons‘ time as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers came to a very unceremonious end. After spending the start of the 2021-22 NBA season away from the team, Simmons was sent to the Brooklyn Nets as part of the package that sent James Harden to Philadelphia. It was a strange departure, one that came on the heels of Simmons struggling in and being scapegoated for the team’s Eastern Conference Semifinal loss to the Atlanta Hawks the year before, and since joining the Nets, he hasn’t been able to regain the form that made him one of the most uniquely talented players in the league.
The hope for the 2023-24 campaign is that Simmons will be back to 100 percent health and ready to help an upstart Brooklyn team as it moves out of the Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving era. But before that happens, Simmons sat down with Marc J. Spears of Andscape and revealed that he’s very open to a return to Philadelphia someday.
“I had a lot of fun there,” Simmons said when asked to reflect on his time in the city. “It was time for me to go. When I did leave, it was good timing. Obviously, the injury and everything that was going on didn’t help. But I think it gave me a chance to really appreciate it. I’ll always have love for Philly. People always ask me like, ‘If you were to get traded again where you want it to be?’ I always say, ‘Just Philly. Philly is a second home to me.’ And in time, you learn and grow as people. I don’t really have anything bad to say about Philly. It was a crazy situation at the end, but it is what it is.”
Well, there you have it: If Daryl Morey wants a solution to his “I need to trade Harden somewhere” problem, a new option has presented itself in the form of Ben Simmons.