Philadelphia 76ers All-Star guard Ben Simmons allegedly believes “his career is better off without” having big man Joel Embiid as a teammate and, by all accounts, remains serious about staying away from the organization as he attempts to force a trade either before or during the upcoming NBA season.
ESPN NBA insider Brian Windhorst explained earlier this month Simmons could sit through the fall to get his wish, but Ramona Shelburne reported during a Tuesday appearance on ESPN’s “The Jump” the 25-year-old may be willing to skip an entire season, if necessary.
“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,” Shelburne said, per Kyle Neubeck of the Philly Voice. “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.”
Back on Sept. 8, Windhorst said of Simmons during an on-air segment:
“And one thing that I think is interesting is that his contract is structured in a way that he’s going to get half of his money by Oct. 1 — $16.5 million of his $33 million comes before he has to worry about getting fined a single dime, 41 of his games. So he’s going to have a war chest and he can just sit this out.”
The 76ers reportedly aren’t willing to budge on their asking price of an All-Star, draft selections and pick swaps for Simmons, and Simmons also seems comfortable in his stance. It appears we’re no closer to any resolution regarding this standoff as October nears.
