“He’s still our brother.”
This is how Sixers leader Joel Embiid chose to cap off his address to the crowd before tip-off of the season opener at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Friday night.
There was no way to misconstrue Embiid’s message. He was referring to the elephant in the room that every sports personality from Philly to Fresno cannot stop talking about, the ongoing question mark surrounding Ben Simmons’ future as a member of the 76ers.
Embiid choosing to ask the Sixers faithful to continue to support not only the team but Simmons as well right now is a positive step in the right direction. Just a few days ago, Embiid was telling reporters that he didn’t care about him anymore and Simmons was getting kicked out of practice. The new outlook is likely a result of the meeting between Simmons, Embiid, head coach Doc Rivers, and the rest of the team on early Friday morning.
“That’s a first step. It’s a start. It was good to hear from him. We are better with him. I wouldn’t mind playing with him,” Embiid told NBC Sports Philadelphia reporter John Clark during Friday night’s postgame press conference.
Within the organization, things appear to be on the upswing. But out in the Wells Fargo Center parking lot ahead of Friday night’s matchup with the Brooklyn Nets, there were still fans not as ready to welcome back Simmons with open arms just yet. Bootleg T-shirt vendors scattered around the stadium’s perimeter were slanging shirts with a “Missing” poster for Simmons on the front taking jabs at his jumper, something fans have been begging him to improve since his rookie season in 2017. On the back, Simmons’ face was superimposed on the Mister Softee logo. One vendor simply said Simmons was “out of pocket,” but that he cheered for him until he started “doing all the dumbass shit.”
“At this point, just let him go,” he said regarding the Simmons situation. “It’s just gonna be hard to get a 6’10” guard with handles.”
Other fans tailgating had chosen to tweak their old jerseys and T-shirts, crossing out “Simmons” to read things like “Clown” or “Frosty Maker” (a clever nod to Simmons’ poor free throw percentage and the fan-favorite Frosty Freeze-Out promotion with Wendy’s that occurs every Sixers home game).
“If he can put his ego aside a little bit with Embiid and just know he’s our second player, we can make serious noise in the Finals,” says Eric Berman, proudly rocking a throwback Allen Iverson jersey. “He’s just got to get a jump shot. We’re not asking him to shoot threes and be Stephen Curry. Just hit some free throws. Don’t be scared to go for dunks. I don’t hate him or anything. I just think he’s being weird right now.”
Alex Fritz, a young Sixers fan who customized his old Simmons jersey into an Embiid jersey with some clever use of duct tape for his game attire, says he ultimately would welcome Simmons back, but he saw the writing on the wall last season during the playoffs. “Before I walked into Game 7, I told someone that this was the last game we would ever see Ben Simmons play in a Sixers jersey.” Will that be validated? To be determined. But it’s looking feasible at the moment.
Another fan suggested that Simmons should have just leaned into the “bad guy” role, but continued to actually show up and play. “The city would have probably loved him for it.”
The fan reaction was certainly mixed. Some fans, despite their joking wardrobes, expressed how much they want Simmons back in the fold. Others never want to see him again. The common thread, everyone is a bit perplexed by the whole situation. Tragedy. A mess. Cowardice. Blasphemous. Flabbergasting. These are some of the words that came to mind for Sixers fans to describe the ongoing Simmons controversy.
Even if he does end up patching things up and coming back to the team this season, the sour taste in plenty of fans’ mouths won’t be easy to alleviate. After all, we are talking about a city who essentially ran its NFL team’s starting quarterback out of town just a season ago for poor play and has been patiently suffering through “The Process” with the Sixers for nearly a decade. If there’s one thing Philly sports fans are, it’s passionate. They’ll probably have the Wells Fargo Center rocking the second Simmons slams home a fast break dunk and welcome him back with open arms. The hard part is just the long road it seems like needs to be taken to get there.
Once inside the arena, the concourse told a similar story. Signage around the stadium marking the new season’s kickoff was devoid of the star’s presence entirely. The lone cameo of Simmons was his handful of jerseys still being sold at some of the fan shops. Some fans even tried to ramp up “Fuck Ben Simmons” chants to no avail. This happened a few times throughout the night with varying degrees of success. The crowd did let out a loud round of boos when Simmons briefly blipped onto the screen during a hype package on the Jumbotron.
Once the game began, the tide shifted though. It was all about the team on the court facing off against a potential playoff foe, the Nets. Eruptions of cheers followed big threes by players like Seth Curry. Loud displeasure with the refs on a questionable technical foul against Embiid filled the arena at one point. A fan sitting behind me yelled, “We don’t need Simmons. We’re a better team without him,” following a big shot by sophomore guard Tyrese Maxey. Some of the loudest cheers came when Philadelphia sports legends Brian Westbrook and Allen Iverson were acknowledged for being courtside during timeouts. In a way, the fans’ continued admiration for these two guys is a perfect example of how Philly’s fans embrace players who clearly leave it all on the floor every time they play a game. Neither brought a championship to the city, but both have been immortalized regardless for their effort and excellent play.
By the fourth quarter, it was increasingly obvious that Simmons was no longer front of mind for fans. It was all about basketball now. An alley oop from Tobias Harris to Matisse Thybulle to go up 108-98 late in the fourth quarter elicited some of the loudest cheers I have ever heard in my life. Conversely, a trio of Danny Green airballs in consecutive possessions that snowballed into a chorus of boos had Green appearing to be the most-hated Sixer in town, at least for a small window. Eventually, the Sixers would fall to the Nets by a score of 114-109 following an epic collapse in the fourth, bookending a day that started with the looming Simmons fiasco with yet another sore spot for the Philly faithful.
The entire Sixers-Simmons situation is bizarre to say the least. And unfortunately, when the team’s president Daryl Morey says he will wait four years to resolve this if he has to, it doesn’t look like a happy ending will be coming any time soon, either. As fans filed out of the Wells Fargo Center on Friday night following a dreadful fourth quarter by the Sixers, I couldn’t help but feel hopeless as a fan (a common thing for any Philly fan). But despite all of the off court drama surrounding the team right now, it took a backseat to basketball for 48 minutes of regulation. At this point, that’s a moral victory, right?
That being said, I couldn’t help but wonder, “Do they hang on to win this game if Simmons is on the floor?”
