Ben Simmons has cut off all communication with the team and is ignoring Joel Embiid’s phone calls, Jason Dumas of KRON4 News reports.
Per Dumas, Simmons has stopped speaking with “basically everyone in the Sixers organization.” The team’s only line of communication with Simmons is said to be through his agent, Rich Paul.
Speaking on 95.7 The Game, Dumas said that the relationship between Simmons and the team is “getting worse by the day,” and is “beyond repair at this point.” As trade talks swirl around the 76ers star, Dumas reports that Simmons’ main concern is that he doesn’t want to end up in a “bad situation,” and is “open” to moving to one of the teams in California.
Dumas also reports that the relationship between Simmons and teammate Joel Embiid is also fractured. “Joel Embiid has reached out to him several times since then,” Dumas said. “And he hasn’t returned Joel Embiid’s phone calls.”
And while Simmons is okay with being traded, he’s reportedly not willing to move to either the Portland Trail Blazers or the Toronto Raptors.
Simmons’ relationship with the team appears to have soured after their loss to the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference semifinals, which Simmons received much of the blame for.
"We lost, it sucks, I am who I am, it is what it is, it’s not easy to win...first thing I’m going to do is clear my mind and get my mental right," Simmons said following the loss.
Simmons seems to be a bit on edge these days, after hitting back at a troll in a comment on Instagram earlier this month. When a fan commented on a post of Simmons “acting like he was about to shoot,” Simmons replied back, “Ya lips look like ya got stung by a [bee emoji] nutty professor ass.”
Stay tuned here as the Ben Simmons saga continues.
