Ben Simmons reportedly won’t attend the first day of the Philadelphia 76ers training camp next week.
Adrian Wojnarowski reported the news on Tuesday, writing on Twitter that according to sources Simmons also “intends to never play another game for the franchise,” and that “Simmons hasn’t spoken to team since a late August meeting when he communicated this message to Sixers officials.” The Associated Press also reported that Simmons won’t return to the team.
The news feels like a culmination of everything that’s happened between Simmons and the Sixers since they were bounced from the playoffs by the Atlanta Hawks, a loss that Simmons largely shouldered the blame for.
In August, reports surfaced that Simmons had cut off all communication with the Sixers and was also ignoring Joel Embiid’s phone calls. According to Jason Dumas of KRON4 News, Simmons wasn’t directly speaking to anyone in the organization, and was communicating through his agent, Rich Paul.
Dumas reported that Simmons’ relationship with his team was “getting worse by the day” and was “beyond repair at this point.” At the time, Simmons was said to be open to moving to one of the California teams, like the Golden State Warriors.
At the beginning of September, Embiid addressed the rift between him and Simmons on Twitter, writing in part, “I love playing with Ben. Stats don’t lie. He’s an amazing player and we all didn’t get the job done. It’s on me personally. I hope everyone is back cuz we know we’re good enough to win.”
