Stephen A. Smith put Ben Simmons in his place.
The Nets point guard took a shot on the 76ers — his former team — following their Eastern Conference semifinal playoff loss to the Celtics with an image on his Instagram story of a glass of wine and Philadelphia’s blowout loss on the tv within the background.
On Tuesday, Smith let out on his “Know Mercy” podcast in regards to the incident.
“The one thing worse than James Harden was that sorry trifling ass Ben Simmons. And I attempted to be [nice] to Ben Simmons. I attempted to provide him the advantage of the doubt,” Smith said. “How the hell are you talking a couple of basketball player, if you treat putting on a basketball uniform and dribbling — if you treat that if any individual asked you to get on the front lines in Ukraine to fight Russia.
“That’s how scared he’s to play basketball.”
He said his peace on Harden’s lack of performance and his “disappointment” in Joel Embiid, but nothing held a candle to his heated tackle Simmons, who was traded to Brooklyn after they gave up on their Harden experiment alongside Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in February of 2022.
While in Philadelphia, Simmons — the No.1 overall pick to the 76ers within the 2016 draft — played in 4 out of his six seasons, earning three All-Star nods, a 2017-2018 All-Rookie, and two All-Defensive awards.
But his profession output with the Sixers of 14.7 points, 7.5 assists, and seven.8 rounds per game, got here to a halt in the course of the team’s playoff stretch in 2021, only scoring a mean of 11.9 points and was known to be an ineffective shooter on the court against the Atlanta Hawks, who knocked them out of the semi-final round.
He sat out your entire 2021-2022 season in Philadelphia, waiting for a move to a recent team.
In his first season with the Nets, Simmons played just 42 games for a mean of 6.9 points, 6.1 assists, and 6.3 rebounds per game as a consequence of a laundry list of run-ins, including a back injury, knee injury, and mental health. His promising production from the Sixers has not been seen.
“I mean, he’s the one which’s talking about it. They brought up mental illness. I didn’t bring that up. I didn’t say anything about that. I’m not making light of something like that. He brought that up,” Smith continued. “He said that was rationale. He said that he needed therapy. He said that he needed to check with people. Then it’s a back injury. Then it’s a knee injury. It’s all of those excuses to not play.
“But that brother never missed a check though. He at all times make sure that the check is within the account. And you’re talking about James Harden and the 76ers — the team you quit on? The team you left hanging? The team that you simply were speculated to help deliver a championship because the primary overall pick within the draft? You! You! That’s you.”
Simmons decision to seemingly look to enjoy his former team’s playoff loss didn’t sit right with Smith, seeing it as hypocritical.
“Boy, I higher not see him. All imma do is take a look at him. It’s going to be considered one of these,” he concludes as he flashes a glance of judgement and disappointment before whispering “sorry ass.”
