Philadelphia 76ers have been dealing with the Ben Simmons situation without any success for a long time now.
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First, the Sixers organization were the ones who made it clear that they wanted the All-Star guard traded but as soon as the it was understood they wouldn’t be getting the expected return for their star, they were expecting for their max-contract player to resume training.
But Ben isn’t ready for it, he plans to meet medical professionals for evaluation after telling the team past Friday that he isn’t mentally ready to play to his expectations and needs time to step away.
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Simmons was suspended for the Sixers’ trip to New Orleans on Wednesday. He lost approximately $227,000 for Wednesday night’s suspension.
This “plan to meet medical professionals” might be a tactic by Ben and his agent Rich Paul to trigger a clause in the players’ contract which allows them to still get the full salary if they are dealing with any “mental disability”.
Charles Barkley thinks Ben Simmons should be suspended for at least 3 to 5 games
Talking about the Ben Simmons situation on ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption” with veteran analysts Tony Kornheiser and Mark Wilbon, Barkley said it was a foolish move from the Sixers organization to ban Ben for a day, and that there is no point in it.
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“They screwed this thing up from the beginning Tony, they need to trade Ben Simmons.” said Charles.
Chuck has been a Philadelphia resident for a long time after being one of the city’s biggest NBA superstars in the 90s. And he knows a thing or two about those hard-core Philly fans,
He continued “One thing I know about Philadelphia those fans are not gonna forgive him, it’s time for him to move on.
The Sixers? They made a mistake anyway suspended him for one day, they should have suspended him for 5 days.
The notion that everything is going to be great in 24hrs is one of the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen, they should have given him a 3-game or 5-game suspension.”
Ben could have made a case for himself if he came in early and busted his a** : Barkley
Chuck thinks if Ben had a better approach towards the situation even after putting in a transfer request a few months back, Philadelphia would have accepted their star guard with open arms.
Barkley said “I think if Ben had come in they would have given him a second chance, I truly believe that.
He came into the training camp and said ‘hey you know what I was mad, I did not play great, I gotta get better as a player.’ But once he came back and he’s practicing with a cell phone in his pocket and he’s not talking to his teammates it was over.
But I think if he came in and busted his behind, I think Philly would have given him second chance but I believe now it’s over, there’s no way he can go back in that building and those fans are going to be supportive.”
Ben Simmons, the Philly management, and coach Doc Rivers have tough few weeks coming ahead, it would be tough to keep the performance top-notch with all this drama. But Joel Embiid seems unbothered now, at least that is some relief for Philly fans.
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