Stephen A. Smith put Ben Simmons in his place.
The Nets level guard took a shot on the 76ers — his former staff — following their Jap Convention 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 unfastened on his “Know Mercy” podcast in regards to the incident.
“The one factor worse than James Harden was that sorry trifling ass Ben Simmons. And I attempted to be [nice] to Ben Simmons. I attempted to present him the good thing about the doubt,” Smith mentioned. “How the hell are you speaking a couple of basketball participant, if you deal with placing on a basketball uniform and dribbling — if you deal with that if anyone requested you to get on the entrance traces in Ukraine to combat Russia.
“That’s how scared he’s to play basketball.”
He mentioned his peace on Harden’s lack of efficiency and his “disappointment” in Joel Embiid, however 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.
Whereas in Philadelphia, Simmons — the No.1 general decide to the 76ers within the 2016 draft — performed in 4 out of his six seasons, incomes three All-Star nods, a 2017-2018 All-Rookie, and two All-Defensive awards.
However his profession output with the Sixers of 14.7 factors, 7.5 assists, and seven.8 rounds per sport, got here to a halt in the course of the staff’s playoff stretch in 2021, solely scoring a mean of 11.9 factors and was identified to be an ineffective shooter on the court docket in opposition to the Atlanta Hawks, who knocked them out of the semi-final spherical.
He sat out all the 2021-2022 season in Philadelphia, ready for a transfer to a brand new staff.
In his first season with the Nets, Simmons performed simply 42 video games for a mean of 6.9 factors, 6.1 assists, and 6.3 rebounds per sport as a result of a laundry checklist of run-ins, together with a again damage, knee damage, and psychological well being. His promising manufacturing from the Sixers has not been seen.
“I imply, he’s the one which’s speaking about it. They introduced up psychological sickness. I didn’t carry that up. I didn’t say something about that. I’m not making gentle of one thing like that. He introduced that up,” Smith continued. “He mentioned that was rationale. He mentioned that he wanted remedy. He mentioned that he wanted to speak to folks. Then it’s a again damage. Then it’s a knee damage. It’s all of those excuses to not play.
“However that brother by no means missed a test although. He all the time make certain the test is within the account. And you’re speaking about James Harden and the 76ers — the staff you give up on? The staff you left hanging? The staff that you just have been supposed to assist ship a championship because the primary general decide within the draft? You! You! That’s you.”
Simmons determination to seemingly look to get pleasure from his former staff’s playoff loss didn’t sit proper with Smith, seeing it as hypocritical.
“Boy, I higher not see him. All imma do is have a look at him. It’s going to be one among these,” he concludes as he flashes a glance of judgement and disappointment earlier than whispering “sorry ass.”
