What more can Philadelphia 76ers coach Brett Brown take? Ever since taking over the head job in 2013, the Sixers have dealt with major injuries to major contributors almost year in and year out and on Thursday, he had to deal with another one.
All-Star Ben Simmons is out indefinitely after being diagnosed with a subluxation in his left knee which could keep him out for a while. This is concerning considering the playoffs begin in less than two weeks down in Orlando.
Philadelphia has gone into the playoffs in each of the last two seasons dealing with an injury of some sort. Joel Embiid had a facial injury in the 2018 playoffs that caused him to miss some time and he was dealing with an issue in the 2019 playoffs as well.
“It’s the life that we have lived since I have been in Philadelphia,” said a clearly disappointed Brown. “Every coach has some level of a similar story. This one stings for sure. In relation to being incredibly down about it, I’m not. If I think too long about it, I can go there, but I feel numb to it. I feel conditioned that we have gone through this type of thing before. There is a level of faith that I have in the rest of the team that we can hold the fort until we can get him back. Snake-bitten, woe is me, I don’t go there.”
It is especially frustrating for the Sixers due to the fact that Simmons worked extremely hard to get to this point. He suffered a very severe back injury back on February 22 which left him vomiting in pain and he worked hard and did all of the little things in order to play again. The pandemic afforded him and the team enough time to return healthy and then this set back happens. It’s disappointing all around.
“I was with him last night. We had an organization dinner,” Brown added. “There’s clearly disappointment because I don’t know if anybody really understood what he did to get ready to come play basketball again. He really invested time, he really was diligent during the whole pandemic about recovery and rehab and strength and conditioning and it’s monotonous some of the smaller things that he had to do to add up to be able to play NBA basketball again.”
Now that this has popped up just before the 2020 playoffs, it can be easy to assume that he will miss some time in the playoffs as well. Josh Richardson did add that Simmons’s spirits are high.
“I saw him last night and he’s in good spirits,” said Richardson. “He’s excited to get back as soon as he can, but he’s definitely optimistic.” [lawrence-related id=36307,36290,36282]