The Philadelphia 76ers are in a spot that benefited them in a way as the league gets set to resume and finish the 2019-20 season. At the time the league was suspended in March, they were dealing with injuries to their star duo of Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. This time off has allowed the two of them to get fully healthy and get back up to a full go for the season restart.
Simmons, in particular, has been the one who has had a lot of eyes on him after suffering a back injury on February 22 against the Milwaukee Bucks. That was a night that coach Brett Brown said he was vomiting due to the amount of pain he was in and he even went further as to say that Simmons might not be at 100% when the season does resume.
Brown explained those comments on Wednesday of why he chose to say what he said.
“I’m always trying to be responsible of not being a cheerleader or delivering stuff that maybe you’re going to regret,” said Brown. “My comments on Ben because you’re trying to walk that line of protecting him and not jump out of your lane where people’s hopes get too high. So my decision to choose the words that I chose, I don’t backpedal from that. He’s doing way better than what that phrase would indicate.”
Simmons has been seen since working out in Los Angeles with stars such as Dwyane Wade and LeBron James that show that he is, in fact, healthy.
“We’re going to treat Ben like you would Shake (Milton) or Matisse (Thybulle), he’s good to go,” he added. “He’s put in a tremendous amount of work. I think when you look at the silver linings of this pandemic and the way things have shaped up, it would be hard-pressed for me to find something more obvious than this. It’s enabled Ben to reclaim his health. He’s good to go and we look forward to watching him with what I’m told is 100% health.”
Brown adds that Ben Simmons is “good to go” #Sixers
— Ky Carlin (@Ky_Carlin) July 1, 2020
The Sixers will get back to work on August 1 when they take on the Indiana Pacers in Orlando. [lawrence-related id=33813,33796,33804]