The Philadelphia 76ers are still working through the aftermath of the injury news to Ben Simmons as he is currently dealing with a subluxation in his left knee that will hold him out for a while. As they prepare for the Orlando Magic on Friday, it’s tough not to think about everything Simmons has been through.
Simmons suffered a serious back injury on February 22 on the road against the Milwaukee Bucks that would have probably held him out for the rest of the season if it had not been suspended. However, the pandemic was seen as a blessing in disguise for Philadelphia as it allowed Simmons more time to rehab and be able to get back at it.
Instead, three games into a restart and a new position, he suffers this injury that will hold him out for a while.
“I feel for him,” said coach Brett Brown. “We don’t know what ultimately is going to happen, but if people really understood, he hurt his back in a serious way in Milwaukee, and to go through everything that he’s been through, he looks physically different than what he did in March. He really has worked physically to come back stronger. To get his back rehab, to have a cardio base, to have a physical condition, he had to have done a lot for me to have seen what I’ve seen so I feel bad for him that this situation has happened after all of the hard work that he’s put in.”
The Sixers now have the challenge of having to come together and playing hard to get to where they want to go. It will get much tougher without Simmons, but Brown believes this is the type of unfortunate situation that can bring the team together even more and have them rely on each other now more than ever.
“It’s quite well known that 19 out of 65 games, did we really have our group,” Brown added. “So now to the point about Ben, we don’t have him for tonight and you’re numb to it. You just move. It ends up like ready, fire, aim, you figure it out, you take something, you coach who you have, and I genuinely believe that this can galvanize our group and bring us in an inverted way together knowing Ben will not be with us tonight. That’s personally how I see it as it relates to Ben.”
The Sixers and the Magic tipoff at 6:30 p.m. EST as Philadelphia looks to move on quickly from the Simmons news. [lawrence-related id=36385,36376,36391]