Philadelphia 76ers star Ben Simmons has had himself a rough couple of months. After a pretty poor playoff performance that ended with him passing up a dunk in Game 7 of the East semifinals, he has received a lot of criticisms from everybody and he has dealt with trade rumors and then a holdout.
All of that has resulted in him going through a lot of mental health issues at the moment. He is continuing to see a mental professional in order to get himself back onto the floor and be ready to play again, but it has been a slow process that has left the Sixers frustrated.
Former Sixers big man Dwight Howard, who spent the 2020-21 season in Philadelphia, has come to the defense of Simmons before. Now, he is doing so again to try and get people to understand what Simmons is going through.
Howard sat down with GQ Magazine and said this about the Simmons situation:
It’s difficult to talk about mental health for a lot of people. You don’t want everybody in ya business. On the other end, if you talk about this kind of stuff, it’s gonna bring a lot of attention, and it’s not always good. Everybody doesn’t have the right intentions and you have to watch what you say and do in the public eye. I know for him: that was a real tough situation because he’s dealing with a lot at home and with his family.
He’s done the best job he can. I don’t think the Philly fans have really treated him fairly throughout this whole situation based off what they heard in the media. They feel like he’s obligated to them. But what if this was your son or daughter or one of your friends dealing with what Ben’s dealing with? How would you handle it? How would you feel?
The Simmons situation is a sad one to see it play out the way it has. He is obviously a very talented player and still young at only 25-years old. The past couple of months have been a lot for anybody to handle and it is up to him to get himself right again. At this point, he should take all the time he needs as the Sixers continue through this tough process.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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