Former LSU basketball standout Ben Simmons seemed to be off to a great start to his career.
After a one-and-done season with the Tigers, he was selected with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2016 NBA draft by the Philadelphia 76ers. He didn’t play as a rookie due to injury, but over the next four seasons, Simmons would start and play in 275 games averaging 15.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 7.7 assists per game. He was named the 2017-18 Rookie of the Year and selected to the 2019-20 All-NBA team while also being a two-time All-Defensive first-team pick, and a three-time All-Star.
The 76ers made the playoffs all four years and made it to the conference semifinal game three out of four times.
All of the accolades are nice, but there is an elephant in the room that we haven’t addressed, and I don’t mean Alabama. It seems as though over the years, a rift was formed between the 76ers organization and Simmons.
That rift led to questions about whether he wanted to be in Philly and play or not. Simmons hasn’t played in a game for the Sixers this season, and trade rumors have been flying almost every day as he has been holding out for the entire 2021-22 season.
Those rumors finally came to a head last week, as just hours before the trade deadline on Thursday, the 76ers traded Simmons to the Brooklyn Nets for James Harden and Paul Millsap. Philly also gave up Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, a 2022 first-round pick and a 2027 first-round pick to get the deal done.
Simmons is now in Brooklyn with his new teammates, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. In one of his first press conferences as a member of the Nets, he was asked why things got so bad in Philadelphia.
“It just got to a place where I don’t think it was good for me mentally.”
Ben Simmons speaks out about his time in Philadelphia.
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“If I knew, I would tell you everything,” he said. “But, there’s just a lot of things internally that, you know, had happened, over time, and it just got to a place where I don’t think it was good for me mentally. So, it is what it is, it happened, and we’re moving forward.”
During Simmons’ one year with LSU, he averaged 19.2 points, 11.8 rebounds, and 4.8 assists per game. He was named a First Team All-American and the SEC Freshman of the Year for his efforts.
The former Tigers star will hope better days are ahead as his career undergoes a new beginning in Brooklyn as part of a “Big 3” with Durant and Irving, two of the best players in the entire league.
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