Ben Simmons apparently thinks he has too much of a social life to play for the Portland Trail Blazers or Toronto Raptors.
After an embarrassing playoff performance, the rumor mill surrounding Ben Simmons has been churning rapidly. The 25-year-old still has four years and $145 million remaining on his contract with the Philadelphia 76ers, but the chances of him suiting up for them in the upcoming season seem less and less likely by the day.
On Thursday, news broke via Jason Dumas of Bleacher Report that the relationship between the Australian guard-forward and the Sixers is “beyond repair”. Simmons supposedly isn’t even answering teammate Joel Embiid’s phone calls these days.
Ben Simmons wants to go to California
Dumas also told a Philadelphia radio station that Simmons “doesn’t want to go to a bad situation.” Apparently, Simmons’ definition of a bad situation includes both the Portland Trail Blazers and the Toronto Raptors, but not because of the teams themselves, who have been playoff contenders for years.
“He sees Toronto, he sees Portland and Ben, to be frank, being the young socialite that he is, he’s not looking to go to any of those situations,” Dumas said. “He’s open to the California teams.”
Plainly, after his recent playoff struggles, Simmons would be wise to focus more on basketball than his social life.
Moreover, given his current contract situation, it’s unlikely that Simmons will have much say in where the Sixers send him should they wish to break up their young core. That said, it’s hard to imagine the front offices in Toronto and Portland reading this and deciding to take a big swing on Simmons, so perhaps he got his message across.
Moving forward, Simmons has indicated that communication will be via his agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports Group.