The problem with Ben Simmons has never been that his feelings are unjustified. Rather, the problem is that his feelings have never justified his behavior. This is a subtle but crucial distinction. It is also a classic one, having long served as a line of demarcation between two groups of people: those who accept the fact that that the world does not revolve around themselves, and those who cannot understand why it would operate in any other way.
In that sense, Simmons’ recent appearance on former teammate JJ Redick’s podcast offered listeners an unprecedented level of insight into the circumstances that led to his long and messy departure from the Sixers. The conversation did not yield much in the way of new concrete detail. The major plot points remain the major plot points. The narrative arc remains the same. Simmons felt like his head coach and his longtime co-star had, in Redick’s words, “thrown him under the bus” after the Sixers’ loss to the Hawks in Game 7 of the 2021 Eastern Conference semifinals. The sense of betrayal was magnified by the fact that both Doc Rivers and Joel Embiid were aware of some stressors that Simmons had been dealing with in his personal life and that had taken a toll on his mental health.
By the time anybody realized Simmons felt this way, the damage had been done. When word leaked that his teammates had attempted to organize a cross country flight to visit Simmons in L.A. and convince him to report to training camp, it had the opposite of the intended effect.
