The only way to make much sense of Ben Simmons’ explanation of his divorce with the Sixers is to fill in the blanks with a bunch of stuff that he did not actually say. He mentioned the words “mental health” on a number of occasions, but he did not offer any specifics about his own mental health, or how it related to his eventual departure from the organization that made him the No. 1 overall pick in 2016.
He seemed to indicate that his absence from the Sixers was unrelated to his original trade request, that his holdout was due to unsatisfactory mental health rather than job dissatisfaction, but he also seemed to indicate that his mental health would no longer prevent him from playing basketball now that he is satisfied with his job.
In short, he said a lot of words that painted the same blurry picture that he and his representatives have been holding up to since the summer.
