Ben Simmons has been under intense scrutiny since the team’s season-ending loss to the Atlanta Hawks, and that criticism seems to only be getting worse as the week goes on.
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During ESPN’s First Take on Tuesday, Stephen A. Smith read a text message he received during the show about Simmons. Smith interrupted the conversation about Simmons to read the text.
“I just received a text from somebody very, very close to the situation in Philadelphia about Ben Simmons. This is a quote, this is not me, this is them. ‘He doesn’t work. He doesn’t listen. And everyone around him is family and he is constantly babied.’ That is the word out about Ben Simmons.”
Here is the full video:
Needless to say, the report does not paint Simmons in a good light, and comes on the heels of a report on Monday that Simmons would only work with certain shooting coaches he hired as opposed to the ones the team wanted him to work with.
76ers president Daryl Morey was asked about the team's commitment to Simmons during his press conference on Tuesday.
"A lot of what I'm reading, I frankly don't understand when people say the Sixers are in a bad a situation," Morey said. "I don't choose to come here, Doc doesn't choose to come here if this is a bad situation. Really 25, 26 teams would love to be in our situation with an MVP top caliber player [in Embiid], an all-star [in Simmons], a near all-star [in Harris], great young players who are signed for the long-term, good veterans. So we've got a good foundation, we just have to do better. I have to do better, everyone has to do better. That's the bottom line. That's the challenge. I can tell to everyone in Philadelphia that there's going to be a ton of effort up and down from myself, the front office, the coaching staff, and the players—who are being challenged as we speak in meetings with Doc Rivers on how they can get better as well."
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