Ben Simmons heard it from the Philadelphia crowd in his return to the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night, despite wearing street clothes as he still awaits his season debut.
But while the 76ers fans spent all of pregame warmups heckling their former All-Star, Simmons’ teammates made sure to silence the home crowd quickly, dominating from beginning to end in a statement rout, which Brooklyn said was absolutely motivated by its desire to stand up for their new teammate.
“We look at Ben as our brother, so we knew this was a hostile environment,” Kevin Durant said. “We knew he didn’t have the chance to play, so we wanted to come out there and focus on the court moreso than him…It's hard for you to chant at Ben Simmons when you're losing by that much.”
Simmons traveled with the team since it was close to Brooklyn, where he has been trying to ramp up his conditioning and address his ailing back so he can finally suit up with his new team. It was an opportunity for Philly fans to let Simmons know how much they missed him, sarcastically cheering when he dunked the ball during warmups, or chanted at him to shoot the ball whenever he was holding one. But those jeers quickly dissipated after the opening tip, as Simmons’ teammates sucked the energy out of the hostile crowd.
“It's not an individual thing for us,” Kyrie Irving said. “We all felt it. We're all there. If you come at Ben, you come at us.”
The Sixers fans certainly came at Simmons, but Irving was impressed with how Simmons dealt with the hostility, while Simmons was likely impressed with how Irving and company handled his former team, which had been dominating since trading Simmons to the Nets for James Harden.
“I think he handled it well,” Irving said. “Man showed up, came to support us, and wanted to see for himself…hopefully next time he’ll be playing and get to experience it on the floor.”
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