Ben Simmons' acrimonious exit from the 76ers has been explored from just about every angle, but one aspect that has remained somewhat unexplained is his relationship with Joel Embiid.
But according to Simmons, it's more like a lack of a relationship.
In a wide-ranging interview with ESPN's Nick Friedell, Simmons revealed that his relationship with the MVP runner-up was limited to on the court.
"I don't talk to Jo," Simmons told Friedell. "We never really spoke."
While it may not be especially surprising that Simmons and Embiid are out of touch following Simmons' departure -- a situation that Embiid himself has said he never fully understood -- it's interesting that the All-Stars apparently never hit it off when they were teammates in Philadelphia.
Simmons clarified that while he has no ill will toward Embiid, they never developed a "friendship" either.
"I don't think there was really a relationship there," Simmons said. "Like in terms of a friendship? You can try as hard as you want to try to be close to somebody, be their friend, whatever it is, but everyone is different as people, so for me, it's never personal. I don't have any anger or hate towards him. He is who he is, and I am who I am. And we've got our personal lives. And work is basketball, so in that moment, my goal is to win, and I got to win with Jo. He's a great player, we just didn't get it done."
The 76ers did indeed win plenty of regular-season games with Embiid and Simmons as their top players, but they famously came up small under the bright lights of the postseason.
Simmons passed up an open dunk late in a series-clinching loss to the Atlanta Hawks in the 2021 Eastern Conference Semifinals, marking his final game on the floor with the 76ers. The three-time All-Star later requested a trade after facing public criticism from his coach and teammates.
When Sixers management declined to grant his request, Simmons held out, setting up an ugly standoff. He was later traded to Brooklyn in exchange for James Harden, in a swap of disgruntled superstars.
For his part, Embiid has also maintained that there are no hard feelings toward Simmons, and the he never wanted him gone from Philly in the first place.
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"I never said that, to get him out of there," Embiid said on Draymond Green's podcast earlier this year. "I just didn't understand what was going on, honestly. I didn't understand what happened and what led to that situation. To this day, I don't understand. And I don't have any problems with him."
In any event, Simmons has returned to the floor with the Nets during preseason action, his first game action since the Sixers' fateful loss to the Hawks nearly a year and a half ago. He is hoping to regain his All-Star form in a star-studded lineup also featuring Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
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