Ben Simmons Blames Doc Rivers and Daryl Morey For The Current Situation

A report out of Philadelphia today confirms that the Ben Simmons/Philadelphia 76ers dispute can be traced directly to coach Doc Rivers' comments about Simmons after the Sixers were eliminated in Game 7 of the East Semi-Finals by the Atlanta Hawks.

When asked if he thought Simmons could be the point guard on a championship team, Rivers replied, "I don't know." Simmons is apparently irked that Rivers wasn't "reprimanded" for "throwing him under the bus", and that "no one apologized" to him for it.

Given all of that, according to Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Simmons camp has zero interest in helping the Sixers with this situation.

Report: Ben Simmons disinclined to help 76ers after Daryl Morey, Doc Rivers comments https://t.co/ikyPdOByWU
— Dan Feldman (@DanFeldmanNBA) September 7, 2021

There are teams that are interested in Ben Simmons, they just don't want to pay the steep price. Ben Simmons knows that, so they’re saying to themselves, “Why should we help the 76ers out?” when they feel like, when Doc Rivers said what he said, no one apologized. Doc Rivers wasn’t reprimanded.

Pompey says Simmons' value was destroyed by his playoff performance, shooting 34% from the free throw line, and refusing to take even one shot in the 4th quarters of the last four games of the 7-game series. He says it's incumbent upon Morey to bring his price down in trade talks.

The Sixers are in a real bind, now that Simmons has demanded a trade and says he will not report to training camp later this month.

Meanwhile, Simmons is actually starting to have some fun with all this, and his rumored intent to play for any of 29 teams in the NBA not located in Philly.