"We Will Embrace Our Brother": Ben Simmons Still Has At Least One Friend On The Sixers

 

While the world continues to pile on Ben Simmons for his embarrassing behavior the past few months, at least one teammate is still all good with him. After the Friday morning meeting in which Simmons addressed the team, Tobias Harris is doing his best to keep the Philadelphia 76ers together, by posting on Twitter, "we’ll respect his privacy and space during this time."

And we’ll respect his privacy and space during this time. When he’s ready, we will embrace our brother with love and handle our business on the court. That's it, that's all. https://t.co/eardjmQbz8

— Tobias Harris (@tobias31) October 22, 2021

"When he’s ready," Harris continued, "we will embrace our brother with love and handle our business on the court. That's it, that's all."

That's a far cry from teammate Joel Embiid, who is fed up with the Simmons drama, saying "I don't care about that man." That came after Simmons was kicked out of practice on Tuesday and suspended for a game after his unwillingness to participate in a drill.

GM Daryl Morey is also not too interested in smoothing things over, challenging Simmons and his agent Rich Paul with an 'I'm not budging' stance.

This isn't the first time this week that Tobias Harris has taken a leadership stance, however, to try to hold the team together. Earlier in the week, he said he's keeping things light, and trying to keep his teammates focused.

Tobias Harris talks about how he is leading the team amid the tough situation they find themselves in #Sixers pic.twitter.com/0xrVqOpN5K

— Ky Carlin (@Ky_Carlin) October 20, 2021

“Making things as light as they need to be," said Harris after Simmons' practice shenanigans earlier this week. "I like to really just see what the vibe is and see any way I can put my hand on it and try to keep guys in the right focus and intent and just to make things light off the floor. Jokes, stuff like that, little things, but it goes a long way.” 

Harris is also seeing this as an opportunity for everyone else to play a bigger role: “The good thing is we got a group of guys who everybody is now in a position where they have to step up so for anybody to be lagging mentally or focus-wise on other things, it’s only gonna hurt their game. For the group, it’s like everybody has an increased role.”

It's unknown what Simmons said when he addressed the team for five minutes Friday morning, but it was very likely scripted by Rich Paul, and apparently went over well for Harris at least. 

Photo Credit:  Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports