"Nobody's Going To Hold His Hand": Kevin Durant On Ben Simmons Facing Philly Boobirds

Ben Simmons won't be playing, but he will be on the bench tonight in Philadelphia with his Brooklyn Nets teammates. And let's just say he won't be getting any "brotherly love" from the Philly faithful. Simmons' new teammate Kevin Durant has some advice for him.

KD has been there before. Fans in Oklahoma City showered him mercilessly with boos when he returned after leaving the Thunder. About Simmons, he says “That’s one of those things he’s going to have to experience for himself - I can’t go over there, nobody’s going to hold his hand.”

Durant says, essentially, fans are gonna be fans, and they're going to let Simmons have it, verbally.

“I’m sure there is going to be personal attacks, there’s going to be some words that may trigger you, but that’s just how fans are." He had some not-so-kind words about the paying customers, in fact.

Kevin Durant said he hasn't offered advice to Ben Simmons about returning to Philly, and spoke on fans that come to games to heckle:

"Some people don't even enjoy basketball. Their lives are so s***ty that they just get to aim it at other people" pic.twitter.com/X4lq6j3NBK
— Nets Videos (@SNYNets) March 9, 2022

“They want to get under our skin, let their voices be heard. Part of the experience of coming to an NBA game is to heckle - some people don’t even enjoy basketball, their lives are sh**ty that they just get to aim it at other people, so it’s easy to kind of get that release at a basketball game."

"You can take that for a couple hours"

Simmons refused to play for the Sixers this season, and sat out until his trade to Brooklyn last month. He's still ramping up his workouts, aiming to make his Nets debut before the end of the month.

But as for tonight, and the abuse he takes, KD says his new teammate has to embrace it, and take it in stride. “Sure some stuff may be funny but at the end of the day, we realize that life is amazing, we play the game of basketball for a living, and a little bit of trash talk is what it is.”

Kevin Durant on Ben Simmons in front of Philly fans on Thursday: "The guy's making $40 million a year. You can take that for a couple hours. I'm sure Ben has that approach."
— Kristian Winfield #NFTAllStar (@Krisplashed) March 9, 2022