Ben Simmons has consistently maintained throughout the offseason that he was prepared for things to get ugly with the Philadelphia 76ers. He wants out by any means necessary, and as far as he seemed to suggest, no price was too large to make that dream a reality.
This week, that narrative changed a bit.
Despite repeatedly indicating that he knew he’d get fined for missing games, a recent $360,000 hit to his pocketbook appears to have rattled Simmons.
So much so, in fact, that he tried a particularly desperate move in response, according to Kyle Neubeck of the Philly Voice:
“After being fined for missing Philadelphia’s preseason loss to the Toronto Raptors on Monday night — a penalty of roughly $360,000 — Simmons’ representation had another discussion with the players association in which it was reiterated they would be unable to recoup the money being deducted from the $8.25 million sitting in escrow, sources say, and it was communicated to the Sixers that these early fines were perhaps higher than they expected."
If Simmons is getting this rattled already, it doesn’t speak highly of his ability to withstand a season-long feud.
Philly has made it clear that Simmons isn’t getting dealt unless the front office’s asking price is met. That sentiment was confirmed when two proposals from two different teams were swiftly rejected a couple of weeks back.
Moreover, Sixers brass has made it fairly obvious that there are no qualms when it comes to punishing Simmons to the full extent of the rules. Clearly they’re ready for war.
Multiple NBA insiders have said for weeks now that Simmons is boxing himself in with the way he is acting. They alluded to him really having only one way out of this mess.
Stay tuned. How this feud evolves over the next few weeks will be very indicative of how long it will ultimately last.
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