With the start of the second half of the NBA season this week, Joel Embiid insists that he put Ben Simmons The saga is behind it.
“I did a lot of chasing trying to get him back and trying to make him feel good again,” Embiid told ESPN’s Malika Andrews on Tuesday of his former teammate. “it was hard.
“I do not care anymore.”
Simmons was involved in a messy breakout from Philadelphia after asking for a deal and then sitting around for months while raising fines and refusing to play. He reportedly told the team in November that he was not mentally ready to play. He said earlier this month that mental health “has nothing to do with that.”
Finally, Simmons was dealt to Brooklyn Networks vs. James Harden.
“It was a bunch of things that I’ve been dealing with as a person in my personal life that I really don’t want to delve into,” Simmons He said with the nets last week. “But I am here now. It is a blessing to be in an organization like this.”
The 25-year-old He said he had “Some dark times over the past six months,” he did not elaborate.
Meanwhile, Embiid’s feelings towards his former teammate changed due to the confrontation.
In October, Embiid said “I don’t care about that guy” when Simmons initially started his stronghold. Then he tweeted an incredible meme after the trade went down.
“It’s a pity, for him, that he has his own team, and I think being a star, was more than his priority,” He said after the trade. “I always thought everything was great, fitness was great, but unfortunately Ben thought it wasn’t. But, you know, we’re all moving forward.”
So even though he’s made very clear how he feels about Simmons and everything that happened, at this point Embiid said he’s totally fine — and feels like he did a lot to try and help Simmons when he was still in Philadelphia.
“I could have said a lot of things, but I still did whatever I thought was good to do as a teammate,” Embiid told ESPN.
“Total coffee junkie. Tv ninja. Unapologetic problem solver. Beer expert.”