Joel Embiid Opens Up About Ben Simmons Drama

Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid opened up about the Ben Simmons situation

Mitchell Leff | Credit: Getty Images

While the Ben Simmons situation was ultimately resolved at the trade deadline, with Simmons heading to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for James Harden, there is still so much unknown about the story's nature. Joel Embiid, who was of course directly in the middle of this situation for months, is admittedly still confused as to what exactly led to Simmons wanting out. On a recent podcast episode with Draymond Green, Embiid expanded upon this.

"I never said that, to get him out of there," Embiid said. "I just didn't understand what was going on, honestly. I didn't understand what happened, you know, what led up to that whole situation. To this day, I don't understand." 

Embiid continued by saying that part of his confusion was caused by the amount of success he and Simmons had together, and potentially could have expanded on. "I mean, even when you look at - and I don't have any problems with him - obviously we didn't win a championship together, but in the regular season we were dominant," Embiid said. "Every season, 50 win seasons, I always believed that we had a chance to win together. I always believed that. Even to this day, I believe we had a chance to win. What we were able to accomplish, obviously winning matters the most, but I feel like we had a chance. That's why I don't understand what was going on, honestly, what caused him to want to leave. I understand his explanation, but you know a lot of things don't make sense."

When asked if he believes his postgame press conference following the Game 7 loss against Atlanta had anything to do with Simmons wanting out, Embiid said, "I don't think it did... If you look at the whole press conference, they asked me a question like what happened? What caused this loss? And I literally mentioned a bunch of events that happened. I mentioned where it really started, and I was being honest." Embiid went on to detail each of the events he listed after that game, emphasizing that he never singled Ben Simmons out.

While Simmons is happy in Brooklyn, and Embiid is happy with Harden, it seems as if the big man is still unsure exactly what caused his All-Star teammate to force his way out of Philly.

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