Joel Embiid made his feelings about Ben Simmons perfectly clear moments after news broke that the Aussie NBA star had been traded away from Philaelphia 76ers.
Embiid, one of the NBA’s best players, was a key protagonist in the sudden relationship breakdown between Simmons and the 76ers following last year’s NBA Playoffs.
The megastar center made critical comments of Simmons when he was at his lowest ebb, having passed up a wide open dunk that would have tied the scores late in Game 7 in Philadelphia’s heartbreaking Eastern Conference semi-finals loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
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76ers coach Doc Rivers was also unflattering in his assessment of Simmons in the immediate aftermath of the game. The combination of Embiid and Rivers’ comments set the scene for a chilly post-season, with Simmons going AWOL and then refusing to attend training camp before ultimately sidelining himself citing mental health reasons.
At that point a trade deal to permanently remove Simmons from the team became the only possible solution but with the Aussie 25-year-old only halfway through a contract worth north of $240 million over five years, that was always going to be more difficult than it sounds.
This morning (AEDT) the deal was finally done, with the 76ers taking advantage of an increasingly dysfunctional ‘big three’ dynamic at the Brooklyn Nets to secure former league MVP James Harden in return for Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond and two first round draft picks. The 76ers also received Paul Millsap as part of the deal.
The result could hardly be better for Simmons, who will get a new lease on life at another genuine championship contender, playing alongside arguably the best player in the NBA, Kevin Durant.
Yet, even with many NBA pundits questioning the wisdom of Philadelphia selling the farm for Harden, who has had his condition and attitude criticised, it seems that no one is happier about this morning’s events than Embiid, the dominant big man in the midst of an MVP-worthy season.
Barely had the news of the blockbuster trade filtered out when Embiid posted a savage meme on Twitter, with no caption required.
https://twitter.com/JoelEmbiid/status/1491844094343237632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The original photo of a man at a funeral went viral when it was posted on Instagram in 2015, with the man who posted it saying he had attended “one of my biggest haters funeral today” to make sure he was dead.
The thinly-veiled swipe at Simmons is unlikely to be the final act in the simmering feud, which has rattled along in the background for eight months, with Embiid more often than not biting his lip in public but occasionally letting his true feelings spill out in unguarded moments in press conferences.
The first time they face each other on the court will be truly captivating watching, and it may end up being Simmons on the better team and the greater opportunity to win a championship according to ESPN commentator Stephen A Smith who posited that this morning’s trade could go down as “the worst day in the career” of 76ers president of basketball operations’ Daryl Morey, the architect of the deal.
https://twitter.com/stephenasmith/status/1491860145273393163?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
“This could potentially, not definitively, but potentially go down as the worst day in the career of Daryl Morey. The worst day,” Smith said on a panel chat for ESPN.
“Think about this for a second here. You gave up a shooter in Seth Curry – I hear that he can’t guard and (Atlanta Hawks player Kevin) Huerter got 27 on him in the playoffs … stop it. The bottom line is he’s one of the premier shooters in the game. You think about him, he’s gone.
“You gave up two first round picks, how do you go from asking for first round picks to giving up two of them? That makes no sense to me whatsover.
“So when I look at it from that perspective and whatever else they gave up … When you think about Ben Simmons and how he complements KD (Durant) and Kyrie (Irving), what he brings to the table in terms of his playmaking ability, his ball handling skills, his basketball IQ and first and most importantly, his defensive prowess, there’s no question, along with Andre Drummond, a big body that Brooklyn desperately needed because we know they were a bit thin on their front line.
“You take all of those things into consideration I don’t think there’s any doubt that Brooklyn benefits from this trade.”
Smith then turned his attention to what the 76ers have gained in return, saying there was a clear question mark hanging over Harden’s abilty to get back to his best as well as his longevity as a superstar piece for a contender.
“When you look at Harden, Harden can clearly be electrifying. But is James Harden going to take off some kind of body suit and all of a sudden be thinner today?” Smith asked facetiously.
“Is he going to lose weight? Is he going to get younger? Is the hamstring injury going to suddenly disappear?
“What I’m saying to you is this: we’re watching, what we’ve been watching for the last couple of years, as great as we know he is, he hasn’t been himself, meaning the guy that Daryl Morey was overseeing in Houston.
“And because he hasn’t been that guy, I’m wondering how long can he be that guy? I have no doubt he can do it (again) but how long can he be that guy in Philadelphia? Because with KD, Kyrie and Ben Simmons. And an extra big body (Drummond) on your frontline in Brooklyn, I see Brooklyn as the clear winner in this deal.”
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