A couple days ago, Bob Cooney was on 97.5 when he said that someone he knows and trusts, who knows Ben Simmons’ agent Rich Paul, said there was no way Paul would let Simmons play at all this year. It was a “he said, he said what he thinks the other he will do” situation. But once you’re on the radio as a reporter, reporting what a source told you, it carries a little bit of weight, whether the informal nature of the exchange justifies it or not. Of course, it spun out of control, headlining both SportsNation and Highly Questionable yesterday.

The reports were all framed as “Ben Simmons being held out for the year?” because it’s 2016 and we need topic to bat around. But Ben Simmons’ brother Sean Tribe wasn’t about moving on yet:

https://twitter.com/seantribe/status/783351315195887616

https://twitter.com/seantribe/status/783364142887538689

https://twitter.com/seantribe/status/783382218194509825

https://twitter.com/seantribe/status/783350396018388992

Leave it to Sixers Twitter to track down Ben Simmons’ non-famous brother, with 327 followers, because he’s one of fewer than 80 people Simmons follows. True obsession commitment. Plus it’s not even the first time Tribe has ragged on a reporter for their “sources”:

https://twitter.com/seantribe/status/740626259311362050

I expect we’re on the hit list now.

[h/t Jim Thomas]