Backing up what Kyle and I have also heard, an anonymous user on a throwaway account on r/Sixers – grain of salt and all that – said that Ben Simmons’ debut is imminent, under the heading “Simmons’ first game 2/24 against the Wizards”:

Throwaway for confidentiality reasons. Guy who gave me my info could get fired. The sales team were told to hold off on accommodations for that game, and others are gearing up for additional promotional activities for that game.

They are gonna have brand new merch/everything in stock for this game, and have the whole AS game to prepare. It sounds like it’s gonna be awesome. What are the chances they get it moved to national TV?

Sure, this all sounds fine enough. Can’t argue that they wouldn’t want time to run a full court press on the game’s production, merch, video packages, etc. in order to really maximize the impact of Simmons’ debut. But there’s one lingering question that I keep coming back to about all of this supposedly secret planning. Why?

Other than a fear of a re-injury before the 24th, what would be the purpose of keeping any of this a secret? And if that’s the case, do you wait to announce he’s playing until game time, after not even calling him probable? This isn’t Chris Jericho popping up in the WWE for the first time, the element of surprise does the Sixers zero favors here. Precautions I understand, but top-secret planning doesn’t make any sense. Not that I’m accusing the Sixers’ front office of frequently making sense.

And as always, if you have any tinfoil-hat, deep-cover Ben Simmons info, contact us.