Bob Cooney:

It appears the chances of seeing Ben Simmons in a 76ers uniform this season are getting slimmer and slimmer.

Last week, coach Brett Brown said that for Simmons to be ready for game activity, the first overall pick of the 2016 draft out of LSU would have to play more than five five-on-five games in practice. Simmons has not played since suffering a foot fracture Sept. 30, the last day of training camp. Asked before Monday’s game against the Hornets whether Simmons would start playing some more and get to the five-on-five area, Brown didn’t hesitate with his answer.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “I feel like he’s moving forward, but to say that we believe he’s going to be ready for five-on-five during the All-Star break would be misleading. I don’t see that.

“He is moving forward, but it’s at a very slow pace, our pace. I think when we all get back and he’s around the team again, because it’s not an ideal situation to manufacture five-on-five during a break, then we can better craft and construct to allow the return to play to be more responsible.”

We’ve seen this play before.

I need not recount the Andrew Bynum saga of shifting timetables, broken promises and disinformation.

And then there was Joel Embiid in the summer of 2015, who suffered a “setback” described as “less healing than anticipated” before it was ultimately revealed that he re-broke his foot and needed a second season-nulling surgery.

And now it’s Embiid and Ben Simmons. The Sixers doubled down on the former having a “bone bruise”… until Derek Bodner broke the news that he also had a torn meniscus. Simmons, meanwhile, had a rather routine injury that should’ve kept him out for about three months. But now here we are, five months later, and he’s still not practicing, let alone playing in games (forget that February 24 date).


What’s the common denominator here?

Brett Brown. Nope. He wasn’t here for the Bynum mess and is the low man on the totem pole.

Sam Hinkie. Not here for the Bynum mess or the Simmons mess.

Bryan Colangelo. Not here for the Bynum mess or the Embiid mess.

Tony DiLeo. Just the Bynum mess.

We’re always quick to blame the people in traditional sports operations roles– coaches and GMs. Those are the guys in front of the curtain playing a part in this racket. Colangelo’s lying sounds a lot like Hinkie’s lying sounds a lot like DiLeo’s lying. But at a certain point the series of mis-tales become a pattern, one that has taken shape since Joshua Harris bought the team in 2011.

Scott O’Neil has been the CEO since 2013, and though he wasn’t here for the Bynum stuff, he’s the bottom-line-obsessed guy at the helm for a series of half-truths regarding injuries. I’m guessing Hinkie’s 2015 statement about Embiid’s CT scan revealing “less healing than anticipated” was not written without O’Neil’s knowledge or input (Hinkie later wrote, much to the chagrin of the Sixers, that O’Neil would “ably and efficiently separate the good people of the Delaware Valley from their wallets”). I’m guessing the decision to call Embiid’s current injury a “bone bruise” and nothing more is not done without O’Neil’s knowledge or input. I’m guessing that the parlor game of us all trying to guess Simmons’ return date thrilled O’Neil, as fans gobbled up tickets for the Wizards game on February 24 and other late-season tilts anticipating to see the number one overall pick. It’s not until Brown spilled the beans of sorts last night, saying that Simmons won’t even practice before the all-star break, that any expectation of a return this month was all but dashed. I wonder if O’Neil and Harris were upset that demand for tickets over the next 3-4 weeks just cratered.

Look, it’s easy to sit here and bash the Sixers for lying. Injuries are a tricky thing and timetables are even trickier. Even the most well-intentioned actors can’t always predict how quickly someone will heal from an injury. But this has been a pattern under Harris. The Sixers never get it right. Worse, they always seem to get almost forced into admitting their mistakes and misleading claims.

Many teams – or businesses – who give even one half of a shit about their fans would leak reports to correct public perception and expectation. But the Sixers were happy to not only let speculation run wild about Simmons’ return date – we’re guilty – they also RAISED TICKET PRICES for the Wizards game on the 24th, which now has a very really chance of featuring neither Joel Embiid nor Ben Simmons.

If the Sixers are indeed continuing to “tank,” which honestly isn’t the worst idea given the strength of the draft this year, then why not just tell fans from the beginning that Embiid was more hurt than originally thought and Simmons likely won’t return anytime soon? They don’t – can’t – outright say they’re tanking, but we’ll all get the message and, more importantly, people won’t drop $200 on tickets expecting to see Embiid and Simmons together. That’s not an unreasonable request. But nope– they’ve continued to string everyone along and keep up the intrigue and yet again piss off their fans.