This is a clip from Ben Simmons’ recent appearance on the Young Man and the Three Podcast:

“I didn’t appreciate the fans enough. The fans of Philadelphia are incredible. You always wanna play for a team that has a good fan base, whether they’re booing or whatever, you just want fans to care. You want the arena packed. Having that experience in Philadelphia was amazing…”

Yeah, well it didn’t have to end the way it did. Ben could have played his entire career here. If he developed even a semblance of a jump shot or remembered how to dunk the ball in Game 7 against the Hawks, who knows where the Sixers are right now. Instead, we went through the whole saga of mental health and Ben being booted from practice and whatever other nonsense happened back then, which feels like it was a hundred years ago.

Not sure if anyone’s paying attention to the NBA right now since the Sixers are an injury-wracked abomination, but Simmons is a free agent this Summer. He’s played 30 games for a hideous Nets team and is averaging 6.3 points, 7.1 assists, and 4.4 rebounds while shooting 55.5% from the field. He’s still a shell of the player he used to be, but if he can stay healthy through the end of the year he’s probably done enough to at least earn himself a buy-low contract for 2025-2026.