Eagles center Jason Kelce rips into Sixers star Ben Simmons for antics
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The saga surrounding Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers took another turn on Thursday when the star guard did not participate in his scheduled individual workout and he will be out indefinitely. The 25-year old is not mentally ready to play for the Sixers at the moment.
This has been an ongoing situation that has included Simmons being suspended for the team’s season opener against the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday after being tossed out of practice on Tuesday. It is clear that he has checked out despite coach Doc Rivers wanting him back and to play for the team.
It has been reported that Simmons also does not want to face the passionate Philadelphia fan base as he does not want to face their wrath. He does not want to be booed or ridiculed or anything like that. A reason that another Philadelphia athlete scoffed at.
Eagles center Jason Kelce, who helped the Eagles win Super Bowl LII, called out Simmons as he told ESPN:
The quote was edited slightly to replace words that some might find offensive.
“I tell guys, you write your own narrative. I don’t want to crush any other players, but what’s going on with the 76ers, Ben Simmons, stuff like that, all of that is because of a lack of accountability, a lack of owning up to mistakes and a lack of correcting things,” Kelce said. “If all that got corrected, if you’re fixing free throws, if you’re getting better as a player, none of this is happening. So everybody can (expletive) and complain about how tough this city is to play in. Just play better, man. This city will love you.”
Simmons did shoot a miserable 34.2% from the foul line in the playoffs and if he shot somewhere around 50% even, the Sixers probably would have advanced to the Eastern Conference finals, and then who knows after that? The Philadelphia fan base is tough, but they also appreciate hard, honest work and it appears that Simmons is not interested in giving it to them.
Kelce did add:
The quote was edited slightly to replace words that some might find offensive.
“There’s a lot of people that say it’s a hard place to play. I think it’s pretty (expletive) easy, to be honest with you,” Kelce said. “You just go out there and play hard. You want to be loved in this city as a baseball player? Run to first base. They’re going to (expletive) love you. That’s what it comes down to. If you come up here and make a bunch of excuses, you come up here and try to lie to them and act like they don’t know what they’re talking about — which sometimes they don’t — when you act that way or you aren’t accountable, you’re making mistakes or you’re not getting better, they’re going to crush you.
The Sixers will look to start the season 2-0 when they host the Brooklyn Nets on Friday at 7:30 p.m. EDT.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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