Ben Simmons has finally returned to practice with the Philadelphia 76ers. As many experts predicted he would not have an option, eventually. Once he realized that a trade for him is not possible for an array of reasons, he had no option but to be back.
How his return has affected the front office, the coaching staff, and team chemistry is unknown at the moment. However, once they released the footage of his return to practice, NBA fans did not budge in speaking their mind. Some Philadelphia fans tried to defend the decision of the front office to not trade him. While some thought he was overvalued.
However, most of them had some hilarious takes on the footage. This is how the fans responded to the footage released on Ben Simmons’ return to practice.
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Ben Simmons participating at Sixers practice. 👀
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) October 18, 2021
Twitter erupts as Ben Simmons returns to the 76ers training facility
— Max Kellerman's Burner (@FirstTakeBurner) October 18, 2021
Teams want him, the Sixers just overvalueing him like crazy
— Akash Verma (@AvVermarenu) October 18, 2021
If I’m Ben Simmons I’m pullin up with this pic.twitter.com/1M2tUD4UIA
— Majin Fee (@MajinFee) October 18, 2021
This is just awkward at this point😂😂
— Kevin Durant's Burner ➐ (@KDTreeey5) October 18, 2021
For like half a second then Ben is dead.
— Noah King (@RockChalk981) October 18, 2021
Embiid to Simmons at practice pic.twitter.com/Ke3Q0RaP3B
— 🐍🎃𝓜𝓪𝓶𝓫𝓪𝓢𝔃𝓷🐍🎃 (@MambaSzn24) October 18, 2021
All that drama and posturing just to fold after missing one check
— Ozzy (@zsvprz) October 18, 2021
Ben clearly doesn’t want to there. His next move is to play like this: pic.twitter.com/kqu928xfKP
— FrooVids 💭 (@FrooVids) October 18, 2021
Embiid passing to Ben Simmons pic.twitter.com/47s5hIjHFw
— Andrés (y no vengo cada mes ) 🇵🇪🇺🇸 (@akokiho) October 18, 2021
Not sure I’d call this participating, more like just kinda there
— Kris Friesen (@krisfriesen93) October 18, 2021
Ben in practice pic.twitter.com/lSSUbiGelr
— IB (@08IB) October 18, 2021
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So what does this mean for Simmons and Philadelphia?
After all the drama that had unfurled during the off-season, this return is bound to affect the chemistry of the team more than anything else. However, we can predict that Ben Simmons won’t get a lot of minutes on the floor. His fit in the team is very hard to find. Since he has clarified that he does not want to be there. Moreover, he even refused to meet his teammates when they wanted to come to see him. So it is natural that now that he is back, the locker room tension must be insane.
Despite being an All-Star caliber player, Ben chose to only return after the 76ers front office refused to pay him his dues. It’s not a surprise that the organization did that. Even their Head Coach Doc Rivers hinted at his lack of trust in Ben’s abilities. So will Ben finally value basketball more than money and decide to settle his differences for the franchise? Or is this only a temporary measure to keep the cheques coming in while he works on a trade? Let us know what you think.
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