Yesterday’s social media shit storm was a lot to handle. The day started with Eagles fans making fun of girls on TikTok for tailgating in South Philly. It continued with Ben Simmons leaving the Bird Gang and attending a Dallas Cowboys – Los Angeles Chargers football game on Sunday with his girlfriend and JR Smith. It then exploded thanks to a Woj Bomb saying that Ben Simmons plans to “stay the course” like some kind of sleeper cell and hold out of training camp, with zero plans to play basketball for the Philadelphia 76ers ever again. 

Of course, that sent social media into an uproar. Although the news wasn’t anything groundbreaking given the constant rumors surrounding the NBA’s most polarizing star, having it come from Adrian Wojnarowski and not some Klutch Sports hack like Brian Windhorst or Kendrick Perkins, finally gave some confidence to all of the rumors and reports about Simmons. From there, social media went ballistic. 

I was firing out tweets all day long, basically giving up my last bit of faith that Ben Simmons would be finally come back to the Philadelphia 76ers and with the support of his teammates, fight to earn the respect back from a city that absolutely adored him over the past 4-5 years. Of course, there were plenty of jokes to be had as well. From the hashtag #JimmyKnew and headlines where Jimmy Butler was questioning Simmons’ mental makeup during his time with the 76ers, to Ben Simmons getting standing ovations and mobbed by his teammates when hitting a three pointer in exhibition, there was a ton of content flowing through the cesspool that is Twitter. Of course, not all of that was good content. 

Some how, some way, this reporter, who I’m sure you’re all familiar with by now, named Jason Dumas, continues to pop up on our timelines. Dumas is apparently a Philly native that is now the Sports Director for Kron 4 News in the Bay Area (San Francisco). He also lists that he’s an NBA Reporter for the Bleacher Report and a part of 957 The Game, which is San Francisco’s sports talk radio station. 

Dumas has constantly been putting out tweets over the summer about Ben Simmons and what he has been hearing about the upset 76ers star player. Yes, Jason Dumas initially reported that Ben Simmons would not report to training camp in early August. Which is great, turned out he was right. Personally, I don’t really give a shit. 

He has also been completely wrong, which again, I don’t really care about being wrong. I tend to be wrong and sarcastic about 99% of the things on Twitter because people take it too seriously and need to calm down. Just doing my small part in restoring “fun” to the internet and talking about sports I suppose. Anyways, here’s where Dumas initially fucked up, which had everyone thinking that he was just a Klutch Sports pawn. There are several examples of this. 

On August 31st, Dumas tweeted out that Tyrese Maxey would have a high chance to be included in any Ben Simmons trade and that Rich Paul wanted both of his clients out of Philadelphia. He continued by saying that Maxey was scheduled to appear in community events around the city of Philadelphia but was told to cancel all appearances because Rich Paul would not like Maxey to grow any roots in Philly if he could be gone with Simmons. 

Not even 24 hours later, Dumas walked back the report calling it an “update” and stating that Tyrese Maxey is excited about this upcoming year with the Sixers and Rich Paul, is also excited. Paul did not want Tyrese Maxey out of Philadelphia, and Ben Simmons’ situation is totally separate. 

Now that’s weird. 

So from there, of course everyone is going to take what Jason Dumas reports with a different eye. All things considered, it really sounded like Klutch Sports and Rich Paul fed him that information almost as a threat to the 76ers organization who still refuse to budge or honor Ben Simmons trade request, and rightfully so. I honestly don’t even think it’s a conspiracy to think that Klutch Sports fed him that information. Whether or not Dumas knew that it was all bullshit or not before tweeting it is another story. 

Even then after a weird 24 hours, it’s completely possible that Dumas missed on that one and his source was just wrong. Okay, fine. Yesterday, during the chaos, Dumas was firing off more tweets, which were even more weird than the ones that happened at the end of August / beginning of September. 

Dumas tweeted that Simmons was able to get over the trade talks about James Harden last season and that now, being a part of trade talks again has caused a point of friction, as he confirmed what Woj tweeted earlier in the day about Simmons refusing to play for the 76ers ever again. All that is fine, there is nothing new there that the entire world didn’t already know. He then continued, and said that Ben is well aware of how the majority of the Sixers fans feel about him, and that there are SEVERAL ORGANIZED GROUPS ready to boo him in Camden the day training camp opens and how Ben Simmons wants no part of that. 

Again, very weird to tweet something like that, which literally makes zero sense. 

Much like the Tyrese Maxey tweets from above, this one seemed to be spoon fed from someone in Ben Simmons’ camp. I searched all over the internet and couldn’t find one “organized group” that was planning to boo Ben Simmons at training camp. On top of that, training camp is closed to the general public. The Camden facility, which I’ve been to on multiple occasions given the fact that RushOrderTees.com is officially partners of the 76ers and I run their marketing department, is a big complex that is gated, with parking lots designed to give players privacy entering and leaving the facility. It would be logistically impossible for fans to get anywhere close to the facility to organize a boo chant. 

The self-titled “Philly Bul” Jason Dumas should also know this but apparently he does not: Philadelphia fans don’t organize groups to go boo people. Philly fans boo when the product on the court, field, or ice isn’t doing their job and giving the city of Philadelphia everything they have to be successful for their team and fans. We don’t just hate and boo people for no apparent reason. We didn’t do this to Ben Simmons. We didn’t do it to Markelle Fultz. We just don’t do it in general. 

Are there a group of idiots (WIP Callers) that would probably do something like this? Yeah probably but in the end, there’s literally no evidence anywhere online that there are people organizing groups to boo Ben Simmons. In fact, I would bet a lot of money to say that the majority if not all of the fans in the city of Philadelphia simply want to hear from Ben Simmons, his teammates or the 76ers organization on why this is all unfolding how it is. 

So who told Jason Dumas there are several organized groups? Well, Klutch Sports has to be on the top of that list. Much like the Tyrese Maxey tweets from earlier this month, this seems to be a little nugget of information for the Simmons camp to use as a reason why Ben doesn’t want to come back to play for the 76ers.

Regardless of how dumb that would be in the first place, for a player to not return to a city and team that loved him since being drafted because “some fans might boo him”, it appears to be yet another card played to turn Ben Simmons into the victim rather than having him take an ounce of accountability in what he is doing to himself, the city, and the 76ers organization. 

I hate to agree with someone I have adamantly criticized in the past, but when you’re right, you’re right. Mikey Miss destroyed these types of online “insiders” yesterday in a quick segment on his show. I’ll leave you with that. Give it a listen.  

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