The 76ers are hosting the Milwaukee Bucks tonight in South Philadelphia. It’s a nationally televised game that just tipped off at 7:30pm. The Sixers are coming off a close loss last night to the New York Knicks and are essentially playing with a Blue Coats lineup. Joel Embiid, Tobias Harris, Matisse Thybulle, and Isaiah Joe are all on the health and safety protocols list, Seth Curry is out with a left foot contusion, and I’m watching Paul Reed start and defend Giannis. Lovely.

Of course, the Sixers are also short their normal starting point guard in Ben Simmons. When the Sixers play on national television, the obvious conversation always goes back to Simmons. Thankfully tonight, we had Charles Barkley spitting truth about Simmons on the NBA on TNT pregame show.

Here’s the video:

Barkley, as usual, is spot on. Ben Simmons has not cooperated and everything he has done over the last five plus months hasn’t helped him in the slightest. The 76ers wanted Ben Simmons to come back. They kicked him out. They stopped fining him. Now we are fining Ben Simmons again for lack of transparency with whatever medical treatment he has been receiving.

The headliner was obviously the following:

“The (76ers) bent over backwards to kiss this dudes ass, now it’s time they start kicking his ass.”

That’s enough about Ben Simmons. Tyrese Maxey is putting on a clinic at the moment. The 76ers are up six with three minutes left in the first half and Maxey is 8-12 from the floor with 19 points.