Recently on a podcast with Taylor Rooks, Dwight Howard talked about the ongoing situation with Ben Simmons and the 76ers. Howard likened the Simmons situation to the tail end of his time in Orlando. There are some interesting statements made about the situation on this one minute clip. Let’s check it out below.

Dwight Howard never shied away from defending Ben Simmons, and it was actually refreshing to see a player openly go to bat for Simmons during the time of his struggles late last season. It seemed like the biggest problem that Howard took away from the situation was that it was all made public, forcing Simmons to become the main villain of the 76ers’ underachievement in last year’s playoffs as a team, which he thought was unfair.

Howard referred to Ben as one of his closest friends, but even Dwight said he wanted Simmons to dunk the ball on the infamous play in game seven. The theme of this clip seems to be that even though Simmons didn’t capitalize on that play, or even though he didn’t play up to his potential, that he wasn’t the only reason for the loss.

Howard’s frustration lies in the way that it was so publicly flaunted and that the actions following the series were what tainted the relationship to what seems to be irreversible at this point. At the end of the day, Howard is right, of course everyone wanted Ben to dunk the ball on that play and for the Sixers to win, but they didn’t and it wasn’t just Ben’s fault although he shouldered the majority of the blame.

Even after all this time, Howard still supports Ben in every way that he can. We all need a friend like Dwight.