Ben Simmons, Klutch, expected to use the “hostile environment” in South Philly as main piece of their grievance against 76ers

Honest question. Why are Klutch Sports and Ben Simmons so stupid? The Brooklyn Nets will be in South Philadelphia on Thursday night to face the second place Philadelphia 76ers. Ben Simmons will be in attendance, but of course, he’s not playing due to “back soreness”.
Simmons is expected to be on the bench Thursday. We all know what type of reaction he will get so it’s probably best to just ignore everyone on Twitter saying we should all “sing songs” or “cheer” for Simmons instead of booing him. That’s just not going to happen nor should it happen.
Also, Ben Simmons will almost certainly get a tribute video. That’s just the way it works. He was here for a lot of good times in 76ers basketball history and it just ended like shit. Who cares. Also, as I said already, he’s going to get booed, just like every other NBA player who returns to their former team’s home court after leaving on bad terms.
Earlier today, Steve Nash stated that Simmons was aware of the reaction he’ll get in Philly. Apparently the Wells Fargo Center is beefing up security around the Nets bench for the game as well.
Fine. Whatever.
Read More: How The 76ers, Fans, and Players Should Treat Ben Simmons on Thursday Night >>
Now, according to a new article from Kyle Neubeck, Rich Paul and Simmons plan on using what is expected to be a “hostile environment” on Thursday as a key piece of evidence behind their upcoming grievance to recuperate money lost during Simmons’ holdout for the first half of the NBA season with the Sixers.
Simmons lost $20 million by sitting out the first half of the 2021 season, and Klutch felt the fines were unjust since the NBA can’t fine a player who is out due to “mental health”.
Philadelphia continued to fine Simmons for failing to appear and not using the mental health resources they had available, and not sharing the treatment he was receiving from doctors outside of the 76ers’ organization.
All that is perfectly within the rights of the 76ers to do to a player that refused to show up and cooperate by providing the proper medical documents to support their reasoning on why they cannot join the team.
The Sixers offered to help Ben Simmons. He did not take that help and provided little-to-no explanation on why he was not playing basketball.
We didn’t even hear from Ben Simmons until he gave his introductory press conference as a member of the Brooklyn Nets, which from there, apparently he was ready to start playing basketball again.
Klutch Sports thinking they can use “evidence” based on how fans treat Ben Simmons on Thursday is honestly laugh out loud funny. They literally have their client on record saying that it had nothing to do with the fans, players, or 76ers organization.
On top of that, Ben Simmons and company, since joining the Brooklyn Nets have completely dropped the mental health narrative and now are focus on “back soreness” as the reason that he’s not playing.
There’s no way you can convince me all of it is total bullshit.
To look at it a step further, I don’t see Adam Silver or the NBA allowing Ben Simmons to win any type of grievance case against the 76ers. How could they? Just think about the precedent it would set for the rest of the league, that a player can just sit out and not honor their contract or provide a team with the proper documentation showing there’s a valid reason as to why they aren’t playing.
I just don’t see that happening.
Mandatory Credit: Getty Images
[…] like to start with the phrase “hostile environment” that somehow became a talking point around social media over the last 48 hours in regards to […]
[…] organization. At the very least, the 76ers organization should just pretend they never got the grievance for at least 5-6 months and not even speak to anyone about […]