Ben Simmons rubbed a lot of people the wrong way during his time with the Philadelphia 76ers, and that included former teammate Georges Niang.
Niang signed with the 76ers in the same offseason that Simmons began his holdout, and he had plenty to say when asked about the situation this week.
“I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but the Ben Simmons thing, that pissed me off because guys are trying to make a living,” Niang said on the Road Trippin’ podcast. “I signed just a little over the minimum. This [pairing with Simmons] is going to be great for my career… And then he was like, ‘I’m not playing’ and I’m like, what the f*ck?… So I’m like, ‘How the f*ck am I going to make something happen?’
.@GeorgesNiang20 talks about his issues with Ben Simmons’s holdout while they were teammates in Philly.
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“And then he was walking around the facility, you know, you’d be like, ‘What’s up, man?’ Because they’re like, ‘Try to welcome him back in.’ And he’d be like *nods*. And that’s when I was like, ‘F*ck this dude’. Like, if I get an opportunity to play against this dude, I’m going to just be an asshole.”
In the end, Simmons never played another game for the 76ers, instead being shipped to the Brooklyn Nets along with Andre Drummond, Seth Curry, and two future first-round picks, in exchange for James Harden and Paul Millsap.
The Sixers, meanwhile, made it to the second round of the playoffs in that 2021-22 season without Simmons, where they lost to the Miami Heat in six games.
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