Ben Simmons 'Grateful' Sixers Allowed Him to Design City Edition Uniforms

Back in 2017, Philadelphia 76ers President Chris Heck made Ben Simmons a promise. The former first pick was told that if he won Rookie of the Year, Simmons would have an opportunity to design a Sixers uniform in the future.

As we know, Simmons earned the right to be called the Rookie of the Year after an impressive debut season. Despite holding up his end of the bargain, though, Heck failed to come through right away.

It wasn't until the 2020-2021 offseason when Heck and Sixers Vice President of Business Operations Desron Dorset worked with the Simmons to create the team's City Edition uniforms for next year.

"We took a stab at a couple of different concepts that were really far off from what our endgame ended up being," Dorset told NBC Sports Philadelphia's, John Clark. "But we took those initial concepts to him and really gave [Simmons] the opportunity to have raw feedback, so he was really involved."

Back when Simmons' uniform proposal was nothing more than an idea, the young star was set on getting the 76ers organization to create uniforms that were colored black. Typically, the Sixers are known to don a color combination of red, white, and blue, but the famous Allen Iverson era included black jerseys in the early 2000s, which served as an inspiration to Simmons when designing this year's threads.

“Growing up in Australia, I always associated the 76ers with the black uniform that Allen Iverson wore in the early 2000s," Simmons said. "I’m a lover of both fashion and basketball, so to combine the two and be part of the design process for the first black 76ers uniform in over a decade was amazing. I’m grateful the team included me from the jump and can’t wait to wear this jersey next season.” 

Although Simmons didn't get the stamp of approval from Heck to re-design the Iverson nostalgic throwbacks, the 76ers' legendary guard did co-sign Simmons' design this week with a post on Twitter. "Back in black...!!," Iverson tweeted. "I had mine, now you have yours [Ben Simmons]." 

The Sixers will wear the alternate uniforms for select games this season and the jersey will be available for purchase on Thursday, December 3.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_