Joel Embiid Discusses Unreasonable Ben Simmons Saga

Not too long after the Philadelphia 76ers dropped their Game 7 matchup against the Atlanta Hawks at home, Sixers All-Star Ben Simmons addressed the media for a routine postgame press conference. When asked about his future with the Sixers, Simmons claimed he loved where he was at, and he hoped to stay.

"Yeah, I mean, I love being in Philly," said Simmons back in late June of 2021. "I love this organization, the fans are great, great people. I mean, I had a bad series. I expect that [criticism] -- it's Philly."

Simmons' postgame sentiment turned out to be a fib. Shortly after Simmons mentioned he loved Philadelphia and its pro basketball organization, the three-time All-Star requested a trade.

And when the Sixers attempted to convince Simmons to return to the team after they failed to find a trade worth their while, Simmons declined once again and made it apparent he'll hold out until he gets what he wants.

Simmons held out for training camp and the preseason but made his return ahead of the start of the regular season. At first, Simmons was nothing more than a distraction as he barely communicated with teammates and hardly participated in any practices. 

After receiving a one-game suspension to start the year, Simmons told the team he's mentally not ready to return. Therefore, he's been ruled out due to personal reasons for the next 52 games after serving his suspension. 

The situation has been frustrating for all involved -- especially Joel Embiid. As Embiid took last year's loss to heart and used his shortcomings as fuel to get better, he expected his All-Star teammate to do the same.

But that's not how everything went down. In an interview with 97.5 The Fanatic this week, Embiid briefly addressed the situation once again. At first, he didn't mention anything he hadn't already said before, as he expressed frustration once more.

"It's unfortunate, you know, everything that's happened," Embiid told The Fanatic's Mike Missanelli. "Everybody's at fault, but at the end of the day, you got to look at yourself, and when we lost, I looked at myself. I knew I wasn't good enough, I knew I wasn't healthy enough, and I knew I wasn't good enough. So I just looked at myself, and I tried to find ways that I could be better, and I could help the team just be better. I worked hard this summer to try to improve in every facet of my game."

Coming off of an MVP-caliber season, Embiid technically could've entered the 2021-2022 NBA season looking just like last year's version of himself, and Philadelphia would be satisfied. However, the big man upped the ante and looks even better. While he's gunning to win the MVP award finally, Embiid made it clear that it's not about personal accolades -- it's about the team's success -- and that's what they're all focused on.

"I think at the end of the day, you gotta have some self-awareness and kind of look at yourself and see how you can help the team," Embiid continued. "It's never about one player. Like I always say, you can't win basketball one-on-five. You need your teammates. You need everybody to do their part."

Although Simmons has yet to address the situation publicly, many reports suggest that Simmons feels like a scapegoat for Philadelphia's disappointing series against the Hawks last season. And two critical comments made by Embiid and Doc Rivers went over the line for Simmons and are likely the catalyst for the current issues at hand.

If that's truly the case, Embiid believes Simmons is and has been unreasonably handling everything.

"Oh, definitely... Definitely," Embiid said. "You look at what has been said, I just think this is a business. If we don't get the results, you guys are always on us. You guys are always booing us and all that stuff, which at times, we do deserve. You're not playing well, you deserve the boos. You deserve to be let know that. 'Oh, you're not playing well, you need to be better.' I just don't think it was reasonable."

Embiid couldn't say whether Simmons will play again or not this season if he doesn't get traded before Thursday's deadline, but he once again made it known that he would like to re-join forces with his All-Star teammate. Whether that will happen or not remains to be seen.

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