Trey Burke Responds to His Father's Criticism of 76ers

It has been a strange start to a short stint for Trey Burke and the Philadelphia 76ers. Now the unusual start is beginning to turn awkward for him as his related parties outside of Philadelphia are making publicized critical comments of the Sixers.

Recently, the 76ers took a trip to Brooklyn to take on the Nets. Despite being short-handed, the Nets managed to take the Sixers down in what turned out to be a statement win. While the Nets deserve credit for defeating a red-hot Sixers team, Philly didn't exactly put together their strongest effort in the matchup.

As always, the 76ers received some substantial criticism on social media from fans for their poor effort and execution. One 'fan,' however, was mighty critical of Sixers' head coach Brett Brown, and his last name made many curious.

Benjie Burke, the father of Sixers' backup point guard, Trey Burke, has not been happy with the fact that his son has garnered hardly any playing time this season. Despite being available for a majority of the season so far, Burke has only been plugged into the rotations for a total of ten games.

During those games, Burke has averaged about 15 minutes of playing time. Sixers' coach Brett Brown seemed happy with Burke's production while on the floor during that time, but he didn't want to bury Burke's fellow backup point guard, Raul Neto, on the bench.

Therefore, Neto eventually made his way back into the rotation, taking away minutes from Burke. Now as of late, Burke has been the one who is buried on the Sixers' bench, and the 27-year-old point guard's father has not been too happy about it.

In a deleted Instagram post, Benjie Burke stated the Sixers "will not get out of the East without bench scoring." He also made it clear that he would prefer his son, Trey, would get traded so the Sixers could "free TB23."

To no surprise, the statements blew up in the social media world, eventually forcing Trey Burke and the Sixers to offer up a statement. Here's what the Sixers' backup point guard had to say on Monday in regards to the post via The Philadelphia Inquirer:

"Earlier today, I was made aware of my dad's social media post. While I appreciate the support he's shown throughout my career, his comments don't reflect how I feel, and we've addressed that. My focus is doing whatever I can to help this team win a championship. I appreciate the support of this organization, the fans, and the city of Philadelphia have shown me."

While Burke is likely unsatisfied with his lack of playing time, it has become clear that the backup point guard is still locked in with the 76ers. Typically, a player who is unhappy can always request a trade from the team, but Burke decided to take the high route and deny any belief in what his father said.

This won't be the first time Brett Brown and the Sixers have had to deal with controversy involving parents of their players. Mike Muscala and Markelle Fultz were the two latest examples from last season.

Strangely enough, those two players didn't remain in Philadelphia beyond the trade deadline, though. That's not to say Burke won't last beyond the next couple of months with the Sixers, but the circumstances will surely make the near future interesting when the deadline approaches, and Burke's minutes either increase or remain the same.