Ben Simmons Looking Forward to Playing in Philadelphia: 'F--K, I Can't Wait to Go There'

After a nasty departure from the Philadelphia 76ers, Ben Simmons is in a great place with the Brooklyn Nets. The star has breathed confidence and is not only ready to prove himself but already has the highly anticipated matchup against the Sixers at Wells Fargo on Nov. 22 in his mind.

Although Simmons returned to Philadelphia in street clothes last season, he got a sneak peek at how the Sixers fanbase will greet and treat him for 48 minutes. In the preseason opener, he played 19 minutes against Philly but that was on Brooklyn's home soil. Come Nov. 22, Simmons, barring any injury setbacks, will take the Wells Fargo Center hardwood against his old team. And he can't wait for that game.

"F---, I can't wait to go there, yeah," Simmons told ESPN. "But for me, everything's an experience and a learning situation. So for me I'm able to learn something that I've never been through before. I've never been traded and played against a team that I got traded from. Kev has, Ky has, a lot of guys have, but I've never been in that situation so -- you have to go through it. Ky went back to Boston, and he didn't play well, but it's a lot. We're people, too. We want to go out there and prove everyone wrong."

The relationship between Simmons and the city of Philadelphia is one that will take a lot of time to repair. That's if the relationship can even be fixed. The passionate Sixers fanbase has blasted the Nets star in all avenues and it's likely the destroyed relationship will prolong for years to come. Simmons can't predict how things can evolve between the two.

"Who knows? I can't predict the future," Simmons said. "I would have never told myself this would have gone this way at the start of my career. Who knows if in four or five years I end up going back? I don't know. It could be a whole different situation, but for now I don't want to make my mind up and say it's not possible for anything to change."

Before the preseason opener against the Sixers, Doc Rivers quickly dismissed a question about Simmons, emphasizing he has moved on from the 26-year-old. The same goes with Simmons' relationship with his former star teammate, Joel Embiid. He explained how he doesn't talk with Embiid today and looking back at their time together in Philly, he doesn't see a relationship with no bad blood.

"I don't think there was really a relationship there," Simmons said. "Like in terms of a friendship? You can try as hard as you want to try to be close to somebody, be their friend, whatever it is, but everyone is different as people, so for me, it's never personal. I don't have any anger or hate towards him. He is who he is and I am who I am. And we've got our personal lives. And work is basketball, so in that moment, my goal is to win and I got to win with Jo. He's a great player, we just didn't get it done."

Now in Brooklyn, Simmons wants to help the Nets win their first elusive NBA championship -- a task he couldn't get done in Philly. To win an NBA title alongside Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving would mean everything to the 26-year-old star.

"It would mean everything," Simmons stated. "To me, that would be a dream come true. In a situation like this, being in Brooklyn with these guys and this city, it would be incredible. But we got a long way to go, but I think this team's capable of special things."