Google News Ben Simmons reveals how he feels about going to Philadelphia to play 76ers
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Ben Simmons admits he "can't wait" to go back to Philadelphia to meet the 76ers. Simmons, who the 76ers selected with the first overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft, had a messy exit from the 76ers. After refusing to play for the 76ers and being traded to the Brooklyn Nets, Simmons is set for a new beginning in Brooklyn.
On November 22, the 76ers will be hosting the Nets. "F---, I can't wait to go there, yeah. 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," Simmons told ESPN.
Simmons on if his relationship with the 76ers can smooth itself out
"Who knows? I can't predict the future. 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," Simmons said. After a messy split with the 76ers, Simmons is hoping for a fresh start in Brooklyn.
In Brooklyn, Simmons has been accepted well by Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Irving, who is pretty much a hated man in Boston after ditching the Celtics to sign with the Nets, understands Simmons' situation. "I think one of our greatest strengths as a human community is humanizing each other's lives," Irving said, when asked about the Nets giving support to Simmons.
"He's a human being so he's going to respond his way. And he's going to deal with things his way and we have to honor and respect that. That's what people with integrity do. Not everyone lives by those same moral principles so yeah, as a leader, I feel like it's my responsibility to protect him, but I also must understand he has to go through things on his own.
And when he asks for help, just be there for him. I don't want to say I have all the answers figured out myself because it's an ongoing battle myself, just dealing with those ebbs and flows. But for him, I just don't want to see him get caught up in the same nonsense."