The biggest storyline for the Philadelphia 76ers heading into their Saturday night matchup was the return of Ben Simmons.
After missing much of the season due to injury, he was reinstated into the team shortly before the clash with his former team.
It’s been almost two years since Simmons’ tenure with the Sixers ended. Daryl Morey sent the All-Star guard along with Seth Curry and Andre Drummond to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for James Harden.
Although a lot of time has passed, Sixers fans haven’t forgotten the months-long saga it created.
As expected, Simmons was not warmly received by the Philadelphia crowd. When he first entered the game, he was greeted with loud boos.
Simmons ended up having the last laugh as the Nets beat the Sixers by a final score of 136-121.
He spent 13 minutes on the bench and finished the game with zero points, nine rebounds and five assists.After the match, Simmons was asked how the crowd reacted to him on Saturday.
He managed to shrug it off, saying he found the shower of boos strange at this point.“Is this the second, third time I’ve been back?” So now it’s a little different,” Simmons told reporters.
“It’s funny to me. I have grown men getting angry and yelling at me, you know. After this I will go to him and get the victory. For me, only winning matters. It’s fun, I like it.
It’s not that deep.”Since leaving the Sixers in 2022, Simmons has only played 49 total games with the Nets. In that span, he averaged 6.9 PPG, 6.9 RPG, 6.3 APG and 1.2 SPG.
