Not the headline I expected to see this morning but wow. The Sixers are no longer fining Ben Simmons.
The Sixers have stopped fining Ben Simmons for missed games and practices given that he is now out for personal reasons, one source close to the situation says, confirming a report this afternoon from @ramonashelburne on the NBA Today.
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) October 25, 2021
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Essentially what’s happening here is the Sixers are trusting Ben that his claims of mental health are valid. Whether they truely believe that or not is undetermined, but they know if nothing else, from a PR standpoint, you can’t keep fining a guy that is claiming he needs a mental break. So where do we go from here? Pretty simple answer. Ben Simmons will get paid from the Sixers until he’s traded. If he’s lying about the mental health issues just to not play and get paid, then he’s an asshole and won. If they are true, I hope he gets the help he needs. But neither scenario does he ever play for the Sixers ever again.
If the environment was so toxic for him, he isn’t going to come back no matter how welcoming the entire organization has been towards him. His hope is to sit in the background quietly until he is moved. The fans are going to go through and drag him every time he doesn’t post anything on Instagram suggesting he’s fine and faking. Once again, if it’s real then the fans need to just forget about it and move on. It doesn’t change anything at this point. He’s gone, he’s never coming back and we’ve got a team that is trying to win now.