{"id":122454,"date":"2021-09-01T00:18:49","date_gmt":"2021-09-01T00:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=122454"},"modified":"2021-09-01T08:01:23","modified_gmt":"2021-09-01T08:01:23","slug":"simmons-burns-sixers-in-secret-team-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=122454","title":{"rendered":"Simmons burns Sixers in 'secret' team meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a secret meeting with the Philadelphia 76ers, Ben Simmons<\/a> has told the NBA<\/a> franchise he wants out and won't be showing up for pre-season training.<\/p>\n

As information about the Australian's future has slowly trickled out since his woeful end to the season in the playoffs, a local report from Philadelphia claims he has made his request official, leaving the team in a difficult position in negotiating a trade for the former No.1 pick.<\/p>\n

According to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Simmons<\/a> informed the 76ers in a meeting last week that he "no longer wants to remain a Sixer."<\/p>\n

It's understood Simmons is willing to play hardball and has told team officials he'll wear thousands of dollars in fines for failing to show up for team activities in order to force his way out.<\/p>\n

\"Simmons<\/p>\n

It's clear Simmons hasn't forgotten about comments made by Philly head coach Doc Rivers and teammate Joel Embiid following Simmons' lacklustre performance in the 76ers' loss to Atlanta in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.<\/p>\n

Rivers said he couldn't answer a question about whether the 25-year-old could be the point guard on a championship team. Embiid also criticised Simmons for passing the ball to Matisse Thybulle under the rim rather than shoot over a much smaller Trae Young at the end of the Game 7 loss.<\/p>\n

The only hurdle in accelerating trade talks is Philadelphia's stance on his value.<\/p>\n

The Athletic's Shams Charania reported this week the 76ers aren't budging from their steep asking price for Simmons and are comfortable in bringing Simmons back for the 2021-22 NBA season.<\/p>\n

Simmons reportedly met with co-managing partner Josh Harris, president of basketball operations Daryl Morey, general manager Elton Brand and coach Doc Rivers to tell them he won't be returning.<\/p>\n

The point-forward has requested for the team to prioritise potential trades with the Lakers, Clippers, and Warriors.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a secret meeting with the Philadelphia 76ers, Ben Simmons has told the NBA franchise he wants out and won't be showing up for pre-season […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122454"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=122454"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122456,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122454\/revisions\/122456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=122454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=122454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=122454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}