Ben Simmons will be there. On the night of Thursday to Friday, the Australian will make the short trip from the Nets to Philadelphia, to face the Sixers. Still embarrassed by his back and not yet ready to resume the game in five-against-five, he will not, however, tread his old floor. But his mere presence on the Brooklyn bench will obviously not go unnoticed.
Steve Nash considers that his arrival is necessary both to be with his teammates and to help him “ get rid of this whole thing with Philly. Maybe it will never go away, but the first time, it’s always good to face it and move on. The Nets coach adds: I don’t think he’s naive enough to think he’s not going to get booed. I hope he will feed on it. »
There is no doubt that the demanding public of Philadelphia will be able to welcome its former leader, who had called for his departure last summer after the criticisms, coming from Doc Rivers and Joel Embiid, of which he was the subject for his ( no) performance in the playoffs.
“It’s probably not going to be pleasant”
« It’s probably not going to be pleasant.”predicts Goran Dragic, comparing this return to his in Toronto. ” But it’s like that. We are all professional athletes. In the end, it’s just boos, so it’s all about playing and doing your best. As long as it’s nothing serious, nothing thrown at me, it’s verbal, I don’t care. »
The Slovenian is not the only member of the Nets to have known this kind of experience. In 2017, in a completely different sporting context, Kevin Durant replayed for the first time in Oklahoma City, a few months after leaving the Thunder to join the Warriors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA93c2lqg5s
Despite this experience, “KD” does not intend to say anything to his teammate to better understand this moment. Ben Simmons didn’t ask him anything. “ He will have to experience this moment for himself. No one is going to hold his hand. I’m sure there will be attacks, words that can affect you personally, but fans are like that. They’ll get on our nerves and make their voices heard “, anticipates the winger.
“He just has to sit around and put up with a bunch of childish people who are busy hurling insults because he doesn’t want to play for them anymore.”
The latter takes the opportunity to tackle the attitude of some spectators… “ Some people don’t even like basketball, their lives are so shitty they just target other people. It is therefore easy to let off steam during a match. Ben knows that, and I’m sure some things can be fun. We never know. With hindsight, we realize that our life is incredible, that we play basketball for a living and that a little ‘trashtalking’ does not hurt. »
The winger sees it as the usual game between fans and major players in this league. “ All the great players have been called the worst names in history. The good thing is that we get the chance to play and shut people up. It’s a fun dynamic because at the end of the day, they really like us. »
Unfortunately for his teammate, he will not have the opportunity to send a message on the floor to his former audience. Not this time at least because the two teams could meet for a series of playoffs. At OKC in February 2017, Kevin Durant left with a big victory with the Warriors, after scoring 34 points.
« It was good “ (to silence the fans), remembers KD. “But Ben doesn’t have that opportunity right now, he just has to sit around and put up with a bunch of childish people, busy hurling insults because he didn’t want to play for them anymore. […] This is the job we do. We earn 40 million dollars a year, we can accept these criticisms for 48 minutes, for a few hours. I’m sure Ben has that approach. »
Especially if it then allows to recover 19 million dollars…
