The Inside the NBA crew has not been shy in expressing its disappointment in Ben Simmons for his continued absence from the Philadelphia 76ers as he looks to jumpstart his career elsewhere. The most recent example of this came last week, when Shaquille O’Neal torched Simmons — without bringing him up by name — by calling him “soft” and a “crybaby” while praising Joel Embiid for being open to taking criticism.
Shaq is not one to bite his tongue when something disappoints him, but even by that standard, he really laid into Simmons in the clip. As it turns out, Simmons was not a particularly big fan of this. As Shaq explained on a recent episode of The Big Podcast with Shaq, the Hall of Fame big man explained that Simmons reached out via DM in the aftermath of the clip and expressed his disappointment with what Shaq had to say.
"He acting like a baby.”@Shaq went IN on Ben Simmons and says the Sixers star DM'd him mad for comments Shaq recently made on @NBAonTNT
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— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 3, 2022
“I’ve been in this moment many times,” Shaq said. “They ask, say, ‘Hey, you think you can win with Shaq in the fourth quarter?’ My coaches say, ‘He gotta step up and knock ’em down.’ They all said that. I didn’t go, man, I got 38, I missed 12 free throws, trade me, get rid of me. You actin’ like a baby. So he kinda got in my DM and said some things, and I said some things back.”
Shaq stressed that he couldn’t go into the specifics of what they said because “that’s not cool,” but he said that Simmons was mad, presumably because “I’m his LSU brother, and I am, I’m still his brother.”
There is no word on whether or not we’ll see Simmons again this season. While the Sixers have stressed that they want him to suit up for the team again, Simmons has made clear he wants to seek greener pastures, and recently, Philadelphia executive Daryl Morey expressed his skepticism over the ability to get a deal done before next week’s trade deadline.
