Ben Simmons reveals there is no coming back from brutal Philadelphia divorce

NBA star Ben Simmons has revealed an extraordinary detail in his disdainful divorce from former teammate Joel Embiid.

Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid.

Ben Simmons has revealed he is still not on speaking terms with Joel Embiid and has not spoken to his former 76ers teammate since his explosive split from Philadelphia.

After years of tanking in order to build a championship-winning team through the draft it all went spectacularly wrong in Philadelphia from the moment Simmons famously opted not to take an open dunk in the dying stages of their Eastern Conference play-offs series against Atlanta last year.

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The pair have traded cold comments through public interviews in the past 12 months since Simmons forced his way out of the team with the Sixers in February agreeing to a blockbuster trade with Brooklyn for star shooter James Harden.

Now Simmons has given his most blunt response yet about how his relationship with Embiid sits.

No relationship exists.

It had been rumoured even when the team was emerging as an Eastern Conference powerhouse that Simmons and Embiid were not close. Simmons appears to have dropped a bombshell in confirming the pair were never friends outside of their professional basketball relationship.

“I don’t talk to Jo. We never really spoke,” Simmons has told ESPN.

“I don’t think there was really a relationship there. Like in terms of a friendship? You can try as hard as you want to try to be close to somebody, be their friend, whatever it is, but everyone is different as people, so for me, it’s never personal.

Brothers in arms. Tim Bradbury/Getty Images/AFP.

“I don’t have any anger or hate towards him. He is who he is and I am who I am. And we’ve got our personal lives. And work is basketball, so in that moment, my goal is to win and I got to win with Jo. He’s a great player, we just didn’t get it done.”

After they failed to get it done in that infamous loss to the Hawks Embiid and coach Doc Rivers appeared to throw Simmons under the bus.

Simmons said earlier this month on former 76ers teammate JJ Redick’s The Old Man and the Three podcast the reaction from Embiid and Rivers at the time “killed me”.

Simmons has fought a very public battle with mental health in recent years following his departure from Philadelphia and reached a settlement surrounding his former team’s refusal to pay his $20 million salary, despite the 26-year-old insisting he was unable to play for mental health reasons.

“It got to a point where after that [Hawks] series, it’s like from the people you’re supposed to have that support from or that comfort from, I wasn’t getting that either so it was a toll on me,” he said.

“Then mentally, it killed me. I was like, f***, no energy for anything, like I was in a dark place.”

As Simmons sat out the season and refused to suit up for the Sixers, Embiid said 12 months ago Simmons had been “selfish”.

Simmons has now said he has not taken the divorce personally and has not even ruled out a possible return to play for Philadelphia because the future is impossible to predict.

He gets his chance to respond to the famously hostile Philadelphia crowd when he returns to play against the team on November 23 (AEDT).

Simmons gives his side of story on lay-up that could have been

Ben Simmons famously went into his shell in the final quarter of his career with the Sixers — the Game 7 loss to Atlanta — and nothing summed it up more than the open lay-up he turned down. He dropped a pass to Matisse Thybulle instead and the crucial bucket never happened.

He now sees he made a mistake.

It happened so quick that you just make a read. In the playoffs, you need to make the right decisions the majority of the time.

Patty Mills and Ben Simmons. Photo by Elsa/Getty Images.

“For that moment, bro, it happened and I was just like, ‘OK, f***, now we got to go make another play.’ That’s how I’m thinking and I didn’t realise how everyone is posting like it’s that big?”

“When I look at it now, I’m like, ‘I should’ve just f***ing punched that s***,’” Simmons said.

“But it didn’t happen, and I was OK with that, I can live with that, I can live with everyone’s trying to kill me over one play. It’s as if everyone wants to watch film with me. Like, the whole arena. I can dissect everything if you guys want, but that’s not realistic.”

Simmons addresses Brooklyn play-offs no-show

Simmons was again torn apart by NBA commentators this year when he failed to play at all for the Nets.

A furore around Simmons exploded as Brooklyn were swept 4-0 in their first-round playoff series against Boston — a huge let-down for a team featuring superstars like Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.

Simmons, who joined the Nets from Philadelphia in a blockbuster trade involving James Harden in February, didn’t play at all last season and came under heavy fire after failing to suit up for Game 4 against the Celtics, having targeted that match as a comeback.

The Aussie had been practising with the aim of returning to action but woke up on the morning of the game with back soreness and sat out as his team’s season ended early.

NBA players and pundits unloaded on Simmons for sitting out. American sportscaster Stephen A. Smith delivered the most brutal smackdown, saying Simmons “might also be the weakest, most pathetic excuse for a professional athlete we’ve ever seen in not just American history but the history of sport”.

He has since undergone back surgery.

Simmons described his star-studded Nets team as “Philly on steroids”.

He said he has no doubts about his ability to make an impact for the Nets next season and believes his body will also be ready.