Philadelphia 76ers star center Joel Embiid took to Twitter on Tuesday to set the record straight on the reported “rift” between him and teammate Ben Simmons. In a series of tweets, Embiid denied the reports while also stating that he loves playing with Simmons.
In an opinion piece published by USA Today, reporter Jeff Zillgitt at one point wrote that “Simmons-Embiid rift had been escalating” and cited “a person with knowledge of the situation” as his source. He also added that this forced Philly to choose between the two All-Stars and that the organization ended up favoring Embiid.
This didn’t sit well with Embiid, who retweeted the quote from the article and shared a lengthy response to the report.
“I love playing with Ben. Stats don’t lie. He’s an amazing player, and we all didn’t get the job done,” Embiid wrote.
Embiid followed this with a series of other tweets in which he accused the media of “making up stuff for followers” and reminded Philly fans about the times they booed him while telling them they “also gotta be better”.
“For clarity, I love the criticism, I love when I’m told I can’t do something. It makes me work harder to prove everyone wrong, but not everyone is built like that,” Embiid concluded his social media rant.
While Joel Embiid is fresh from his best season in the NBA, finishing second in MVP voting for 2020-21, Ben Simmons had his worst season as a pro.
Simmons finished the regular season with career-lows in points (14.3), rebounds (7.2), and assists (6.9). He followed this up with a meltdown in the postseason, managing only 11.9 points per game. The 25-year-old star especially struggled in the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Atlanta Hawks, passing on open shots and failing to attempt a single fourth-quarter field goal in four of the seven games of the series.
During the offseason, Simmons reportedly approached the 76ers and asked them to trade him. The organization explored ways to accommodate his request but failed to find a trade they like so far.
