All the strange Sixers stories over the last 15-ish years just keep getting stranger with time. Events are supposed to normalize as they get older, but so often I get in front of my computer ready to write about these various Sixers events and I’m still incredulous. How the hell did we get a pouting max player sitting out a whole season? Let’s parse through the realities of the trade deadline deal that finally brought an end to the Ben Simmons era, reunited James Harden with Daryl Morey, and is still with us 5 years on.
The Ben Simmons saga starts, for me at least, in the summer of 2018. Simmons was coming off a Rookie of the Year season in which he averaged 16/8/8 and looked like he had a limitless future. That was the summer that the San Antonio Spurs shopped and traded Kawhi Leonard to the Raptors. The Sixers were also in pursuit, but the Spurs insisted on having Simmons in the deal. Philly was obviously trying to add Leonard to an Embiid/Simmons core, so this was a nonstarter. Three steps and four bounces later, the Raptors defeated the best Sixers team of this generation in the playoffs.
No one blamed Simmons for the loss. However, in the aftermath of the game Jimmy Butler was traded to the Miami Heat. Because of his “Tobias Harris over me?” comments, it was long assumed that the Sixers had to choose between the two. That wasn’t completely true. You could infer that the Sixers wanted Al Horford to give Embiid a better back up and needed the cap space. Ok sure, except why Harris over Butler then? Harris wasn’t better. There’s the rub. It was Simmons. Simmons didn’t like having to cede control of the ball to Butler. Whether it was explicitly said, the real choice was Simmons over Butler, not Harris. Imagine the value the Sixers could have received for Simmons at this point? He was an All Star, former #1 pick, just averaged 17/9/8, and had DPOY level upside in his 2nd full season.
They went another way. The Horford Sixers crashed and burned forcing the team to bring in Daryl Morey to exorcise that demon. Simmons had another promising season going 16/8/8 while leading the NBA in steals and finishing 4th in DPOY voting. He didn’t shoot 3s, but he could do everything else. Morey though, fresh from Houston wanted his man James Harden by his side and was willing to trade Simmons to get him. I’ve heard conflicting stories, but the rumor was that Simmons, Matisse Thybulle, and two 1sts almost got the deal done. I’ve also heard that the Rockets insisted on including Tyrese Maxey in the deal and the Sixers drew the line. Either way, again, no deal. Harden would go to the Nets.
The next season is when it began to fall apart. By now, his lack of shooting (and possibly shooting with the wrong hand) was no longer confined to beyond the 3 point line. He was so afraid of getting fouled and going to the free throw line that he stopped driving to score completely. He was now almost a total no show on offense. This came to a head in the playoffs when his 2nd half stats against the Atlanta Hawks weren’t so much bad, they were non-existent. He averaged 2 field goal attempts while shooting 40% from the line for the whole 7 game series. It was all capped off with the now infamous non-dunk over Trae Young and the Sixers losing in Game 7. It was a disaster.
After the series, Joel Embiid and Doc Rivers were beside themselves about Simmons and rightfully threw his play under the bus. He was terrified and simply could not help the team anymore. Instead of attempting to work through this problem or even admit he had a problem, Simmons cut all ties with the team and refused to play. All attempts by team and players to reconcile were rebuffed including him telling his teammates to simply not come when they were ready to board a plane to LA. Simmons eventually came to practice, didn’t try as evidenced by his sweatsuit with cell phone firmly in pocket uniform, and was sent home. He would rack up $18m in fines.1 Simmons claimed he had a back injury and was going through emotional distress. The Sixers claimed he was holding out and not playing to force a trade.2
As this was occurring, the Nets were now having their own problems with newly acquired star James Harden. As he is want to do, Harden started tanking his effort in an attempt to get moved again. Enter Daryl Morey. Morey had been trying to trade Simmons the whole season, even claiming he was happy to be uncomfortable in the situation. The problem was that Simmons had diminished value on the court, an attitude problem, and roughly $120m and 4 years left on a max contract.
On February 10th, 2021, the two sides found a way to make both their problems go away. Simmons (along with two 1sts, Seth Curry, and Andre Drummond) was moved to Brooklyn for James Harden (and Paul Milsap). Harden ended up playing 1.5 years in Philly and wilted (as he does) in the playoffs. He then wanted to move on again, called Daryl Morey a liar to a bunch of Chinese school children, and was traded to LA for a 2028 1st and a 2029 pick swap. Both are still on the books.
Simmons didn’t play the rest of the season for Brooklyn, constantly teasing but never actually suiting up. The trade was a total bust for the Nets. Simmons played in 90 games averaging a very telling 6/6/6. He was waived in February 2025 and is currently out of the league. The Sixers still owe the Nets a 1st round pick in the deal. It’s crazy to think that they could have moved him for Kawhi Leonard, could have moved him for picks and built around Jimmy Butler, could have moved him for James Harden a year earlier, but eventually settled for a 1 year too late Harden. With the Sixers, it’s always about what could have been over what they actually did.
We’ll go into Harden virtues and disappointments another time…like November 1st.
The Calendar
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The Phillies traded the best name in baseball for the best catcher in baseball and it made all the difference
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The Tobias Harris trade was bad, but we made it so much worse than it had to be
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If you are going to trade for one of the worst players in Major League Baseball, make sure you throw in a future Hall of Famer to get it done.
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Remember that time the Sixers traded nothing for Wilt Chamberlain?
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On this day 19 years ago, the Sixers and Allen Iverson finally got a divorce.
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While we all expected Cliff Lee to be a Yankee, he took less money to come back to the Phillies
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December 6th, 2006. The day the Phillies threw away a future ace because they didn’t require Freddy Garcia to take a physical
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Back in 1933, the Phillies traded their first modern star in his prime for $65k.
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With Curtis Mead’s trade to the White Sox this past year, what we all knew becomes official. The Phillies won big with Cristopher Sanchez.
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Back in the 2014 NBA Draft, the GM of the Sixers, Sam Hinkie, dove head first into a situation with no leverage and came out with his lost draft picks
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Back in 2015, the Rams absolutely fleeced the Eagles by trading us Sam Bradford
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The Andrew Bynum trade is one of the single most damaging trades I have ever seen. The Sixers paid the most in a trade and got the worst player.
Philly Front Office 
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