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Ben Simmons was in a joking mood about his return to Philadelphia. When asked about returning to his first NBA home to play the 76ers, the Brooklyn Nets big man playfully played it off.

"I'm ready to play," he said, before adding, "Something going on?" causing the assembled media to break into laughter.

Simmons again joked when asked if there's been enough time for any hard feelings Sixers fans may have for him to have passed, by saying "In Philly?"

Simmons then got serious about what he knows he's facing.

"I know what's coming. That's part of the game. Philly fans, one thing about Philly fans is they are incredible. They are die-hard Philly and they are everything Philly, whatever it is. I respect that about the city. It's a sports town. I was talking to I think Yuta (Watanabe) before the game about what it's like to play in Philly, and it's an incredible opportunity to put on whatever jersey it is.

"That's Philly, and it's a unique experience."

Simmons then added he's got a lot of love for Philadelphia.

"I was 18 years old coming into Philly, so it's really the only place I've lived as an adult. So I have a lot of love for that city," he said. "People don't know that, but a lot of my best friends are from Philadelphia. My brother still lives in Philadelphia. So regardless of the situation, whatever happened, happened. But I got a lot of love for that city still, so I look forward to going down there and playing."

Via Tim Bontemps/ESPN

Tom White wrote:For all his various problems, it sounds like he handled that interview really well.

NoStatsGuy wrote:still beyond me how people compare ben's story to kyrie's. obviously i never had all information and i was just assuming.
but his mental health problems always seemed real to me and i could totally see the confidence crumble. When teams hack you and expose your flaws, when coach and teammates throw you under the bus publicly, when the whole world and media turns on you not everybody deals with it very well. fairly certain most of us wouldn't.

i have been rooting for ben through this whole thing and he seems to get back on track. And i sincerly hope he gets all his money from philly because if someone like kyrie can get paid through all his escapades and injuries, ben should get his money too.

NoStatsGuy wrote:still beyond me how people compare ben's story to kyrie's. obviously i never had all information and i was just assuming.
but his mental health problems always seemed real to me and i could totally see the confidence crumble. When teams hack you and expose your flaws, when coach and teammates throw you under the bus publicly, when the whole world and media turns on you not everybody deals with it very well. fairly certain most of us wouldn't.

i have been rooting for ben through this whole thing and he seems to get back on track. And i sincerly hope he gets all his money from philly because if someone like kyrie can get paid through all his escapades and injuries, ben should get his money too.

luciano-davidwesley wrote:

NoStatsGuy wrote:still beyond me how people compare ben's story to kyrie's. obviously i never had all information and i was just assuming.
but his mental health problems always seemed real to me and i could totally see the confidence crumble. When teams hack you and expose your flaws, when coach and teammates throw you under the bus publicly, when the whole world and media turns on you not everybody deals with it very well. fairly certain most of us wouldn't.

i have been rooting for ben through this whole thing and he seems to get back on track. And i sincerly hope he gets all his money from philly because if someone like kyrie can get paid through all his escapades and injuries, ben should get his money too.

Are you his mother? He refused to play and acted like a child throughout the entirity of last season. Only in the NBA could you be paid in full and refuse to work.

His petulant, entitled behaviour clearly went beyond mental health issues, which were also only mentioned after he turned up to practice (because he wasn't getting paid after initially saying he wasn't going to show cos I'm an NBA superstar so do what I say and trade me), acted like a clown at practice and then got told to stay away (again without pay).

IMO he's just playing nice in the hope their fans go a little easier on him tomorrow.

Revived wrote:If his mental problems were real and all then why did he sue to get paid while playing COD on twitch every night till 2am?

If I was a millionaire dealing with mental health so bad then getting paid wouldn’t exactly be priority at that time.

He even lied in the Redick interview and said “I don’t care about the money, I just wanted my peace” but actions show otherwise when he filed a lawsuit against Philly to try and get paid.

I trust people who put their $$ where their mouth is. Everything else is just buffer.

NoStatsGuy wrote:

luciano-davidwesley wrote:

NoStatsGuy wrote:still beyond me how people compare ben's story to kyrie's. obviously i never had all information and i was just assuming.
but his mental health problems always seemed real to me and i could totally see the confidence crumble. When teams hack you and expose your flaws, when coach and teammates throw you under the bus publicly, when the whole world and media turns on you not everybody deals with it very well. fairly certain most of us wouldn't.

i have been rooting for ben through this whole thing and he seems to get back on track. And i sincerly hope he gets all his money from philly because if someone like kyrie can get paid through all his escapades and injuries, ben should get his money too.

Are you his mother? He refused to play and acted like a child throughout the entirity of last season. Only in the NBA could you be paid in full and refuse to work.

His petulant, entitled behaviour clearly went beyond mental health issues, which were also only mentioned after he turned up to practice (because he wasn't getting paid after initially saying he wasn't going to show cos I'm an NBA superstar so do what I say and trade me), acted like a clown at practice and then got told to stay away (again without pay).

IMO he's just playing nice in the hope their fans go a little easier on him tomorrow.

Revived wrote:If his mental problems were real and all then why did he sue to get paid while playing COD on twitch every night till 2am?

If I was a millionaire dealing with mental health so bad then getting paid wouldn’t exactly be priority at that time.

He even lied in the Redick interview and said “I don’t care about the money, I just wanted my peace” but actions show otherwise when he filed a lawsuit against Philly to try and get paid.

I trust people who put their $$ where their mouth is. Everything else is just buffer.

also you dont even know, if ben wanted this lawsuit, it could very well be the agent, manager, family or what not. you guys are so quick to judge someone without knowing any context, its emberassing.

shrink wrote:Simmons refused to attend therapy when the Sixers brought in mental health professionals for him.

Tom White wrote:For all his various problems, it sounds like he handled that interview really well.

Canadian6ersFan wrote:Was hoping Maxey and Harden weren't injured for this game.

Canadian6ersFan wrote:

Canadian6ersFan wrote:Was hoping Maxey and Harden weren't injured for this game.

Let's add Embiid to this list.

By this trajectory, we can extrapolate that Ben Simmons and the Nets will play against five random Philly crowd fans in the arena.