Ben Simmons Willing To Forfeit Entire $33M Salary And Sit Out Entire Season
Ben Simmons averaged 11.9 points and shot a lackluster 34.2% from the charity stripe throughout the 2021 NBA Playoffs. Looking at these numbers, it becomes easier to tell why Simmons has been on the receiving end of criticism despite his added rebounding, defense and facilitating.
His disappointing postseason performance had the Sixers trying to trade him – and not only that, they appeared to be shopping him to various teams.
Simmons, who still is one of the best young point guards and defenders in this league understandably was mad at the Sixers and their statements about him, which led to Simmons wanting to be traded. He stopped answering phone calls and did not report to Sixers training camp.
But Simmons reportedly is even going one step further and seems to be looking at forfeiting his entire $33 million salary by sitting out the entire season if he isn’t going to be traded, per ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne:
“When you talk to people close to Ben, I say, okay, worst case scenario it takes all year, would he sit all year? And the answer right now is yes. Now, you can say that right now at the beginning of training camp, you can say that you’re willing to sit all year if that’s what it takes to get traded to a team that you feel more comfortable on. But let’s see what happens when you really start missing checks, you really start missing basketball, and the league moves on without you.”