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Fred VanVleet Hopes Ben Simmons-James Harden Trade Won’t Work Out For Either Team
The Ben Simmons-Philadelphia 76ers saga has finally ended and both parties involved were granted a fresh new start.
The Sixers with NBA superstar James Harden, and Ben Simmons in Brooklyn alongside Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.
Before that, Ben Simmons hadn’t participated in a Sixers game since Game 7 of the second-round series against the Atlanta Hawks in the previous 2021 NBA playoffs.
After a hampered trade demand and failure to cooperate with the team during practices and meetings early in the season, Simmons has shifted his focus on working on his mental health and cited this as one of the reasons why he did not intend to appear in a Sixers game.
When asked about the trade on All-Star Media Day, Fred VanVleet, who is only the fifth undrafted player overall, and the first since Ben Wallace in 2006, to make an All-Star team, said that he hopes it doesn’t work out for either team:
“It [the trade] is certainly shaking things up, right!? But there had been rumors, so I wasn’t super surprised, but to actually see it finalized I was like ‘wow, who would have ever thought this 12 months ago, when we were thinking Brooklyn is going to win five championships in a row’, and ‘who can stop this big three’…. It didn’t pan out that way, but now it’s shuffling the deck again. So for those two teams, I hope it doesn’t work for them, I hope they stink. That will help our chances going forward…”
Fred VanVleet hopes the Ben Simmons-James Harden trade won’t work out for either team: “I hope they stink…“ pic.twitter.com/Ko5L6jyJpr
— Len Werle (@RealLennyCarlos) February 19, 2022
