Sixers: Is the Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons relationship beyond repair?

The issue that Ben Simmons was thrown out of practice was bad from the Philadelphia 76ers’ chemistry perspective as a whole, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. The team took appropriate measures by suspending him for the season opener against the New Orleans Pelicans, according to Malika Andrews of ESPN.

However, while this is bad from a team perspective, the bigger issue that the franchise is that it appears that the relationship between Joel Embiid and Simmons is unfixable. This has become an issue because of what Embiid said after Simmons was asked to leave the practice.

When asked more about Simmons, Embiid also had this to say.

It should also be noted that Embiid hasn’t had a discussion with Simmons since Simmons has rejoined Philly, per Keith Pompey of The Inquirier. This seems to put the proverbial nail in the coffin of the relationship between Embiid and Simmons. However, before making a concrete statement let’s look at the evidence.

The relationship between the Philadelphia 76ers stars between Simmons and Embiid appears to be unfixable.

The Sixers two stars have never been the best of friends, but they always made it work on the court. However, the first major fracture of the relationship came with Embiid’s comments after the Game 7 loss against the Atlanta Hawks, this quote was provided by Des Bieler of The Washington Post.

"“I’ll be honest: I thought the turning point was when we had an open shot, and we made one free throw and we missed the other, and they came down and scored.”"

While Embiid took responsibility in his comments as well, this clearly looks like he is throwing Simmons under the bus. This set into motion Simmons asking the franchise for a trade. Embiid tried to backtrack a few months after his postgame comments with him stating on Twitter he loves playing with Simmons.

Embiid had maintained that the 76ers are a better team with Simmons during training camp. However, Simmons’ camp decided to hold out and let leak that Simmons’ run with Embiid has “…run its course…” and that it would be best for his career if the two Sixers stars didn’t play together anymore, per Sam Amick of The Athletic.

As a result of Simmons’ statement, Embiid went on a long statement stating how the franchise has always catered to Simmons’ weaknesses. He also said how the situation was unfolding was “disrespectful” to the team, per Liz Roscher of Yahoo Sports.

Eventually, Simmons did report to the franchise and surprised general manager Elton Brand by just showing up unexpectedly, according to to Wojnarowski of ESPN. Simmons had participated in several practices and then the incident that occurred on the NBA season opening day.

It’s clear that Simmons just clearly doesn’t care about anything regarding the Philadelphia 76ers and while Embiid has tried to say the right things in the past, it’s clear he’s done with dealing with the drama that Simmons has brought. It’s important to say never, but it seems to be that the relationship between these two players can’t be fixed while they share a team together.