Ben Simmons looking great in workouts

Embiid on the comments he made after Game 7: You look at the way I spoke about it, I didn’t call anybody specifically. I just called out a bunch of events that happened, which was we missed a free throw and which was Matisse (Thybulle). Matisse wasn’t mad at me. He just knew that I’m challenging and like, I want us to be better. I want to be better and I want my teammates to also be better. He didn’t get mad at me, and then I also called out my own turnovers. I had a big one in that fourth quarter by Gallinari; he stole the ball from me. There was also a bunch of other events. We fouled 3-point shooters in the end of that four quarter. There was a lot of stuff that happened and, obviously, coach made some comments. -via Sixers Wire / February 8, 2022

Rivers learned Tuesday from a story by ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, citing sources close to the Sixers’ embattled Ben Simmons, that Simmons is “frustrated that Rivers didn’t come to see him while he was training in Los Angeles” despite ignoring numerous text messages and calls from Rivers, as well as telling some of his Philadelphia teammates not to fly out to talk to him. “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that,” Rivers told the Bucks County Courier Times, part of the USA TODAY Network, on Tuesday afternoon. “There’s nobody that’s been more supportive than me. I have a tape someone sent me of almost an hour of me over and over (praising Simmons). You heard me last year every day. -via Bucks County Courier-Times / February 2, 2022

“It’s all posturing. That’s why you haven’t heard me – I don’t get involved in all that stuff. I’ll leave that up to the front office and Ben’s camp. I’m staying out of that part. But, listen, some of this stuff I laugh at and I feel bad. I think Ben’s a good kid. I want Ben to do well.” -via Bucks County Courier-Times / February 2, 2022