It was a charged environment for Ben Simmons return to Philadelphia after his commerce to the Brooklyn Nets. Despite the fact that Simmons did not play, 76ers followers showered him with boos, and extra, to begin the sport. Kevin Durant summed up the night time completely:
“It was an excellent atmosphere to begin,” Nets star Kevin Durant stated. “It did not end that means.”
Brooklyn blew out Philadelphia and following the sport Durant and star guard Kyrie Irving stated they had been motived by the hate proven in the direction of Simmons.
“We have a look at Ben as our brother, so we knew that this was a hostile atmosphere and we knew that he did not have the chance to play and we needed to come back on the market and have them give attention to the court docket, extra so than at all times specializing in him,” Durant stated. “So, they targeted on the court docket tonight, and it is laborious so that you can chant at Ben Simmons once you’re shedding by that a lot.”
Irving agreed with Durant’s evaluation that the Nets performed for Simmons.
“While you get traded on this league, it is not simple to take care of,” Irving stated. “And also you choose up your stuff that you’ve got made a house out of; you are in a single metropolis after which you need to switch to a different metropolis, it is not at all times simple, so we have tried to welcome him in with open arms.
“So, once we performed tonight, we undoubtedly felt like Ben was on our coronary heart. You could possibly see it, he was sporting it, and we simply needed to go on the market and play for him and play properly. … Should you come at Ben, you come at us. You come at anybody else on our crew, you come in any respect of us, and that is the mentality.”
