Dwight Howard got to play for the Philadelphia 76ers last season which means he saw the Ben Simmons situation up close and personal. Of course, at the time, Simmons still seemed to be on good terms with the franchise, but he was certainly aware of some of the hangups Simmons had when it came to getting it done in the playoffs. Now that Simmons wants out, everything was put in a grander context that Howard can now recognize.
While speaking to Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report, Howard got to give his thoughts on the Simmons situation and as you can see, he has great empathy for everything that is happening right now. In fact, Howard feels as though there are parallels between Simmons' problems in Philly, and how Howard felt while in Orlando.
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“Well you know, I felt like a part of me, I could see that in being as far as what happened with was happening with Ben when I was in Orlando,” Howard said. “It was some similar things happening. Now I just didn’t like the fact that whatever was going on on the inside had to be made public knowledge. Obviously, I’m there with Ben a lot, he’s one of my closest friends so I was upset to hear all the things that was being said about him… When we played the Hawks and we lost, I was upset at Ben on that play. I wanted him to dunk the ball, tear a rim down, but he didn’t do it and it wasn’t just his fault. So my thing was we can’t just blame him.”
At this point, the Simmons saga isn't about to end anytime soon, although the Sixers would much rather things get resolved now rather than later. Either way, this remains a developing story so stay tuned to HNHH as we will be sure to bring you all of the latest updates on the matter.
