Stephen A. Smith Lays Into ‘Sorry, Trifling A**’ Ben Simmons After He Trolled The Philadelphia 76ers

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The Philadelphia 76ers yet again exited the NBA playoffs in embarrassing fashion in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

It marks the fifth time the Sixers have went out at that stage of the playoffs in the last six years and this time may have been the most embarrassing.

Just about the entire basketball world used the opportunity to troll the Sixers, including former player Ben Simmons.

There’s just one problem.

Simmons has played just 42 games combined in the last two NBA seasons and is widely regarded at perhaps the league’s softest player. Which is why Stephen A. Smith was quick to call the former NBA All-Star on the latest episode of his Know Mercy podcast.

“I have never seen a superstar in a game of basketball play in a Game 7 as bad as James Harden played this past Sunday in Boston. Embiid was a disappointment,” Smith began. “The only thing worse than James Harden was that sorry, trifling a** Ben Simmons. And I tried to be nice to be Ben Simmons. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“How the h*** are you talking about a basketball player when you treat putting on a basketball uniform and dribbling, when you treat that as if somebody asked you to get on the front lines in Ukraine to fight Russia? That’s how scared he is to play basketball. I mean he’s the one that’s talking about it. They brought up mental illness. I didn’t bring that up. I didn’t say anything about that, I’m not making light of something like that. He brought that up. He said that was (his) rationale; he said that he needs therapy (and) he said that he needed to talk to people.

“Then it’s a back injury. Then it’s a knee injury. It’s all of these excuses not to play. But that brother never missed a check, though. He always makes sure the check is in the account. And you are talking about James Harden and the 76ers?…”

Stephen A. Smith had time today.