Ben Simmons' situation with the Philadelphia 76ers made him one of the biggest villains in the NBA. People failed like he bailed on them and faked mental distress to force his way out of the team.
Simmons' later struggled and couldn't return to the court, claiming he was mentally blocked, and that took a toll on his back, an unprecedented situation in the league. Still, some didn't believe him.
Whether that's true or not is not for us to debate. But Simmons still resents Shaquille O'Neal for claiming they're 'LSU brothers' and not reaching out to him to try and find out what was really going on with him.
NBA News: Ben Simmons Claps Back At Shaquille O'Neal
"People go through it… Doesn't matter how much money you got, how famous you are, like it's real, people go through everyday struggles… I think it's kinda ignorant, like Shaq and Chuck sometimes what they're saying. 'Cause they have a platform to kind of like protect us and, you know, do good," Simmons said. "Um, obviously they're supposed to criticize us, you know, we're basketball players. But when it comes to personal stuff there's a level of respect they should have. Even Shaq, like, when I was dealing with everything going on, I actually messaged him and he put it out. And I was like, alright."
"I DM'd him and I was like, 'why are you saying this if you don't even know the story?' 'Cause he always wants to say like yo, we're LSU brothers, you're my brother, all this, that. If you're my LSU brother you would've reached out by now and it's been months since I've been dealing with this. You ain't reached out once and said like, 'hey, you OK? Like, what's going on?'" Simmons added.
Simmons sure has every right to call out Shaq for exposing his DMs after he tried and clear the air. So, you know Shaq's not going to go down without a fight and will most likely hit back at him as soon as he hears about this.
