The basketball world got one hell of a report involving a Brooklyn Nets All-Star on Tuesday. No, I’m not talking about the rumor that Kevin Durant told Nets owner Joe Tsai that he had to choose between Durant or the duo of head coach Steve Nash and general manager Sean Marks. Tsai responded a little later in the day and made clear he was not going to fire either guy.
Instead, I’m talking about a pretty interesting rumor that Ric Bucher shared on The Herd with Colin Cowherd. The long and the short of it is that Ben Simmons left a team group chat when he was asked if he was going to play in Game 4 of the team’s playoff series against the Boston Celtics — Simmons did not suit up for the team after being acquired at the trade deadline due to back issues, but there were rumblings he’d be able to go once the postseason rolled around, something that never came to fruition.
According to NBA insider @RicBucher, @KDTrey5 was reportedly irked when Ben Simmons not only ignored but left a team group chat when asked if he was playing in game four against Boston.
Read more: https://t.co/kwpY1mqXippic.twitter.com/is30oc5U2N
— Audacy Sports (@AudacySports) August 8, 2022
It is, objectively, a sensational story, but Simmons appeared to have gotten word that it was going around and responded on Twitter earlier in the day on Tuesday.
slow news day
— Ben Simmons (@BenSimmons25) August 9, 2022
To further drive that point home, Simmons retweeted the following video from The Pat McAfee Show in which Shams Charania of The Athletic said “it’s an amazing story but it didn’t happen.”
“This NEVER happened.. it’s an amazing story but it didn’t happen”@ShamsCharania on the rumors that Ben Simmons left the Nets group chat after they asked him to play in game 4 against the Celtics #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/wzWShQzG9m
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) August 9, 2022
There is no such thing as a boring day when the Brooklyn Nets are involved.