Am-Ben-Valance

Ben Simmons returns to Philadelphia to sit on the bench. I can't get worked up.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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Mistress and Maid, Johannes Vermeer, 1666-67

To be sure, as a fan of NBA drama and the personality-driven storylines the league hosts, I will be watching the Nets’ visit to Philadelphia on Thursday with great interest. This is not quite LeBron in Cleveland in November 2010 or KD in OKC in the 2016-17 season. But it’s going to be something: Ben Simmons will sit in the arena in front of 20,000 Sixers fans, cheering on his teammates for the Brooklyn Nets, subjecting himself to all sorts of jeers and heckles and anger after a nasty break-up with not just the 76ers organization (though there was that) but with the city itself. And this is Philadelphia. It’s going to be a spectacle.

And yet, what opinion or take is there to have on this scenario?

Sixers fans are going to be mad and boo and heckle, and as long as no lines are crossed, it’s hard to fault them. Simmons is going to be something like defiant or bemused or annoyed or mad in return, and it’s hard to fault him. One imagines Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant are annoyed with James Harden, looking broken in Brooklyn and MVP-caliber in Philly. One imagines Harden is still peeved at Kyrie for the Brooklyn chaos he endured and Durant for letting it happen (not that KD had any real control). It’s hard to fault any of the former or current Super Nets.