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The battle between Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers over the grievance he filed to receive a portion of the $20 million he was owed by the team has ended as both sides came to a settlement.
According to reports, the news of the guard and his former team coming to an agreement was confirmed on Monday (August 15). Sources close to the negotiations did not disclose the exact amount that was agreed to, but Yahoo! reports that it’s in the neighborhood of $ 20 million. Simmons did receive his full salary for the time he spent on the Brooklyn Nets roster after he was traded to the team by the Sixers for All-Star guard James Harden on February 10, but he did not play the rest of the season due to recovering from surgery for a disc injury in April.
The settlement officially marks the end of the drama-laden disagreement between the guard and his former team, which began in a postseason meeting last year after the All-Star had a poor performance in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semi-finals against the Atlanta Hawks that the Sixers lost.
Simmons and his agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, demanded a trade during that meeting, feeling that he was being blamed for the team’s overall loss. Simmons would report to training camp late before the start of the 2021-2022 season, but he didn’t play in any preseason games or in the regular season for the Sixers, citing mental health struggles and a back injury. That led to disagreements between the 26-year-old and the team over how much access the Sixers doctors had to diagnose and affirm those issues.
The Sixers felt that Simmons was in breach of his contract, and began withholding his salary for every game he missed when the season started on November 15, which was estimated at $1.3 million. That amount added up to nearly $20 million. Simmons would later file a grievance to recoup that money in April with the backing of the National Basketball Players Association.
