Is it fair to criticize Ben Simmons?

[Roy H.]

He was in an uncomfortable working environment and then suddenly developed mental illness? Yeah, I don’t buy that for a second. I’ve said this before and have experienced it, a toxic work environment can affect you mentally, but it doesn’t cause mental illness.

On a side note, I think it was stupid for him to say that he was planning to play game 4. They should have just listed him as questionable and then it could be decided whether to play or not right before the game. I believe it would have been stupid for him to play after the team went down 0-3. When they lose the series, they wouldn’t be able to tell themselves, “Well we didn’t have Ben. It could have been different.”

He never said he had a mental illness

“I want to be careful here. I don’t want to overstate my understanding of the situation because I’m not in Ben’s shoes. That’s very important for me not to speak for Ben because I can’t relate to what he’s going through,” Nash said ahead of tipoff for Game 4 on Monday. “There is a mental component with everything. I think Ben has addressed that there is a mental component with what he’s going through. But how much and where he’s at with that is not for me to speak about.

Simmons arrived in Philadelphia near the end of the preseason but cited his mental health as the reason his participation in team activities was so limited. The 76ers and Simmons disagreed about the degrees of access to Simmons that the team and its doctors were allotted to diagnose and affirm his mental health.

I guess there can be a quibble in terms of the definition of "mental illness", but mental health concerns that impact somebody's day to day activities would generally fit that term.  He seemingly would meet criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis, in that his mental health struggles are impacting his day to day activities.

I disagree.  Everyone every day has mental health concerns.  Am I happy?  Is this conversation positive or negative?  How will this action or inaction affect my mood?  etc.  As I've pretty consistently said, I don't believe Simmons has a mental illness and never had one.  I think his phrasing was intentionally vague, and I don't believe anyone has attributed the word "illness" to any person associated with Simmons regarding his mental health.  I believe he was incredibly unhappy in his situation in Philadelphia and he just didn't want to work in that environment so for the sake of his mental health he didn't work (which is why I said that him switching cities very easily might allow him to play - and frankly I think the reason he didn't play in Brooklyn was physical).  People in all walks of life make that same decision every day.  It is just that almost none of them have a multi million dollar contract to play a professional sport so it doesn't make news, isn't reported on, etc.

His coach just said that he's still struggling with a "mental component", as well as physical.  It's obviously not just "unhappiness".

[greg683x]

I think it's fair to criticize people who can't perform at their jobs.

Ben Simmons has chosen professional basketball.  He chose to accept a $40 million / year contract.  He chose to sit out with the Sixers.  He chose to malinger at practices.  If he experiences crippling anxiety or other mental illness, that's not necessarily a "fault" or something he has control of.  However, fans can criticize him for choosing a career that he's unable to perform at.  If you can't meet the core expectations of the job, retire.

And, I do see it as similar to Simone Biles.  She accepted the endorsement money.  She billed herself as the GOAT, branding merchandise that she profited off of.  If she can't mentally perform at the highest level, it's something that should be held against her when judging her legacy.  [\b]The mental illness isn't a choice or a fault, but the marketing is. 

Not every person is suited to their career, even if they're talented at it.  You need the entire constellation of talents to be an athlete, and that means being free from mental setbacks.  It's no different than a lawyer or a chef or a truck driver:  if the pressures of the job are causing you to fail at it, and counseling / medication aren't alleviating the problem, then maybe it's time to pick a different career.

The biggest problem with the Simone Biles comparison is that despite what happened this year many people would still consider her the goat.  The girl put in the work and became one of the most if not thee most decorated gymnast of all time.  THEN called it quits citing mental health issues. 

The gripe with Simmons is it seems like he doesn’t want to put in the work to get himself over the hump.  But still wants to be paid like someone who would.  I’d almost be willing to wager that he’d rather be a celebrity at this point than a basketball player

[slamtheking]

I'm skeptical at best of any of his mental health issues.  the timing of this issue coming to light was just too convenient in enabling him to sit out the season.  there may indeed be some physical issues with his back but after sitting out a whole year, and passing a team physical in order to be traded, I find those claims to be dubious as well.

yes, he deserves all the criticism coming his way for being physically and mentally soft as well as making people with real mental issues less believable in their plight.  would love nothing better than to see the league investigate him and possibly suspend him from the league for fraudulent collection of his pay.

[nickagneta]

As I said elsewhere, I think Simmons has mental health issues because his availability traveled from Philly to Brooklyn, as I predicted it would. Deep mental issues can cripple your ability to be able to perform and/or even be available to do just about anything.

He is also using an undetectable issue like a sore back as reasoning for not returning quick enough. This helps him hide his mental struggles using his back as an excuse to not play rather than the mental health issues.

Looking back, seeing him not be able to reach his full potential, never getting better at all, moving on by "quitting" on his teams and not finishing what he started, this can all be effects created by not addressing his mental health earlier.

So, is it fair to criticize him? Sure, he is a public figure and he could have handled things much better, mental health issues or not. If his mental health has been bad going back to high school or college, he should have gotten help back then. You make poor decisions when in bad mental health and we don't know just how bad his issues are. His decisions over the last 10 months have been terrible, which would leave me to believe his issues run deep.

So if he suffers, I feel for him. However, if doesn't suffer, but is using this as an excuse to get his held money back, I think he is scum.

[Who]

I see several different areas Ben Simmons is criticized for and how fair each one of those areas are:

(1) Performance on the court & choking in the playoffs. Completely fair. Anything that happens on the floor is fair game.

(2) Lack of work ethic -- maybe, maybe not. I hear mixed reports about his report. Some very critical. Some very positive claiming he does work on his shot; he just doesn't have the bottle to take those shots in-game that he practices in the gym. Either one of them could be true. End result is the same but ... what you get criticized for is different.

Is it lack of work ethic? Or fear of failure?

(3) Demanding a trade -- I am fine with a player demanding the trade. No issue with Ben Simmons or anyone else demanding a trade & forcing their way out. No issue with a player sitting out until he gets his trade. Others feel differently, that is fine.

(4) The mental health stuff -- Call me a "debbie doubter" about Simmons' mental health claims. They only happened after he was getting fined and was looking for a way to keep his paycheck while not showing up for work. Nobody should be paid for refusing to work. And I am extremely skeptical of his mental health claims.

His feelings were hurt. His ego was hurt. That is not a mental health problem. That is not a justifiable claim for receiving your paycheck while refusing to show up for work. You are not incapacitated. You are choosing not to work.

(5) Not playing for the Nets. Simmons hurt his back two months ago while ramping up his workouts. He is injured. Physical injury. He tried to make it back. He came close but didn't make it.

(6) His outfit -- fun and games. Nothing serious here; just fun.

[nickagneta]

He was in an uncomfortable working environment and then suddenly developed mental illness? Yeah, I don’t buy that for a second. I’ve said this before and have experienced it, a toxic work environment can affect you mentally, but it doesn’t cause mental illness.

On a side note, I think it was stupid for him to say that he was planning to play game 4. They should have just listed him as questionable and then it could be decided whether to play or not right before the game. I believe it would have been stupid for him to play after the team went down 0-3. When they lose the series, they wouldn’t be able to tell themselves, “Well we didn’t have Ben. It could have been different.”

He never said he had a mental illness

“I want to be careful here. I don’t want to overstate my understanding of the situation because I’m not in Ben’s shoes. That’s very important for me not to speak for Ben because I can’t relate to what he’s going through,” Nash said ahead of tipoff for Game 4 on Monday. “There is a mental component with everything. I think Ben has addressed that there is a mental component with what he’s going through. But how much and where he’s at with that is not for me to speak about.

Simmons arrived in Philadelphia near the end of the preseason but cited his mental health as the reason his participation in team activities was so limited. The 76ers and Simmons disagreed about the degrees of access to Simmons that the team and its doctors were allotted to diagnose and affirm his mental health.

I guess there can be a quibble in terms of the definition of "mental illness", but mental health concerns that impact somebody's day to day activities would generally fit that term.  He seemingly would meet criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis, in that his mental health struggles are impacting his day to day activities.

I disagree.  Everyone every day has mental health concerns.  Am I happy?  Is this conversation positive or negative?  How will this action or inaction affect my mood?  etc.  As I've pretty consistently said, I don't believe Simmons has a mental illness and never had one.  I think his phrasing was intentionally vague, and I don't believe anyone has attributed the word "illness" to any person associated with Simmons regarding his mental health.  I believe he was incredibly unhappy in his situation in Philadelphia and he just didn't want to work in that environment so for the sake of his mental health he didn't work (which is why I said that him switching cities very easily might allow him to play - and frankly I think the reason he didn't play in Brooklyn was physical).  People in all walks of life make that same decision every day.  It is just that almost none of them have a multi million dollar contract to play a professional sport so it doesn't make news, isn't reported on, etc.

His coach just said that he's still struggling with a "mental component", as well as physical.  It's obviously not just "unhappiness".

Mental health and emotions are two completely different things. TP4U Roy in seeing that while Mo doesn't.

Being unhappy, uncomfortable, frustrated, anxious, etc., over your job and work environment are simply a matter of controlling your emotions and changing the environment to change your emotions

But mental health issues are completely different. Mental health issues/illness force emotions upon individuals and can't be changed simply by changing environment. You need medication, therapy and self awareness to change your behavior, which is much easier said than done when your mental issues may be trying to force you to make decisions that are completely opposite of what decisions you need to make to get healthy.

Simmons issues traveled with him and have since LSU. That to me, in my decades long experience with mental health, to believe Simmons has long term issues and that they only became crippling to Simmons in his mid 20's, which just so happens to be the most common time for long term issues of mental health to show themselves in an open and visible way.

[celticsclay]

He was in an uncomfortable working environment and then suddenly developed mental illness? Yeah, I don’t buy that for a second. I’ve said this before and have experienced it, a toxic work environment can affect you mentally, but it doesn’t cause mental illness.

On a side note, I think it was stupid for him to say that he was planning to play game 4. They should have just listed him as questionable and then it could be decided whether to play or not right before the game. I believe it would have been stupid for him to play after the team went down 0-3. When they lose the series, they wouldn’t be able to tell themselves, “Well we didn’t have Ben. It could have been different.”

He never said he had a mental illness

“I want to be careful here. I don’t want to overstate my understanding of the situation because I’m not in Ben’s shoes. That’s very important for me not to speak for Ben because I can’t relate to what he’s going through,” Nash said ahead of tipoff for Game 4 on Monday. “There is a mental component with everything. I think Ben has addressed that there is a mental component with what he’s going through. But how much and where he’s at with that is not for me to speak about.

Simmons arrived in Philadelphia near the end of the preseason but cited his mental health as the reason his participation in team activities was so limited. The 76ers and Simmons disagreed about the degrees of access to Simmons that the team and its doctors were allotted to diagnose and affirm his mental health.

I guess there can be a quibble in terms of the definition of "mental illness", but mental health concerns that impact somebody's day to day activities would generally fit that term.  He seemingly would meet criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis, in that his mental health struggles are impacting his day to day activities.

I disagree.  Everyone every day has mental health concerns.  Am I happy?  Is this conversation positive or negative?  How will this action or inaction affect my mood?  etc.  As I've pretty consistently said, I don't believe Simmons has a mental illness and never had one.  I think his phrasing was intentionally vague, and I don't believe anyone has attributed the word "illness" to any person associated with Simmons regarding his mental health.  I believe he was incredibly unhappy in his situation in Philadelphia and he just didn't want to work in that environment so for the sake of his mental health he didn't work (which is why I said that him switching cities very easily might allow him to play - and frankly I think the reason he didn't play in Brooklyn was physical).  People in all walks of life make that same decision every day.  It is just that almost none of them have a multi million dollar contract to play a professional sport so it doesn't make news, isn't reported on, etc.

His coach just said that he's still struggling with a "mental component", as well as physical.  It's obviously not just "unhappiness".

This is absolutely correct Roy. If you just have unhappiness you are not qualified by definition to get paid leave. Paid is called going on disability. Not sure how anyone can argue otherwise.

[Goldstar88]

He was in an uncomfortable working environment and then suddenly developed mental illness? Yeah, I don’t buy that for a second. I’ve said this before and have experienced it, a toxic work environment can affect you mentally, but it doesn’t cause mental illness.

On a side note, I think it was stupid for him to say that he was planning to play game 4. They should have just listed him as questionable and then it could be decided whether to play or not right before the game. I believe it would have been stupid for him to play after the team went down 0-3. When they lose the series, they wouldn’t be able to tell themselves, “Well we didn’t have Ben. It could have been different.”

He never said he had a mental illness

“I want to be careful here. I don’t want to overstate my understanding of the situation because I’m not in Ben’s shoes. That’s very important for me not to speak for Ben because I can’t relate to what he’s going through,” Nash said ahead of tipoff for Game 4 on Monday. “There is a mental component with everything. I think Ben has addressed that there is a mental component with what he’s going through. But how much and where he’s at with that is not for me to speak about.

Simmons arrived in Philadelphia near the end of the preseason but cited his mental health as the reason his participation in team activities was so limited. The 76ers and Simmons disagreed about the degrees of access to Simmons that the team and its doctors were allotted to diagnose and affirm his mental health.

I guess there can be a quibble in terms of the definition of "mental illness", but mental health concerns that impact somebody's day to day activities would generally fit that term.  He seemingly would meet criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis, in that his mental health struggles are impacting his day to day activities.

I disagree.  Everyone every day has mental health concerns.  Am I happy?  Is this conversation positive or negative?  How will this action or inaction affect my mood?  etc.  As I've pretty consistently said, I don't believe Simmons has a mental illness and never had one.  I think his phrasing was intentionally vague, and I don't believe anyone has attributed the word "illness" to any person associated with Simmons regarding his mental health.  I believe he was incredibly unhappy in his situation in Philadelphia and he just didn't want to work in that environment so for the sake of his mental health he didn't work (which is why I said that him switching cities very easily might allow him to play - and frankly I think the reason he didn't play in Brooklyn was physical).  People in all walks of life make that same decision every day.  It is just that almost none of them have a multi million dollar contract to play a professional sport so it doesn't make news, isn't reported on, etc.

His coach just said that he's still struggling with a "mental component", as well as physical.  It's obviously not just "unhappiness".

Mental health and emotions are two completely different things. TP4U Roy in seeing that while Mo doesn't.

Being unhappy, uncomfortable, frustrated, anxious, etc., over your job and work environment are simply a matter of controlling your emotions and changing the environment to change your emotions

But mental health issues are completely different. Mental health issues/illness force emotions upon individuals and can't be changed simply by changing environment. You need medication, therapy and self awareness to change your behavior, which is much easier said than done when your mental issues may be trying to force you to make decisions that are completely opposite of what decisions you need to make to get healthy.

Simmons issues traveled with him and have since LSU. That to me, in my decades long experience with mental health, to believe Simmons has long term issues and that they only became crippling to Simmons in his mid 20's, which just so happens to be the most common time for long term issues of mental health to show themselves in an open and visible way.

I 100% agree with everything said in paragraph 3. What I don’t recall, is reported issues that Simmons was having since his days at LSU. I don’t recall there being any news of him dealing with any mental health issues in Philadelphia until he started to have problems with Doc and Embiid, demanded a trade and then told the 76ers that he couldn’t be around the team due to him having mental health issues. Other players like Kevin Love and DeMar DeRozan have talked about their struggles with mental health in detail in the past, which is admirable. Simmons on the other hand states that he is dealing with mental health issues immediately following a dispute with his team at that time. He’s also trying to sue the 76ers for $20M, I believe. It just seems too convenient.

[celticsclay]

He was in an uncomfortable working environment and then suddenly developed mental illness? Yeah, I don’t buy that for a second. I’ve said this before and have experienced it, a toxic work environment can affect you mentally, but it doesn’t cause mental illness.

On a side note, I think it was stupid for him to say that he was planning to play game 4. They should have just listed him as questionable and then it could be decided whether to play or not right before the game. I believe it would have been stupid for him to play after the team went down 0-3. When they lose the series, they wouldn’t be able to tell themselves, “Well we didn’t have Ben. It could have been different.”

He never said he had a mental illness

“I want to be careful here. I don’t want to overstate my understanding of the situation because I’m not in Ben’s shoes. That’s very important for me not to speak for Ben because I can’t relate to what he’s going through,” Nash said ahead of tipoff for Game 4 on Monday. “There is a mental component with everything. I think Ben has addressed that there is a mental component with what he’s going through. But how much and where he’s at with that is not for me to speak about.

Simmons arrived in Philadelphia near the end of the preseason but cited his mental health as the reason his participation in team activities was so limited. The 76ers and Simmons disagreed about the degrees of access to Simmons that the team and its doctors were allotted to diagnose and affirm his mental health.

I guess there can be a quibble in terms of the definition of "mental illness", but mental health concerns that impact somebody's day to day activities would generally fit that term.  He seemingly would meet criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis, in that his mental health struggles are impacting his day to day activities.

I disagree.  Everyone every day has mental health concerns.  Am I happy?  Is this conversation positive or negative?  How will this action or inaction affect my mood?  etc.  As I've pretty consistently said, I don't believe Simmons has a mental illness and never had one.  I think his phrasing was intentionally vague, and I don't believe anyone has attributed the word "illness" to any person associated with Simmons regarding his mental health.  I believe he was incredibly unhappy in his situation in Philadelphia and he just didn't want to work in that environment so for the sake of his mental health he didn't work (which is why I said that him switching cities very easily might allow him to play - and frankly I think the reason he didn't play in Brooklyn was physical).  People in all walks of life make that same decision every day.  It is just that almost none of them have a multi million dollar contract to play a professional sport so it doesn't make news, isn't reported on, etc.

His coach just said that he's still struggling with a "mental component", as well as physical.  It's obviously not just "unhappiness".

Mental health and emotions are two completely different things. TP4U Roy in seeing that while Mo doesn't.

Being unhappy, uncomfortable, frustrated, anxious, etc., over your job and work environment are simply a matter of controlling your emotions and changing the environment to change your emotions

But mental health issues are completely different. Mental health issues/illness force emotions upon individuals and can't be changed simply by changing environment. You need medication, therapy and self awareness to change your behavior, which is much easier said than done when your mental issues may be trying to force you to make decisions that are completely opposite of what decisions you need to make to get healthy.

Simmons issues traveled with him and have since LSU. That to me, in my decades long experience with mental health, to believe Simmons has long term issues and that they only became crippling to Simmons in his mid 20's, which just so happens to be the most common time for long term issues of mental health to show themselves in an open and visible way.

I 100% agree with everything said in paragraph 3. What I don’t recall, is reported issues that Simmons was having since his days at LSU. I don’t recall there being any news of him dealing with any mental health issues in Philadelphia until he started to have issues with Doc and Embiid, demanded a trade and then told the 76ers that he couldn’t be around the team due to him having mental health issues. Other players like Kevin Love and DeMar DeroZan have talked about their struggles with mental health in detail in the past, which is admirable. Simmons on the other hand states that he is dealing with mental health issues immediately following a dispute with his team at that time.

Yeah this is the key part of what some may be just glossing over. The NBA has an extremely powerful union, the 76ers are not going to just refuse to pay Simmons all willy nilly. In fact it was reported around the time that Rich Paul did not understand the CBA and was surprised by much money the 76ers could withhold Ben. I think Morey and Co have a pretty good understanding of the CBA and felt Simmons was particularly egregious. If it turns out Simmons actually did have extreme depression and he reported it to them and they say "nah screw you" no player would ever sign there again.

Also, this was a long time ago and I don't feel like digging it all up, but if you followed the timing of all this stuff it was an extremely straight line between Simmons mentions health and when he is being fined/losing money.

[SHAQATTACK]

My father would have said he is “ Plain Lazy” …and ..he would had no qualms about telling him , fair has nothing to do with it.  That’s whining.   get up off yo butt and get on with doing something.



Millions or billion people get up every day with chronic pain and earn
 a living.  They have my respect.  The Owners that continues to let him collect millions for sitting on his butt are the problem. 

He is spoiled worse than Kyrie if that’s possible. Enabled by parents, family , coaches , teachers etc,   Who take his side because they are sucking down the nba contract money too he doles out to his entourage .

The owners have too much money , wasting it on types like Kyrie and Simmons.

[Roy H.]

I'm skeptical at best of any of his mental health issues.  the timing of this issue coming to light was just too convenient in enabling him to sit out the season.  there may indeed be some physical issues with his back but after sitting out a whole year, and passing a team physical in order to be traded, I find those claims to be dubious as well.

yes, he deserves all the criticism coming his way for being physically and mentally soft as well as making people with real mental issues less believable in their plight.  would love nothing better than to see the league investigate him and possibly suspend him from the league for fraudulent collection of his pay.

Haven't we seen his mental health issues in real time?  Being afraid to shoot to the point where he's passing up dunks is a form of anxiety, right?

[greg683x]

As I said elsewhere, I think Simmons has mental health issues because his availability traveled from Philly to Brooklyn, as I predicted it would. [\b]Deep mental issues can cripple your ability to be able to perform and/or even be available to do just about anything.

He is also using an undetectable issue like a sore back as reasoning for not returning quick enough. This helps him hide his mental struggles using his back as an excuse to not play rather than the mental health issues.

Looking back, seeing him not be able to reach his full potential, never getting better at all, moving on by "quitting" on his teams and not finishing what he started, this can all be effects created by not addressing his mental health earlier.

So, is it fair to criticize him? Sure, he is a public figure and he could have handled things much better, mental health issues or not. If his mental health has been bad going back to high school or college, he should have gotten help back then. You make poor decisions when in bad mental health and we don't know just how bad his issues are. His decisions over the last 10 months have been terrible, which would leave me to believe his issues run deep.

So if he suffers, I feel for him. However, if doesn't suffer, but is using this as an excuse to get his held money back, I think he is scum.

I don’t think that’s any kind of confirmation that his issues are legit.  If he starts playing again like nothings wrong after he’s traded to Brooklyn that would be something that could affect the ongoing grievances he has against the 76ers

[slamtheking]

I'm skeptical at best of any of his mental health issues.  the timing of this issue coming to light was just too convenient in enabling him to sit out the season.  there may indeed be some physical issues with his back but after sitting out a whole year, and passing a team physical in order to be traded, I find those claims to be dubious as well.

yes, he deserves all the criticism coming his way for being physically and mentally soft as well as making people with real mental issues less believable in their plight.  would love nothing better than to see the league investigate him and possibly suspend him from the league for fraudulent collection of his pay.

Haven't we seen his mental health issues in real time?  Being afraid to shoot to the point where he's passing up dunks is a form of anxiety, right?

I don't equate the two.  his in game issue may be performance anxiety but that's while on the court and could simply be a matter of him paranoid/afraid of performing poorly in a public forum.   I consider a real mental health issue would impact his entire life, not just on the court.  his call for attention with his attire on the sidelines of the games leads me to believe his issues are not life related as much as game related. 

he very well may have a real mental issue that impacts his overall life but I very doubtful that his claims aren't a ploy to get paid while avoiding playing to earn it and suffer the slings and arrows that come with poor performance.

[Goldstar88]

I'm skeptical at best of any of his mental health issues.  the timing of this issue coming to light was just too convenient in enabling him to sit out the season.  there may indeed be some physical issues with his back but after sitting out a whole year, and passing a team physical in order to be traded, I find those claims to be dubious as well.

yes, he deserves all the criticism coming his way for being physically and mentally soft as well as making people with real mental issues less believable in their plight.  would love nothing better than to see the league investigate him and possibly suspend him from the league for fraudulent collection of his pay.

Haven't we seen his mental health issues in real time?  Being afraid to shoot to the point where he's passing up dunks is a form of anxiety, right?

Is that anxiety or lack of confidence in trying to do something that you are not proficient at?

[slamtheking]

As I said elsewhere, I think Simmons has mental health issues because his availability traveled from Philly to Brooklyn, as I predicted it would. [\b]Deep mental issues can cripple your ability to be able to perform and/or even be available to do just about anything.

He is also using an undetectable issue like a sore back as reasoning for not returning quick enough. This helps him hide his mental struggles using his back as an excuse to not play rather than the mental health issues.

Looking back, seeing him not be able to reach his full potential, never getting better at all, moving on by "quitting" on his teams and not finishing what he started, this can all be effects created by not addressing his mental health earlier.

So, is it fair to criticize him? Sure, he is a public figure and he could have handled things much better, mental health issues or not. If his mental health has been bad going back to high school or college, he should have gotten help back then. You make poor decisions when in bad mental health and we don't know just how bad his issues are. His decisions over the last 10 months have been terrible, which would leave me to believe his issues run deep.

So if he suffers, I feel for him. However, if doesn't suffer, but is using this as an excuse to get his held money back, I think he is scum.

I don’t think that’s any kind of confirmation that his issues are legit.  If he starts playing again like nothings wrong after he’s traded to Brooklyn that would be something that could affect the ongoing grievances he has against the 76ers

I've gotten the impression that was a factor.  I could be wrong but I've gotten the impression from some articles and interviews that if he played for Brooklyn and didn't exhibit real issues there, it'd have a significantly negative impact on his payment grievances with the Sixers