Ben Simmons is no closer to honoring the Sixers' hopes for a return to the court this season -- and Philly's steep asking price has brought the All-Star guard no closer to a potential trade, sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski on Wednesday.
www.espn.com
Here's the part that pisses me off:
Paul told the Sixers that Simmons' mental health hurdles continue to preclude him from a return to play with the team
To which I say: BULL. FUCKING. SHIT.
One of the reasons why mental illness continues to carry some stigma today (fortunately not as much as years ago) is this belief, being propagated here by Paul, that mental illness can be turned on or off. If Simmons is truly too mentally ill to play with the Sixers, then he is too mentally ill to play with
any team. He needs to work on his mental issues, far away from basketball, and return once he has a better handle on them.
Think of how stupid it would be to say that Simmons had, say, a knee injury that would preclude him from playing with Philly, but that his knee would suddenly be fine and allow him to play with another team if he were traded there. That's effectively what Paul (and Simmons) are saying here -- that his mental health precludes him from playing for one team, but not 29 others.
And that just pisses me off. He's making a mockery of legitimate illnesses and minimizing the people who suffer from them. Fuck this guy in the ear.