Tonight is a big night for the Brooklyn Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers.
The two teams will meet for the first time since they agreed on the trade that sent James Harden to Philly and Ben Simmons to Brooklyn.
Of course, this also means that Simmons will be making his return to Philadelphia after having sat out every game before the trade took place.
Many around the NBA are expecting Simmons to be showered with boos tonight at Wells Fargo Center.
However, his new teammate Kevin Durant does not think that it will be a problem for him, and that players are used to being booed.
KD doesn't think Simmons will have a problem with the boos that await him in Philly.
"That's the profession we're in. We're out making 40 million dollars a year, you can take that [criticism] for 48 [minutes of a game], for a couple hours. I'm sure Ben has that approach."
— Nick Friedell (@NickFriedell) March 9, 2022
How Will Simmons React
Durant seems to have faith in Simmons, which should help him deal with all of the crowd noise as he enters Wells Fargo Center for the first time since the trade.
NBA players are meant to have that sort of mentality, to be able to not only block out the distractions, but feed off of the negative energy projected by the opposing crowd, and embracing their role as the cowboy in the black hat.
Most athletes are used to such things, and Durant certainly can attest to that, having been hit hard with boos when he returned to Oklahoma City for the first time as a member of the Golden State Warriors.
We’ll see how Simmons reacts to it, given all the drama he left behind in Philly when the trade took place.
The game should be an interesting one, as both squads are in playoff position in the Eastern Conference, and the Nets are coming off a big win in which Kyrie Irving dropped 50 points.
Perhaps this could be a preview of what we see from each team come playoff time.
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