The latest payment of Ben Simmons's salary was due Friday, and the 76ers reportedly will not be paying it as the three-time All-Star continues his holdout, according to Bleacher Report's Jake Fischer.
The missed paycheck, which is the second 25% of his salary, amounts to $8.25 million. And although both Doc Rivers and Daryl Morey said Monday that they would like to have Simmons back with the franchise, he is still not showing up to Philadelphia as he awaits a trade, according to The Athletic's Sam Amick.
76ers training camp opened Tuesday.
Simmons is reportedly no longer interested in playing with Joel Embiid, and his frustration with the team's decision to build around Embiid and his playing style comes as the duo ranked No. 4 in net rating of pairs who had played at least 1,100 minutes together.
Embiid, however, echoed Rivers and Morey about wanting Simmons to return.
"Of course we want him back, he's a big piece of what we've been building the past few years,” Embiid said.
The franchise has been pulling out all the stops to try to prevent a trade from happening as some players reportedly wanted to travel to Los Angeles to meet with Simmons in hopes of getting the All-Star to stay with the team. According to Charania, Simmons chose not to meet with his teammates and they did not make the trip to the West Coast.
Embiid said Monday that he was among the group who planned to go visit Simmons, who has four years and $147 million remaining on his max contract.
