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The Brooklyn Nets players have come out in strong defence of their newest member Ben Simmons, who was being heckled by the Sixers fans at the Wells Fargo Center on Friday
The Nets rallied to a 129-100 win over rivals the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday night. The highly-anticipated clash proved to be one-sided as Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant led Steve Nash’s side to a dominant victory.
However, during the game at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, former Sixers star Ben Simmons was constantly booed and jeered by the crowd despite not being available to play. But Irving and Durant honoured their new Nets signing and made sure to quiet down the local crowd at the end of the game.
Irving scored 22 points against the Sixers and flaunted his incredible handling once again as the Nets emerged victoriously. However, he also showed the world why he is a great teammate.
After the game, a Sixers fan was seen heckling Ben Simmons and Kyrie intervened before the situation could escalate. The Australian then simply asked the Sixers fan to ‘grow up’ before walking away with Simmons.
In his post-game interview, Irving stated that he dedicated the Nets’ win to Andre Drummond, Seth Curry and Simmons. “I think playing for Ben and this night meaning something to Ben, not only Ben but Dre [Andre Drummond], Seth [Curry],“
He further added that the Nets have tried to welcome Simmons with open arms and if anyone attacked one of their players, it meant they were attacking the entire team.
“So when we played tonight, we definitely felt like Ben was on our heart. You could see it, he was wearing it. And we just wanted to go out there and play for him and play well. But again, it’s not an individual thing for us. We all felt it, we’re all there, we all deal. If you come at Ben, you come at us. If you come at anyone else on our team, you come at all of us, and that’s the mentality.” Irving explained.
Simmons had a bitter split with the Sixers in the offseason and demanded a trade away from the team. He also vowed not to play for the team again and joined the Nets earlier this year. He surely would have been pleased to watch his former team suffer from the stands at the hands of his new side on Friday.
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