The Sixers are happy that the Ben Simmons drama is absent from this year’s preseason

NEW YORK — As Ben Simmons’ first and second free throws bounced off the rim, a combination of groans and cheers broke through a Brooklyn crowd peppered with 76ers fans.

Simmons was back in the Sixers’ orbit Monday night, making his unofficial Brooklyn Nets debut in the preseason opener for both teams at the Barclays Center. Yet his appearance also offered a reminder that, until this night, the lead-up to the Sixers’ season had felt significantly different than a year ago, when Simmons’ messy holdout hovered over the team’s existence until he was dealt to the Nets for James Harden at the February trade deadline.

“It’s nice not having to deal with this stuff, answer this stuff,” Sixers coach Doc Rivers said before the Sixers’ victory. “And no one wants to go through that, anyway. You want your team to be locked in, together. When you have those teams, it’s great. And sometimes you don’t, and you have to [perform as] that team, as well.”

Simmons requested a trade from the Sixers in August 2021, the aftermath of his passing up a wide-open dunk in the closing minutes of their Game 7 loss to the Atlanta Hawks and the reaction it drew from Rivers and star teammate Joel Embiid. Simmons did not report to training camp, prompting a steady stream of questions day after day.

When a report from The Athletic surfaced that Simmons’ camp believed his partnership with Embiid had run its course, the MVP contender candidly called Simmons’ absence “borderline kind of disrespectful” during a four-minute soliloquy. Then a frenzy ensued when Simmons abruptly showed up at the Wells Fargo Center to take a COVID-19 test required to begin the acclimation period to return to the team. He then participated in two practices but was kicked out of the session the day before the opener for not participating in a defensive drill. He never played for the Sixers again, citing that he was not mentally ready.

Before this year’s training camp began, Embiid shrugged off a question about the saga, saying, “Which drama? I didn’t feel any distractions” last season. Rivers also praised the way the Sixers rose above the adversity to finish tied for the second-best record in the Eastern Conference. Rivers mostly blamed an early-season COVID-19 outbreak that included Embiid, which coincided with a 2-4 road trip out West in November, for keeping the Sixers from finishing as a top-two playoff seed. Following the blockbuster trade for Harden, the Sixers used their offseason to replenish their depth, defense, and toughness by adding P.J. Tucker, De’Anthony Melton, Danuel House, and Montrezl Harrell.

But Sixers players acknowledged the emotional and basketball toll the Simmons situation caused.

Starting forward Tobias Harris called last season’s training camp “a blur,” because the Sixers “were trying to figure it out, like, on the fly” with Tyrese Maxey and Shake Milton competing for the starting point guard job. Reserve forward Georges Niang remembers feeling uncertain about who else could be involved in the inevitable Simmons trade.

This year, Harris described a more organized and structured Sixers camp, which Niang and Milton said has featured a more energetic morale. Preseason game results mean nothing, but the Sixers’ sharp execution in amassing a 19-point first-quarter lead Monday without Embiid, Harden, and Tucker — and while facing Simmons, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving — is perhaps evidence of that improved state.

“We know who we have and you know who’s in your circle and you feel like you can build,” Niang said, “With all of us last year, it was kind of like we didn’t know who was going to get traded, who was going to come back. I think it’s good to just know who’s going to be here.”

» READ MORE: Sixers handle Ben Simmons and Brooklyn Nets in preseason opener

Added Milton: “Everybody was ready, and just the cohesiveness we had during the whole entire camp … it was evident.”

Monday did not mark the end of the Simmons story line. The first Sixers-Nets regular-season matchup on Nov. 22 in Philly could bring out even more ire than last March’s first meeting since the trade, when an injured Simmons watched (and smirked) from the bench as the Nets posted a walloping victory. They will play three more times after that, including an April 9 regular-season finale that could have playoff-seeding stakes.

Yet hours before the Sixers walked into the Barclays Center, Harden and Embiid lingered on opposite courts inside a local gym. Shootaround had ended more than 45 minutes earlier, but the Sixers’ two All-Stars continued to run through shooting drills with staffers.

“Way to work,” Harden hollered at Embiid as he took a seat at the end of his session.

No Simmons drama. Just basketball.