Ben Simmons Calls Doc Rivers 'A Piece of S--t' for Controversial Comment with 76ers

Ben Simmons still isn't happy with Doc Rivers five years after the former head coach's controversial comment following the Philadelphia 76ers' loss to the Atlanta Hawks in Game 7 of their second-round playoff series.

"How did I feel? I was like, 'What a piece of s--t,'" Simmons said of Rivers' comment in the new Being Ben documentary, which debuts Sunday on ESPN (h/t Conor Smith of the Philadelphia Inquirer).

As Smith noted, Rivers was asked if he felt Simmons could be a point guard for a championship team moving forward after struggling against the Hawks.

"I don't know that question or the answer to that right now," the coach said. "So I don't know the answer to that."

In the documentary, Simmons continued and said, "When you have a relationship with somebody and they have your back, I think certain things are supposed to be handled certain ways. But then you also gotta look at it from the side of 'he's got a job.' You know, he's making his money. He ain't trying to lose his job or anything like that. So, when times get tough, people start panicking. People throw people under the bus, and that's just—it's just what happened."

Simmons famously passed on a potential dunk in the late moments of that Game 7 loss and seemed hesitant to shoot throughout the series. 

He requested a trade the following offseason, missed the 2021-22 campaign and then played for the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Clippers the following three seasons before taking the 2025-26 season off.

The LSU product has since returned and is a member of the Sacramento Kings.

But his end with the 76ers was an unceremonious one, especially given how promising things seemed to be at the start. He entered the league as the No. 1 overall pick of the 2016 NBA draft, won the Rookie of the Year and was a three-time All-Star in his first four seasons.

He was also a back-to-back All-Defensive First Team selection in 2019-20 and 2020-21 and appeared to be a franchise building block for the 76ers.

Yet the offensive issues, especially in that series, defined the ending of his time with Philadelphia.