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Ben Simmons volition be on the bench, boos raining downward from all corners of his onetime domicile.

James Harden and Kyrie Irving will go head-to-head on the courtroom, their explosive partnership having flamed out in just 13 months.

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A month after Harden and Simmons were swapped in a blockbuster NBA trade, Brooklyn visits Philadelphia on Th in what's more than just perchance the most-hyped game of the stretch run.

This one is personal.

"It'southward going to be loud," Nets All-Star Kevin Durant said. "I'grand sure Philly fans and people watching the game and media think this is somewhat of a budding rivalry. And so I imagine it'south going to feel that way."

When these teams were concluding on the court together, Durant and Joel Embiid received taunting technical fouls in the final moments earlier Embiid waved the Nets off their home floor afterwards the 76ers' Dec. 30 victory.

Things could be even testier now.

Trade deadline day was breakup day in Philadelphia and Brooklyn, with Simmons and Harden getting their wishes to function ways with their teams when they were exchanged in a Feb. x bargain. Simmons said the 76ers were enlightened of his desire to leave well before the end of last flavor. It's unclear exactly when Harden soured on the Nets after only joining them in January 2021.

Nevertheless, Durant and Irving say they don't hold it against him — though it was merely hours later that Durant refused to pick Harden during the All-Star typhoon, leaving him to LeBron James with the last pick.

Durant said he understands if Harden, seeing Durant sidelined with a knee injury and Irving ineligible to play in home games because he isn't vaccinated against the coronavirus, decided he needed to go elsewhere to chase his first title. Irving said he respects Harden'southward decision.

"Like, we have a nifty friendship but it didn't work out," Irving said. "I wish things could have been communicated better for all of us every bit men. Simply hey, like, no hard feelings for me or anyone else."

Brooklyn Nets forward Ben Simmons sits on the bench during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the New York Knicks, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022, in New York.

Brooklyn Nets forward Ben Simmons sits on the bench during the 2d half of an NBA basketball game confronting the New York Knicks, Wednesday, February. sixteen, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Everyone has to accept Irving at his word, though it'southward hard to imagine at that place isn't just a tinge of resentment.

Harden has been terrific and then far with the 76ers. Simmons still isn't playing, bothered by a sore back when he tried to build upwardly his conditioning. Only he plans to exist with his teammates on the bench in Philadelphia, where some of the toughest fans in sports can let loose on the player the Sixers took with the No. i option in the 2016 draft.

Along with Embiid, he led the Sixers out of their losing era to the all-time tape in the Eastern Conference concluding season. It was a skillful run, one double-decker Doc Rivers said would justify a tribute video if the Sixers opt to give Simmons one.

"Ben did a lot of expert things here," Rivers said. "It didn't end well, correct, just like marriages and all kinds of other things don't end well, right? But Ben did a lot of good things here."

Those good times are unlikely to be remembered Thursday.

The memory for Philly fans is probable to be Simmons' poor and impassive play in Game 7 of their second-round playoff serial against Atlanta, when he passed upwards a late layup that helped swing the game the Hawks' way, followed by his refusal to accommodate up for them ever again while citing mental health challenges.

It might be easier to jeer Simmons if he were playing, as he said he hoped to do after offset arriving in Brooklyn. Only Philadelphia fans — who once booed and threw snowballs at Santa Claus at a football — tin probably make Thursday'south situation work.

"Our fans are so silent, and so I can't imagine anything happening," Rivers deadpanned.

With Embiid playing at an MVP level and Harden providing an immediate boost, the Sixers are second in the E. The Nets are eighth and appear headed for the play-in, though showed how unsafe they can be when Irving scored l points on just nineteen shots in a victory at Charlotte on Tuesday.

The temper could be reminiscent of the angry crowds that welcomed James back to Cleveland later his first departure for Miami, or Durant dorsum to Oklahoma City after he left for Gilded Country in 2016.

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"It was a unlike state of affairs because I got to play and close the people up every time I striking a bound shot," Durant said. "But Ben doesn't have their opportunity right now. He's got to only sit down at that place and merely have a agglomeration of people but being kittenish and throwing insults his fashion because he didn't want to play basketball for them no more."

Only Durant said he wouldn't offer whatever communication to Simmons, proverb he'd have to experience it for himself and might even find some of it agreeable.

"I mean, the guy'southward making $40 million a year," Durant said. "Yous could take that for 48, for a couple hours, and I'one thousand sure Ben has that approach."