After years of being persona non grata for Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers, Ben Simmons looked to make a breakthrough with his former teammate before the start of the 2024-25 NBA season.

According to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, Simmons reached out to Embiid and others over the summer to “mend fences” between the two sides.

While Shelburne noted that any talk of a reunion between Simmons and the 76ers is considered “unlikely,” you can never rule anything out.

The relationship between Embiid and Simmons during their four seasons as teammates was particularly fraught.

After the Sixers traded Simmons to the Brooklyn Nets in February 2022, Embiid told reporters that winning was not the veteran point guard’s top priority.

“It’s unfortunate that winning wasn’t the most important factor,” Embiid said of Simmons. “It’s unfortunate that having his own team and, I guess, being a star was more of a priority for him.”

Before the start of the 2022-23 season, Simmons told ESPN’s Nick Friedell that he and Embiid “never really spoke” when they played together:

“I don’t think there really was a relationship. For example in the sense of friendship? You can try as hard as you want to be close to someone, to be their friend, whatever it is, but every person is different.” So for me it’s never anything personal. I have no anger or hatred towards him. And we have our private lives. My goal is to win and I have to win with Jo. He’s a great player, we just couldn’t do it.”

Embiid eventually softened his stance on Simmons, calling him “someone who got away” during an appearance on Tyrese Maxey’s podcast in December 2023 (h/t David Early of Liberty Ballers).

The 76ers are in free fall right now, so they could probably use a backup point guard with Simmons’ skill set to add some oomph to their offense. Their big three, Embiid, Maxey and Paul George, have played a total of six minutes together so far this season.

Philadelphia’s 3-13 record is the second-worst in the NBA, ahead of only the Washington Wizards (2-14).

Simmons entered this season healthy after a back injury limited him to 13 games in the 2023-24 season. In 13 appearances for the Nets, he averaged 5.3 points, 6.5 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game.

While Simmons is far from the All-Star guard he was at his peak with the Sixers, the fact that he’s back to being useful makes him useful given the many injury issues he’s had over the last three years Becoming a player is a victory in itself.

It wouldn’t be a surprise if the Nets tried to explore trade options for Simmons later in the season. He is in the final season of his contract with an expiring salary of $40.3 million.