Ben Simmons didn’t seem to care that he was mercilessly booed by his old team’s fans last week in Philadelphia as he went out after the game to a local hotspot.
After his new team, the Nets, embarrassed the Sixers by 29 points last Thursday, Simmons was seen after the game at Michael Schulson’s high-end eatery Double Knot, we hear.
During the game, Simmons — who was traded to Brooklyn last month and has yet to see any playing time — was loudly booed. The Post reported that, “In Simmons’ return to the City of Brotherly Love, the hate started early, ran deep and never let up.”
But a spy told Page Six that, “After the game, he arrived at [Double Knot] around 11 p.m. and stayed late into the night. Simmons [was with] a large group of around 15 and didn’t look like he cared one bit about what happened earlier at the Wells Fargo Center.”
The source added, “Security guards also tagged along to make sure that local 76ers fans behaved.”
Simmons — who recently got engaged to UK TV host Maya Jama — had also been at Double Knot the night before the game, we hear, with a group of eight pals and his fiancée.
“They stayed in the restaurant’s lounge and enjoyed cocktails and sushi,” on Wednesday. The source said that, “Security was close by” both nights.
Simmons got engaged to Jama while he was with the Sixers.
A source told the Sun earlier this year that, “Ben adores Maya and has fallen head over heels for her. He picked up the ring on Jewelers’ Row in the diamond district of Philadelphia the day before he proposed.” The source also reportedly said: “Ben fell for Maya almost immediately and was absolutely taken by her sheer beauty.”
The couple started dating last May, and had been spotted together at Wimbledon last summer.
Jama, 27, hosts the BBC show, “Glow Up: Britain’s Next Make-Up Star,” and Simon Cowell’s “Walk the Line” music competition show.
Simmons was previously linked to Kendall Jenner. (We exclusively reported that the star couple split in 2019.)
At the game in Philly, Simmons was roundly booed by his former fans who went on to boo their own team by the time the buzzer sounded.
Simmons has open about his mental heath issues, and his team has rallied around him. Kevin Durant said of the game, “We look at Ben as our brother, so we knew that this was a hostile environment.. it’s hard for you chant at Ben Simmons when you’re losing by that much.”
It was reported that he’d driven to Philly for the game, but he did not hightail it back to New York afterwards.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that at the game, fans were “seething in anticipation” to see Simmons on their home court and that, “Once Philadelphians saw him, they erupted in boos and periodically broke out into expletive chants. Every time the jumbotron told fans to ‘make some noise,’ boos ensued.”
Simmons, 25, had the last laugh. The outlet went on to report that, “the sold out arena grew quieter as the night went on, and sometimes fans appeared to boo their own players amid an incredibly poor performance from the Sixers. The Nets won, 129-100.”