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Ben Simmons had the best reaction to being traded to LeBron James' All-Star team

Chris Cwik
·Staff writer

The NBA All-Star draft was full of entertaining moments. There were tampering jokes, hilarious suggestions by Charles Barkley and even a couple of expletives.

Even with all that, Philadelphia 76ers guard Ben Simmons may have provided two of the best moments of the night.

Upon being selected by Giannis Antetokounmpo in the third round of the reserve phase, Simmons let the world know he was ready to dominate for Team Giannis.

That made it pretty awkward when Simmons was traded by Antetokounmpo minutes later. If Simmons was offended by getting dealt away, he didn’t show it. Instead, he rolled with the punches, sending out a similar tweet, but tagging LeBron James this time.

Simmons continued to have fun with the trade, calling out ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski for not reporting it first.

Perhaps Simmons should have expected a deal to go down. James made it no secret he wanted to select Simmons. Antetokounmpo knew it too. Before taking Simmons, he announced he was taking “LeBron’s guy.” The pick caused James to drop an expletive.

In the end, James got his guy, though not without more razzing from Antetokounmpo. When James initially proposed a Russell Westbrook for Simmons swap, Antetokounmpo tried to talk James into also giving him Dwyane Wade. Given James’ history with Wade, everyone involved knew that wasn’t going to happen.

Ben Simmons had some fun during the All-Star draft. (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)
Ben Simmons had some fun during the All-Star draft. (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)

It’s a good thing James got his guy here, because the Lakers came up short in that department Thursday. Despite constant rumors, the Lakers did not pull off a trade for Anthony Davis before the deadline.

James will have to settle for playing with Davis during the All-Star Game. To no one’s surprise, James made sure to draft Davis with the first pick in the reserve portion of the draft.

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Chris Cwik is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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