When Ben Simmons' trade to the Brooklyn Nets finally pushed through, Joel Embiid appeared to be one of the happiest men on the planet. As a matter of fact, he even posted a meme expressing just how glad he was to see Simmons out the door. Unsurprisingly, that tweet went viral and while Embiid hilariously denied taking aim at his ex-teammate, it was undeniably a message for Ben.

Now that the dust has settled on that blockbuster trade, and now that we've all had the opportunity to process all the implications of that landscape-shifting deal, Embiid himself revealed his true feelings about Simmons' unceremonious exit. The Sixers All-Star big man confessed that to this very day, he does not know why Ben decided to leave in the first place:

“I just didn’t understand what was going on, honestly,” Embiid said on a recent episode of The Draymond Green Show, via Ky Carlin of Sixers Wire. “I didn’t understand what happened and what led up to that whole situation. To this day, I don’t understand. Even when you look at it and I don’t have any problems with him and like I say, obviously we didn’t win the championship together, but in the regular season, we went dominant every single season. 50-win seasons, I always believed that we had a chance to win together. Like I always believed that even to this day.”

In Simmons' final months with the Sixers, a narrative emerged about how he and Embiid did not get along. The media pitted the two stars against each other, which made it seem like both of them no longer wanted to play alongside each other. Apparently, based on Embiid's statement here, this just wasn't true.

To be fair to Embiid, he did put in an effort to try and convince Simmons to stay. According to previous reports, Embiid and a few other members of the Sixers actually wanted to fly out to Los Angeles to meet with Simmons early in the summer. Their objective was to try and iron out the situation face-to-face, but Simmons reportedly did not even agree to meet with them.

Embiid also revealed in a later interview that he went out of his way to try and appease the situation with Simmons — to no avail:

“I did a lot of chasing around trying to get him to come back and trying to make him feel comfortable again,” Embiid said. “It was tough. I didn't care anymore.”

This appeared to be the turning point for Embiid. Simmons was unresponsive and he made it abundantly clear that his time in Philly was over. Unsurprisingly, Embiid's tone changed once the Sixers finally sent Simmons packing after a dragging and drama-filled saga. The meme Embiid posted is a clear testament to this fact.

For those that require context (or for those of us who are well aware of the tweet but are just looking to relive it in all its glory), this was Embiid's post moments after Simmons' move to Brooklyn was confirmed:

Embiid did not include any caption in his tweet. However, if you look at the original iteration of this meme, it is clear that he was in full troll mode when he posted the photo:

“I stopped by one of my biggest haters funeral today just to make sure that n—a was dead,” the original caption read.

Embiid then tried to justify his tweet by claiming that he meant no disrespect to Simmons when he shared the photo. According to the Sixers big man, he just liked how the guy looked like in the picture:

“Honestly, I don’t even know what the tweet was about,” Embiid said with a smile. “I just tweeted a random person. I just saw the picture on the internet and I thought he was well-dressed. He had a nice suit on, good-looking. You know, he had some swag. So, I just thought it was a good picture.”

Yeah right, Joel. Nobody's buying that.

Be that as it may, Embiid still appears to hold some regret about not being able to achieve their goals during Simmons' time in Philly:

“I believe that we had a chance to win and what we were able to accomplish obviously, winning matters the most, but I feel like we had a chance and that’s what I don’t get. I don’t understand what was going on, honestly,” Embiid recently told Draymond Green. “What caused him to want to leave. I understand his explanation, but a lot of things don’t make sense.”

There's no denying that the Embiid-Simmons partnership in Philly was a force to be reckoned with. The Sixers invested a lot of stock in this duo as they built their team around the pair for many years. “Trust the Process,” as they always said.

Embiid and Simmons clearly had some good times together. It's just sad how things had to end between them — as if it were an ugly breakup of a long-term relationship. In this respect, it actually isn't surprising how Embiid shows remorse about his partnership with Simmons failing to reach its full potential.