With the summer holidays in full swing and local competition, the NBL scheduled to kick off on Friday January 15th, lets take a quick look at what’s happening Stateside with Melbourne’s most famous Basketball player, NBA star Ben Simmons.
The NBA Season is again roaring along with some very exciting stuff, not the least of which was Lebron’s impossible corner 3 pointer.
But what’s happening with Ben Simmons? Read all about it here…
‘Connect the dots’: 76ers in hot water after Simmons skips town, develops mystery injury
The Philadelphia 76ers have been fined $25,000 ($A32,000) after Ben Simmons reportedly skipped town without the team’s knowledge.
Simmons was a late withdrawal from Sunday’s (AEDT) game against the Denver Nuggets with a knee injury, but the NBA was not informed of the development in requisite time.
The Sixers barely had enough players to field a team even before Simmons’ withdrawal after Seth Curry returned a positive COVID-19 diagnosis during the game against the Brooklyn Nets.
According to Yahoo Sports, while the rest of the team returned to their hotel in New York following the Nets game and Curry’s positive test, Simmons left the New York area and got a driver to take him back to Philadelphia.
This was done without the team’s knowledge and he was made to return to New York when his absence was discovered.
Yahoo’s NBA writer Vincent Goodwill told the Posted Up podcast: “What I have gathered was that Ben Simmons left New York that evening. He left New York and went back to Philadelphia, you know, apparently probably hired a driver from a service. I don’t think Ben Simmons was out here in a regular old, you know, Hyundai Sonata or nothing like that, you know what I’m saying? On the car service, I believe it was probably something reputable.
“The team clearly found out. Here’s the one thing that we do know. Because of the restaurant protocols and everything else, there’s certain restaurants and places that you can’t go to. There are no restaurants in New York City that are approved. So if a team is staying in New York City, they have to stay there. Apparently, Ben Simmons said, nah, I’m out. I’m headed out. Got a driver, went back to Philly.
“I believe the team found out, and I believe team security, as you know, you know, team security knows these things. They’re like the CIA. Ben Simmons has to come back. And magically, or however you want to say it, he winds up on the injury report the next day, you know, not playing. Now who knows how you want to connect the dots.”
Coach Doc Rivers said it was not a deliberate ploy from Simmons and a mistake that he quickly corrected.
“Obviously, that night we were all in disarray, a bunch of guys were ordering cars, because we all did think we could go back home,” he said, per the Philly Inquirer.
“Ben was on his way, I called him and told him he couldn’t because of league protocols, and he just turned around and came back. I don’t read, so I heard, but the way it sounded was like it was some kind of bad thing and it wasn’t, it was just the way it was.”
“We didn’t know anything. At the time, even I was ordering a car. We didn’t know what we could do the next day, we thought we could leave and get tested at home. Then we were told we could not do that. So, after that game it was, it was a lot of different moving parts going on at the same time.”
Rivers revealed Simmons had knee stiffness in the Brooklyn game amid concerns surrounding the fact he was not included on the injury report leading up to the game.
“Ben in the Brooklyn game had some knee stiffness, and so we almost probably knew after the game that he wouldn’t play tonight,” Rivers said. “And then Joel started complaining about his back over the last, he started yesterday. And we didn’t know if he was playing or not. But honestly, with the minutes we would have to ask, it would be insane to play him.”
Source: foxsports.com.au
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