Nets guard Ben Simmons will not partake in this year’s World Cup, Basketball Australia has announced in an official statement (Twitter link).
According to Basketball Australia, Brooklyn and Simmons have opted to withhold the former No. 1 overall pick so that he can continue to rehabilitate his ailing back ahead of the 2023/24 NBA season. Net Income of Nets Daily writes that the club is hopeful Simmons will be recovered by the start of September, just in time for training camp.
The former All-Star appeared in just 42 games for Brooklyn in 2022/23 after returning from back surgery, averaging 6.9 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 6.1 APG, 1.3 SPG and 0.6 BPG in 26.3 MPG.
There’s more out of the Eastern Conference:
- New Celtics big man Kristaps Porzingis is excited about his new opportunity to play for a perennial Eastern Conference contender, writes Tim Bontemps of ESPN. Porzingis explained his decision to opt into his $36MM option for next season, which helped enable his trade from the Wizards. “[It was] an opportunity to play for a really good team already and be able to add to that,” Porzingis said. “And hopefully to help these guys, make their life easier, and being on a high-level organization like Boston, historic franchise, iconic franchise, it made it extremely easy for me to make that decision.”
- The Hawks have made some changes to their front office personnel, Atlanta has announced in a press release. Longtime league agent Chris Emens is joining the team as an executive advisor. The Hawks are also adding Blake Johnson as the club’s director of player engagement. Atlanta also revealed that a variety of executives have been promoted to new positions: vice president of player personnel Dotun Akinwale Jr.; senior vice president of salary cap administration Michelle Leftwich; vice president of basketball operations Grant Liffmann; senior vice president of team operations Dan Martinez; vice president of player personnel and basketball intelligence Tori Miller; principal advisor to the governor Nick Ressler; and vice president of cap strategy/player personnel Ryan Silverstein.
- The Hawks have pushed back reserve center Bruno Fernando‘s salary guarantee deadline from June 29 to July 10, reports Lauren L. Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via Twitter). Upon being shipped to Atlanta in February from Houston, the 6’9″ big man appeared in just eight contests for the team, averaging 3.4 PPG and 1.9 RPG in 5.1 MPG. Fernando will receive his full $2.58MM salary for 2023/24 if he remains under contract through July 10.
- Assistant coaches Fabulous Flournoy and Toure’ Murry are joining new Sixers head coach Nick Nurse‘s bench, a team source has informed Noah Levick of NBC Sports Philadelphia. The addition of another assistant, Doug West, had previously been reported.
Is there a country in which Ben Simmons DOES play basketball?
Ben
ain’t
playin
Fabulous Flournoy
What a name huh
Did anyone really think Simmons would play?!
I’ve had back problems for decades. unless you’ve had back issues, you wouldn’t understand the pain you go through each day. even on good days you’re still in pain. one tiny normal wrong step can bring you to your knees and cause you to be out of commission for weeks. you end up at a 90 degree angle all bent over and unable to straighten up. once you have any back problems it never goes away and gets worse. I’m in a lot of pain each day and I use foam rollers, massage guns, lacrosse balls and a chiropractor visit each week. all you can do is try to manage it. you’d be surprised by how much back pain causes and controls all parts of your body. even your feet have to be adjusted. the pain I have on good days would put most people in bed for a few days and miss work. after all these years that if I wasn’t in pain I wouldn’t know what to do. the pain becomes a part of who you are and all you can do is get use to your current pain level so that you can be functional for the next round of even more severe pain then you get used to that and another more severe pain happens. rinse and repeat. I wouldn’t wish back pain on anyone as it truly sucks. I sympathize with Simmons. he’ll probably be in pain the rest of his life and will continually have to adjust to it
Actually back “pain” is purely psycho-somatic, nothing structural in your back should cause you any pain. I have degenerative disc disease, abutment of my Spinal cord, and several herniated discs, and I get on just fine without any pain. I would suggest reading a book by John Sarno, he sheds light on this theory.
You won’t get any sympathy. This is the era of name calling. Gets many emboldened bullies their jollies.
Jaci
I don’t think you have any idea how many NBA players play…
WITH BACK PAIN
You ever try Aleve?
Ben Simmons is my boy and I would love to see him get his self together. He’s a special talent and a really good all around player. He was one of the best defensive players in the NBA. Get healthy my boy. I really want to see a talent like this back on the court.
Amen. Hope your boy gets back out there.
Why wasn’t the back issue. An issue before the trade …. This seems like more of an issue to me.
If you’re injured, you have an excuse to being trash.
Looks like Hawks owner’s 25 year old son lil’ Nicky Ressler got a new title as “advisor”. What advice could he possibly have besides daddy’s phone number?