Hoops

Rumour: Ben Simmons has pulled out of exhibition games

Ironically had the original Dream Team waited until 1994 to come together as the first time professionally the World Champs would have greater clout now.

Having said that though, then Jordan, Bird, Magic wouldn't have played.

Imagine buying tickets to Woodstock and only Sha Na Na and Ritchie Havens turned up.

I thought the promoters for Fyre festival went to jail...

It’s always been about Ben, not how I’d like to see it done, but probably understandable though re all the money involved.

Amd the next world cup is the year before the 2024 Olympics as well. It's idiotic.

Americanisation?

Issues of the best professional players being unavailable for exhibition games and the world championships has plagued FIBA for decades and is not limited to the USA and Ben Simmons.

My opinion is it’s not “me” first.

It’s employer first.

Works both ways as well. There are loyal servants who make themselves available for their country for every camp, every training and every game who aren’t selected for the Olympics because players like Ben are better.

What’s stevens reason for pulling out again?

Just spoke to the promoters demanding my 5 tickets be refunded
and they did just that!

Anon 707. Yes he HAS signed his deal and if the employer paying him $170m doesn’t want him to play what do you suggest?

You are entitled to an opinion but until you tell your boss who is paying you $170m that you aren’t going to follow their recommendation I suggest that you ‘respect’ Ben’s decision.

I’m sure Ben will be fine with or without your ‘heat’.

Whether Basketball Australia or Basketball USA compensate isn’t the point.

The point is respect the player’s individual decision.

To question Ben’s character or any of the player’s who don’t play (most of who would be under extreme pressure from very rich, powerful people who are paying them a lot of money) is just comical.

@692. Why should BA compensate Exum for getting injured in an important preparation match for Australia (no I don't work for BA, have no affiliation with them in fact)? Did USA Basketball compensate Paul George for breaking his leg in 2014? How about Lithuania's federation when Kalneitis broke his collarbone their final preparation match for the 2014 WC? Isn't it strange how we don't hear about owners whingeing about players getting injured in pick up games or other high stakes tournaments? I am sure that if the NBA had definite statistics in place about injuries suffered in FIBA comp vs NBA comp, vs summer pick up they would be use them, such is their publicity machine, but they don't. They don't make money out of this, move along nothing to see.

I will agree that Simmon's isn't obliged to play for his country, or any other player for any other national team for that matter. It is an unfortunate situation where he reports to multiple masters. At the end of the day, do you want to play against the best from every country, improve your own game, just ask people like Stevens and Popovic about this.

What gets me is Ben committing twice before withdrawing

Priorities to the employer paying you $170 million sounds pretty smart to me.

Not like Basketball Australia not trying to profit off the use of his image.

Did Basketball Australia compensate Dante Exum the huge money he potentially has lost by doing his ACL while playing for the Boomers in a “friendly exhibition game” versus Slovenia in 2015.

We will never know if he would have developed into the All Star level player predicted if he hadn’t suffered such an injury.

Ben not doing a single thing wrong here.

Lemanis and BA are either the scapegoats here for Simmons to get out of his commitments, or they have done the dirty on their fans.

If it's the latter... I understand having him there would be a distraction to World Cup preparations, but you can not market this event as they have and charge a premium for tickets and then rule out your best and most marketable player.

Mark my words this whole saga is going to inflict heavy damage to the BA brand and basketball more broadly if it turns away potential fans.

Other countries have put a full squad with there best talent together.

U.s are missing 10 plus stars
Australia with 4 nba players out.
Canada starting to lose players.


I give credit to Greece, Lithuania, Spain, Serbia etc for fielding there best squad. Hopefully they do well.

As long as Jingles is playing I am happy.

Maybe they're not entitled to refunds, but it's definitely had a negative effect on people's perception of Basketball Australia and will probably cause people to hold out on investing in anything they do in future.

It's laughable that people think they're entitled to a refunds, seen a bunch of posts on Facebook about it roo. You bought tickets to Australia vs USA and that's exactly what you're seeing. The fact the USA team is being made up of their D graders is not the fault of the promoters or ticket sellers. I don't think anyone would have seen this max exodus coming from all the star players.

Who the F is Daniel Eade?

Will the promoters lose money? Don’t they have insurance?

Would those who bought tickets using credit cards be able to cancel the transaction based on the goods not meeting their stated description?

In my opinion, Larry should get on the front foot and offer refunds to those who want them and play the game at a much more traditional rectangular basketball venue which will provide infinitely better atmosphere anyway... remember when the Boomers played the Tall Blacks in the lead up to the Olympics... that was great

Yeah, the advertisers did their job and sold tickets. And there was never any guarantee as to who would be in the team. But there certainly was a perception built as to the level of talent to expect. You have posters with Harden, Durant, Westbrook, etc. To casual fans, you don't even have a disclaimer to briefly explain to them that the players being advertized may not necessarily be those who suit up. There has to be a huge segment of the crowd who wont know a single player on the court and were never filled in that this could be the case.

As a ticket holder, I knew we would not see the AAA+ Dream Team. However, based on past World Cup line ups I expected a few of their top line players to come through. Literally none have.

And when you have Basketball Australia arranging for the games to be played at Marvel, the assumption simply must have been from all parties that the clout of the players was going to justify re-purposing a football field for, because the interest was meant to be that high.

Larry Kestleman is even meant to be using the rights to these games as bait to sell the NBL to a mainstream TV station.

While no promise was ever made that the games would have certain particular players, there was an image created of the type of talent we would expect to see, and that image has been defiled.

You would not sell out Marvel Stadium on the line up USA or Australia has. Stakeholders are lining their pockets and are under-delivering. The fact that it is hard to place blame doesn't mean that someone shouldn't be held accountable. Somewhere between all these decisions being made, there were multiple people who were happy to over-promise and under-deliver, and now you have people who have put down thousands of dollars to see something that is probably 1/10th as good as they were sold.

If Ben Simmons does indeed pull out it really would complete the farce of this event for me. I'll go to see the Boomers because they're my team but if I knew they were just gonna play USA's F team and be without Simmons I might have watched from home. Yes, there were some things that promoters couldn't control, but if they knew that they shouldn't have sold tickets a year out from the games and hyped them up the way they did. They ARE responsible for the disappointment of thousands and what currently stands, to me anyway, as the biggest joke in the Australian sporting world right now.

" No matter what the lineups look like, when are we ever going to see that again?"

Possibly next year before the Olympics according to Paul Maley.

The advertising for the event still shows Durant, Harden, George, etc.

Exactly, why blame anyone, it is what it is. Let’s hope Australia win and enjoy the whole experience.:):):)

So many masters to please! Something has to give.

I think I can understand why he has changed his mind more than once and I can also understand why people are angry about what has happened in the past few weeks, especially with the number of withdrawals from Team USA.

I feel for you but you just have to look at the previous offseasons of NBA players to know it wasn't going to be a priority. LeBron hasn't played for the national team since 2012, Steph Curry has played effectively an extra season in the past four years with playoffs and withdrew from the 2016 Olympics, Harden last played in 2014, Paul George since 2014 when he broke his leg.

Even with the Olympics you aren't getting anything close to a full Team USA so an offseason with exhibition games was never going to happen and then you have also had the biggest free agency/trade period of the last ten years happen as well

Yeah, look, that's bullshit. There is no evidence that Ben wants to play for Team USA. This is just trolling. Doesnt matter who wants to play where, once you've played for Australia, you're locked in.

But then again, there's decreasing evidence he wants to play for Australia right now. He's dicking Basketball Australia around because FIBA competition is not his priority, not because he wants to play for Team USA.

Yes I bought tickets. 500 bucks a pop for Kyle Kuzma.

So ME from your tone you're one of the people who bought tickets to these exhibition games?

Talk that he wants to play for team USA doesn't matter since he's played for the Boomers already and there's recent precedence see Roy Hibbert being denied.

Rumour has it that the Kardashians/Jenners are assembling a team of partners and exes and the bookies have already got them at shorter odds than the boomers to get a medal

Most people here didn't want him to play the exhibition games if he wasn't going to play in the real ones so this should be seen as a good thing

I coud forgive Ben, if he weren't flip flopping constantly. Hard to see him having any dedication to an Olympic campaign when he has flip flopped 3 times so far over whether or not he's playing. And yeah, it's his life. His career. He can do what he likes. But don't expect me to believe him when he puts his hand up for the Olympics, or for me to like him if he does pull out of these exhibition matches. His constant changing of tune make him sound like a fuckwit. The exhibition games have turned into a joke, And a lot of people have put a lot of money into something that is not going to be anywhere near as good as advertized.

"No Aussie athlete can be hated more than kyrigos. Guy is a complete muppet."

I said he would be 'one of'. kyrgios and tomic would probably top the list lol

ME, do you actually follow the NBA? because I do and I recognise every player named in the squad by Team USA. Also did you really expect to have a full Boomers contingent in a non Olympic year? You have blokes playing for their careers in the NBA (Maker and Broekhoff) and another bloke signing the largest contract ever seen by an Australian athlete in Simmons so why would they give up what is effectively their annual leave to come play exhibition games with nothing to actually gain but bragging rights, if its the Olympics different story but it's not.

No Aussie athlete can be hated more than kyrigos. Guy is a complete muppet.

Aussie fans are already a bit iffy on him after already pulling out once and pulling out of the world cup after a big public commitment. If he pulls out again he's going to quickly be one of the most hated aussie athletes for a little while. Surely he won't damage his brand and reputation by pulling out again.

It’s better if he doesn’t, building chemistry is more important.

Daniel Eade knows a thing or two, but I’d doubt he’d be the source to break this news.

Is anyone else a bit nervous this round?

The Sixers are in the top 4 by a fingernail and have two games this round.

Tonight: @ Melbourne.
Ballinger on court means he will be looking to prove a point and with a new import, Melbourne look a whole lot better than the inept team we beat last time. Gone from a definite W to say 70:30. A must win game, but the last road win would have built on the road confidence.

Sunday v Perth
Perth have a single game this round and a loss on Friday night would be a blow. Perth are the team we love to beat, but they are playing like the Adelaide High School Year 8 boys at the moment. Would love to see a W, but more likely an L.

The team could be 4 & 3 after this round, or 3 & 5. Cairns play Breakers and should be 3 & 4 after the round, so two losses means a drop out of the top 4. Sydney play Wollongong and should be 3 & 5 after the round.

I think both games a danger games for the Sixers. A win is crucial on Friday night.