After the questionable hire of Dave Patrick (Ben's Godfather) now he pulls out anyway. Wouldn't be surprised if he tries to play for the USA team in the future.

Wonder what people who paid out for USA vs AUS games think of that? Still get to see a bunch of NBA players in person, I guess. But it may make selling the last 1000 tickets a bit harder.

It's been rumoured all along that he'll play the next Olympics and not this world cup, BA wanted to use his name to help ticket sales that's all.

Whilst it's a person's choice to do what they want, this has been handled poorly.

If he had come out months ago with this, while disappointing, completely understandable.

Longley did this many moons ago as he needed rest, but announced it well before. Bogut may have also.

But to say "yeah I'm playing" and then back out this close to the tournament? I didn't realise he wanted to be THAT much like Le Bron. Same agent too? Purely coincidental I'm sure. How disappointing.

Is it not possible to practice your jump shot while training with a bunch of NBA and other Pro level players? He could take his trainer down under and prep at the same time.

Seems like there is more too it.

No medal then.

This is exactly why i didn't buy tickets. Too many big names drop out from world cup events. Feel bad for those that dis buy tickets to watch certain "committed" players

I'm really shocked that a guy with a US$168M contract sitting in front of him would be so disrespectful towards some exhibition games or a FIBA World Cup,
said nobody.

Exactly although I don't like Simmons or care if he ever plays for us again as soon as word got out at the beginning of FA that the 76ers were negotiating a big contract extension with him I knew he wouldn't be playing at the WC.

What else should we expect from Rich Paul? His agency is as manipulative and cancerous as any Kardashian connection.

Simmons seems to have surrounded himself with some dubious characters -- a greedy agent who uses daring manipulative stunts get his clients into big markets that he wants, a megalomaniac NBA superstar, a celebrity girlfriend whose career relies on media attention. They all epitomize an its-all-about-me attitude in their respective fields. Surround yourself with such poor role models and what do you expect? After all, Simmons is still only 22 and easily influenced.

Although it is true that Simmons needs to improve his game. The perception among most NBA commentators is that he has not improved since the start of his rookie season. His jumpshot has become such a hot topic, overshadowing the elite elements of the rest of his game. Value in the NBA among the elite players in the league is as much about reputation and perception than true game changing impact. This matters with All-Star and All-NBA appearances and ultimately future max contracts. Just ask Klay Thompson.

The difference being is that there are a lot of questions right now on Simmons and his potential. There's been some leaks from Philly since the season finished that they view Embiid as the future of their team which might be BS to pressure Simmons into signing the contract extension now or could be legit.

Either way with the glaring issues in his game and question marks over how high his ceiling really is, he with a big contract extension sitting in front of him would be mad to risk that by playing in the WC and possibly doing a knee or something. Look at Exum.

Zodiac Joel has always been seen as the future over Ben, by the fans and the team. Unfortunately until Ben can get that jumper to a respectable level he will always be limited in peoples eyes.

Wasn't he asking for a change in coach? Same coach, no he ain’t playing.

Yes luuuc, because no one with a large NBA contract has ever played in the world cup. Just look at the USA team they have Harden and Lillard and Davis

In the Basketball Australia statement, released now, it says that Lemanis has "not been advised definitively" that Simmons is out of the squad; that unavailability is "not new" to them and that they would continue dialogue with Ben and his camp.

I kind of get the feeling that a decision is not set in stone, and with two weeks until training camp, it probably should be either way. I think it's possible that Ben has not yet made a decision but has been hit with the expectations of the Boomers, 76ers and his agent and is still deciding. It is also possible, to me, that his agent making the statement that Ben was "doubtful" to play could have been some gamesmanship from his agent. Is there a hoop he wants Basketball Australia to jump through first before declaring his availability, maybe?

Gotta remember, this is the same agent who spread around that Ben would be looking to change teams rather than take up the max contract with Philly. He is not above playing the media to whatever ends he desires. Are the Boomers possibly not playing ball with them in some way?

Doubt it is as simple as wanting a million. It's probably something like, he has to be able to bring his whole entourage with him or something.

Awesome. At this rate we're never going to medal despite having the talent to do so.

I've seen a lot of people saying things along the lines of "oh its only the world cup, not the Olympics", which is a bad take.

The World Cup is a much better competition and better indicator world basketball quality. Added to that, if we perform poorly in the WC, we may not qualify for the Olympics, and our lack of respect for this competition may have lasting effects.

This is all about helping to sell tickets to the boomers vs USA game....did his job and now the truth comes out.

Viewing at Marvel will be FAR worse than any indoor arena.


I was second row from the back at the Olympics in Rio and those seats were a million times better than what I expect to see at these games next month.

Its going to be a spectacle, for sure. But make no mistake, the people in the crowd (including myself) won't have a good view on the game.

Not surprising, but how disappointing for so many young fans.

Every weekend at stadiums around Melbourne I see kids of all ages wandering around in Simmons gear. Many of these kids families would have forked over BIG $$$ to see the Simmons-led Boomers v USA at Marvel Stadium, and they're now all going to be very disappointed.

I hope the atmosphere is going to be better than 'Australia A' versus 'USA B' ... because it is all coming unraveled at this point.

A few posters have already made similar comments, but the hoops at MSAC, State Basketball Centre and Marvel are all going to be the same height as the NBA hoops right? So why not turn up for the green and gold and become a legend with Aussie fans, sell an absolute truck load of merch, and get your reps from beyond the arc all at the same time.

You're not going to be able to see a single identifiable thing...?

Except you can sit behind the goals at the footy and still see the whole ground...

I know it's not exactly the same for watching detail, and it wont be as good as normal basketball stadium seating, but we all knew that going in. It'll be fine and an amazing atmosphere almost unparalleled in the world.

You know they did this in Dallas on a football field?

Yeah from the video the stadium does look a lot bigger.

Josh Liddle - who tends to be right on a lot of things - said in the NBL 4 LIFE Facebook that Ben would be playing the world cup games, but not the world cup itself.

To me, that would be worse than if he did neither. It's like he's happy to show himself off here for the essentially meaningless games, get all the kudos and praise, destablize the team, and then bugger off when the real work starts. Either fully commit or fuck off frankly, and I say that as someone with tickets to both games.

I think that his need for solo practice and whatever else should be fully enabled with the Boomers, but not if he's going to just be a dick.

Okay an article has been released on this:

https://www.news.com.au/sport/american-sports/nba/ben-simmons-has-reportedly-pulled-out-of-the-basketball-world-cup/news-story/509f0cadd681c65f36bb052649562d2e

Fuck Ben Simmons. I don't even want him playing the warm up games. He's gonna fuck the whole team up. Game 1 of the World Cup the Boomers will basically all have to re-learn their roles.

Renders the warm up games meaningless, frankly. Basically, "learn to swim" with the sharks on Game 1 of the Cup.

Yep 100%. This whole "but I'll play at the Olympics next year" talk while hampering our World Cup preparations which could very realistically cause us to not qualify for the Olympics. Really disappointing.

Commit or don't.

The fact that there are so many stakeholders for the USA/AUS games (100,000 fans, NBL, Basketball Australia, Basketball IN Australia), basically means that the Boomers have to accept him playing for them at those games, whether or not the think it hampers them at the cup. They're in a catch 22. If there were no USA games, and just warm ups, there'd be no Ben Simmons to sidetrack the team's development, and they wouldn't possibly squander Game 1 to Canada trying to figure out their team identity.

Olympics are one year away. Having him play warm up games will be good prep for that, although obviously not ideal for the world cup.

Preparing for an Olympics we're a very real chance of not qualifying for is a good result?

To make the Olympics, we need only out-perform NZ. I think we should do that without much trouble. But yes, there is a very real possibility this kind of de-stabilization causes us to drop a game or two we should and that could fuck us over.

And then there's the possibility he makes a deep play off run and is tired for the Olympics, or he injures himself. He has a shining chance NOW to represent his country and he's choosing not to.

We're in a much tougher group than NZ. I can easily see a situation in which we don't make it out of the group and NZ do. Then its no Olympics

Canada's squad has 17 guys on NBA rosters. They could field a team that looks like this

G Joseph / Gilgeous-Alexander
G Murray / Stauskas
F Brooks / Barrett
F Powell / Lyles
C Thompson / Olynek

Combined with a team from Lithuania who are always tough ESPECIALLY at the World Cup/Champs which they take far more serious than the Olympics and, we're in very real danger of not progressing.

Yeah, it's a shit sandwich. I feel like we have the talent to progress and possibly medal anyway, but the distraction of Ben Simmons in the lead up isn't going to help.

Will be VERY interesting to hear the crowd reaction to Simmmons at the games in Australia.

I have a ticket and I rather he not be there if he's not going to the World Cup

Having Ben Simmons at the USA games just feels a bit hollow for me now because, really, he isn't a part of the team. It's like The Boomers, plus a fill in. It will be like watching a show of what could have been. To me, the whole importance of the games is that this is meant to be the world cup team. I can see why some people are glad that Ben is playing these games and commercially it makes sense, but for me, it's a distraction for a team that should have their sights set on a medal, both in China and Tokyo. In the scheme of things, if playing these games somehow makes it more likely he plays the Olympics, then it is a positive. But I can't imagine that his teammates are going to be happy, especially the ones who have to sacrifice playing time to him.

Be interesting to see how the crowd reacts. If there's any booing at all then I could see Ben spit the dummy around playing for the Boomers in the future.

I was kinda hoping the other angle of him playing, it going really well and Simmons being like "Damn, we are pretty good as a team, I SHOULD play!". Hey maybe we suit him, do the warm ups and then "Take a seat champ, you'll be watching from the pine today!". LOL.

Wiggins isn't playing for Canada.

This is even worse. WTF is Simmons thinking? The team for the World Cup needs to be the same team for the preparation games. Either play in the warm-up games AND the World Cup, or don't play at all. Otherwise, it is a distraction and pointless.

Rich Paul has a history of making his clients look like dicks to basketball fans if it means it might help them get the trade they want or a bigger contract. This seems like a face-saving decision to appear better in the eyes of fans, but as someone who wants the best result possible in the World Cup, I think it's clearly worse.

"I look forward to working with my Boomers coaches and teammates over the next few weeks to start working towards our ultimate team goal of winning a medal at the Olympics." - Ben Simmons

We need to qualify first. Making a cameo in meaningless warm-up games doesn't do anything towards that.

He's young rich and famous, which means he's going to have people around him giving him all kinds of advice about what he should do about everything. Its not surprising that he ends up making decisions that don't please everyone.

We've seen how guys like LeBron have been influenced by people around him to make decisions that are considered by many to be poor. It happens. It doesn't mean he's a dick, it means he's human.

There aren't actually "right" or "wrong" ways to do things, just differences of opinions, largely informed by "whats in it for me". I'm largely annoyed because, whats in it for me is the possibility of celebrating a world cup medal.

His family seem to be strong and grounded (Simmo always seemed to down to earth) so hopefully they're able to be a good influence on him.

Luckily Lemanis tends to use warm up games to play cat and mouse with scouts, and plays very deceptively, and not to the strengths of the team, so with Ben in there it actually makes us harder to figure out when game time comes because we will be running different things.

That's a fair point. To add to that, the core of the team have played plenty of high quality ball together with already strong chemistry. It's getting the new players to gel with the core unit that will be so crucial. We need the new players in sync, particularly whoever will command minutes at the 4 to replace Andersen's role.

Will Simmons be taking away minutes from any of the new players? Otherwise will Simmons take away minutes from the core players, leaving less time for the new players to experience playing alongside the core group? What position will he be played at? If at the 1, it is a totally different balance to the lineup than Delly or Mills at the 1. It will become more a showcase than serious preparation for the World Cup. If at the 4, will he be taking away minutes from whoever is acting as our Andersen replacement? Simmons is such a unique talent, but you have to wonder if he can reasonably replace the role of any other player that he might be taking minutes away from.

Perhaps Lemanis is best off using Simmons to experiment how to use him for 2020, presuming we qualify, not so much for this World Cup.

Having Ben in these games has some small purpose in the long term but for this year, it's a disruption. The whole thing is regrettable really. I kind of wish there were no overhyped USA v Aus games happening. There'd be no need for him to play and the team could prepare properly. As a ticket holder, the whole thing has lurched from one disappointment to another for me. No Lebron first. Then no Curry. Then no Westbrook. Then no Davis. The list has gone on and on until you're basically watching an NBA bench team with maybe one or two of the top 20 players in the league. Most of them I wouldn't know if I fell over.

Shouldn't even be allowed to suit up. These games are part of our preparation for the World Cup. There are plenty of other players that need to be on the bench during these games because there is a certain chance they will need to be comfortable sitting there and even getting on the floor a few weeks later.

As for the Olympics, make it really easy for him. If you aren't prepared to play in the World Cup, you won't be playing in the Olympics. Cant afford to plan on an Olympic team that then 1 month out decides it doesn't suit their own plans.

TEAM sport champ from a Country which tends to punch well above their weight in team sports. Let the spoiled behaviour continue, you grow more players in the long run trying to do the same thing.

I reckon the only reason he's playing the warm-up games is because of the contractual obligations BA has.

He would have been a major selling-point in getting ANY interest and contracts, and there would probably be penalties or a massive loss of credibility if he didn’t front up (which would affect future contracts).

Basically, BA needed him in order to fill the stadiums and get the money.

Let's be honest, without Ben Simmons the Australia vs. USA series is a joke. Yes, I love the Boomers team (even without him), but let's be honest, 100,000 people didn't buy tickets to see them. Team USA's roster will be "good" but when it comes to star power it is a complete and utter disappointment.

Well, the same for me. I want to see our best possible team. But I wanted to see us play against stars. I'll still enjoy it though. It's still Australia vs USA and that is still a "thing" no matter who turns up. But I am not sure most ticket holders would feel the same.

Latest articles indicate Simmons is likely to part of 2021 Olympics.

Goorjian expected to name a 24 man squad soon.