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

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.

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

"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

Talk is he wants to play for team USA

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

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

USA dont care they want him
All he has to is sit out rep games for another year and his in

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


I guess that's why they started advertising it so early in the year. No one was confirmed at that point. But made out we were getting the best players

It would be bizarre if he didn't. He’s in Melbourne at the moment for at least the next few weeks. Very damaging to his brand. All he needs to do is show up and play a match one level beyond a pickup match.

Good old Aussie Ben!

Class action is looking tasty. Who is in?

#boycottben

FIBA want the basketball world cup to be as big as the FIFA world cup, FIFA pay $400 million in prize money, until FIBA can cough up that kind of cash, guys that earn 30 million a year aren't going to risk injury playing in that mickey mouse competition, also if they had played the world cup now, i reckon a lot more would suit up, playing it a month before the start of the NBA season has hurt the tournament also.

Daniel Eade chasing double digit retweets for the first time

I'll believe it when I see it. Pulling the pin on 100,000 fans from his hometown. The buyers of his merchandise from the country to has the most customers of LP, NBA store than any other. Not to mention the many fans beyond those attending watching and reading the media. I know that’s peanuts to his $180 mil deal but there’s gotta be some honour to his core fan base of Melbourne.

Who's to blame? The suckers who bought tickets? The promoters that promised the world? Or the players who pulled the pin?

Punters who bought tickets could reasonably have expected a stronger US team than what we will be seeing. Their previous WC teams have featured 2-3 top-10 guys in the league with another 5 or 6 inside the top 30. This year's squad is likely to have no top-20 players. That said, anyone who spent money on tickets without allowing for the possibility that it would be a sub-par lineup, should just learn from the mistake. It's Team USA v the Boomers on Australian soil. No matter what the lineups look like, when are we ever going to see that again?

Players who were tentative from the outset haven't said yes and then changed their minds, they've said they'll consider it and concluded it's not the right thing for them to do right now. Players who firmly, publicly committed, and then withdrew without circumstances changing from the time of their commitment, are pretty disappointing.

Promoters did their job, which was to sell tickets.

Why does someone have to be 'to blame?'

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

ME, really?

Can we acknowledge the possibility that the exhibition games in Aus are a part - a small one, but part nonetheless - of the withdrawals we've seen? They are effectively spending an extra day on a plane in order to play here. I don't think USA Basketball submits players to the same treatment prior to the Olympics, though I'd be very happy to be proven wrong.

I guess I just disagree that the promoters had an obligation to say "btw, you might get Mason Plumlee." I've purchased expensive things before that haven't lived up to expectations, like tech goods and appliances that die the second the warranty expires. I've eaten expensive meals at fancy restaurants then stopped at Maccas on the way home. Advertising has one purpose: selling things.

Most of the withdrawals took place well after they would have needed to sell tickets, the only ones that were 100% predictable 12 months ago were the Warriors and Lebron.

I agree that updating advertising material now to remove players who have withdrawn would be appropriate.

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.

Take it from a lawyer it depends if those big names were used in the advertising to give the impression they were playing

From Roy Ward on Twitter;
Ben Simmons has withdrawn from all Australian Boomers games this year including the Team USA games. BA has put out a statement saying he faced "professional obligations". Bitter blow for fans, Ben and the Boomers. #FIBAWC #NBA

What a farce, so glad I didn't buy tickets but feel sorry for families that paid a fortune for tickets to see his game.

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.

"Take it from a lawyer it depends if those big names were used in the advertising to give the impression they were playing"

There's nothing wrong with them being used though. They were advertising USA v Australia and there wasn't a huge reason to believe we would get this scenario that absolutely none of the All Stars would come. You can't guarantee in international sport who will play and who won't.

I've been to a couple of Perth Scorchers games where it's been a B grade side because a bunch of players got national call ups the week before and a few were out injured, should I get a refund because their A team wasn't playing?

Music festivals sometimes have people pull out last minute but there's no refunds for those either.

daniel eade was on the money!

ITA with #674. It's like 'rest' in the NBA, isn't it? If you ban teams from resting a player, they'll just sit him out because of "left knee soreness" or a sore pinky.

Does BA have a valuable brand to damage? IMO, given how much shit we see thrown at them on this forum, no. As someone who's been involved in basketball for a long time, I have no regard for BA. I already expect them to be inept, and to over-promise and under-deliver. Not sure they had anything to lose by behaving exactly like they always do.

Two words that sum up this whole farce: Bam Adebayo

Ben's Ferrari isn’t going to drive itself this offseason! Priorities people.

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.

"What gets me is Ben committing twice before withdrawing"

This. If he had have straight up said months ago he's not playing it would be disappointing but something that could be understandable. The way he's screwing people and the country around by committing and pulling out multiple times is what gets me.

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.

Anon above is clearly Bens family (my guess is his Sister!)
Dante would be a good example, but Ben HAS already signed his deal. He gets it no matter what!
Oh, and his whole im playing not playing im playing debacle.
He deserves the heat

Why do we have to respect individual players decisions? Are we not allowed to have our own opinions. Ben is coming to Australia to work camps unless he has pulled out of them as well. Pretty piss poor effort from Ben to commit twice and then cite rubbish reasons. The guys who represent at the World champs should have first dibs at olympic team in 12 months time. A man is only as good as his word. Ben's word obviously means very little.

Yep, Simmons hokey pokey is as much the reason people are pissed as the fact that he's not playing. Don't publicly commit, take all the plaudits for that, and then expect no heat when you renege.

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’.

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

How do you contact the promoters?

"Music festivals sometimes have people pull out last minute but there's no refunds for those either."

Do they normally have the top 13 acts pull out? I'd imagine there would be pandemonium if that were to happen

Anon: Philly cannot stop of punish Ben playing for his NT,not would they. He is their franchise guy.

He could also get hurt in these open gym 5on5 that get leaked every other day

"Yet how is the soccer World Cup still able to attract your Messis and Ronaldos given they're being paid millions by their clubs and risk injury like NBA players? Prestige?"

I'm not sure Anon, but FIFA used to have some strictly enforced rules about players who chose not to make themselves available for major international games. I recall it became an issue some years ago and FIFA decided to give itself a big stick and to use it. I'm not sure what the penalties were and whether they were imposed on the players or the countries.

From what I've read, the NBA and its teams have always seen themselves as above FIBA in the world of basketball. I don't know if that's the case these days or not but recent behaviour suggests it is. Problem is, I suspect FIBA needs NBA more than NBA needs FIBA. For now.

To the poster suggesting FIBA boost the prize money on offer, consider the viewing figures for the FIBA World Cup vs FIFA World Cup (about a third, in the former's best year). FIBA does not have the cash to stump up that scale of prize money twice as often as FIFA does (every 2 years vs every 4 years).

What's stevens reason for pulling out again?

The Americanization of Aussie basketball continues.

Me first.

Team, a distant second.

Country, nowhere.

The Fat Controller leading the way. It starts when you're comfortable screwing over a little organization like Mt Gambier.

And it begins to reach its peak when players no longer consider their country worth the effort to play for.

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.

Is this the same sister who acts on instagram like shes in the nba and famous ???

#711 who did you talk to? How many people would take refunds if they could get them??

"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."

Well said. The reason for the re-branding to World Cup (from World Championships) and the change in the cycle of years was to try and increase its "prestige" but obviously it will take more time to build.

Probably 2019 was always the iffy one with 2020 being an Olympic year. Top players deciding that they don't want to commit to two years in a row of off-season international basketball is fair enough IMO. They have to balance their commitments. The NBA season is a long and tough one. And these guys aren't the best in the world without putting in a lot of work during the off-season.

"#711 who did you talk to? How many people would take refunds if they could get them??"

X2. Interested to know how we get our refund.

Don't say you are playing if you are just going to pull out.

Exercising your ego?

Wanker. Playing with words.

Messing the poor punters about.

It's all about you, Ben.

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

#711 is surely just trolling, everyone else that has said they've tried to get refunds have all been knocked back

Aussie Ben! Remember he is Aussie. Justa good old Aussie (that has an American accent already)

FIBA needs to time the WC for NBA lockout years