NBA investigating whether Lakers violated contact rules

Lakers president of basketball operations Magic Johnson raised some eyebrows on Sunday when he said that the Philadelphia 76ers’ Ben Simmons had reached out to the Lakers to request a meeting with Johnson to talk basketball.

That request is drawing scrutiny from the NBA league office.

“The league office is looking into whether any contact took place between Ben Simmons and the Los Angeles Lakers that violated NBA rules,” league spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement.

The request, which happened weeks ago, was quickly rebuffed on both sides.

“He reached out to me, not to me directly, to the Lakers, to find out if we could get together this summer,” Johnson said. “I said, ‘Hey, you’d have to clear it with the league. Everybody. The Sixers sign off. We sign off. The league signs off that nothing is going on.

“He wants to know how to play the position as a big guard, da, da, da, da, da da,” Johnson said. “It’s fine. I will do that. But if everybody doesn’t sign off, then we can’t get together.”

Sixers general manager Elton Brand was asked about the situation during a radio show in Philadelphia.

“[Lakers general manager] Rob Pelinka called me and said that Ben wanted to talk to Hall of Famers after the season, Magic was on the list,” Brand said. “He asked for authorization ... I said no. This was over a month ago.”

A person familiar with the phone call disputed that characterization, saying Allen Lumpkin, the 76ers’ director of basketball administration, called the Lakers to request that meeting for Simmons. Among Lumpkin’s responsibilities is player development.

Pelinka called Brand to tell him about the request and that it made the Lakers uncomfortable, the person said.