BEN COPS BIG $500K FINE

AUSTRALIAN guard Ben Simmons has been fined his $360,000 ($A486,500) game salary by the Philadelphia 76ers for missing Friday’s NBA victory over Detroit – and he faces more fines.

An ESPN report said Simmons has been seeing mental health professionals through the National Basketball Players Association but not cooperating with team physicians regarding these issues, also missing other basketball-related activities.

The Sixers said Simmons had been unwilling to provide basic details of his talks, treatments or evaluations with team doctors or to consult 76ers specialists as a standoff with the club pushes past four months.

Simmons does some individual daily work at the 76ers team facility with teammates and coaches but has asked for a trade and has shown no desire to return to the club, which is off to a 7-2 start to lead the Eastern Conference.

Simmons, who has four years and $A198m remaining on his contract, reportedly will be fined not only for missing games but for not attending film study sessions, team workouts, strength-training sessions and game-day shootarounds. The 76ers had fined him $2m for a pre-season holdout but released that money when Simmons said he was mentally unready to play and would seek help.

Simmons, 25, has worked with team doctors and his own physicians regarding a back ailment but has reportedly told the team he would not share any details of his mental health treatment.

He has reportedly asked for a trade and been unhappy in the wake of criticism about his performance in the 76ers’ loss in last season’s NBA playoffs.

In other developments, his 76ers teammate, fellow Australian Matisse Thybulle, has become the third Sixers player placed into the NBA’s Covid-19 health and safety protocols.

As a result, the forward will not play in Sunday’s game against Chicago Bulls.

Meantime, Julius Randle posted a game-high 32 points as the New York Knicks rallied from a 21-point first-half deficit to beat the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks 113-98.

The Knicks outscored the Bucks 94-60 over the final three quarters to snap a two-game losing skid in front of a crowd of 17,300 at Fiserv Forum.