Townsville Bulletin

Stubborn Philly threaten to fine Simmons $308k a day

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PHILADELPH­IA has reportedly made a shock U-turn on its stance on wantaway point guard Ben Simmons and now the 76ers expect the Australian to play in the blue and white for the 2021/22 season.

According to reporter Tom Moore of the Bucks County Courier Times in Philadelph­ia, the Sixers are no longer planning on making a deal for the 25year-old and have accepted that they will not receive what they want for him.

He added that the Sixers are not willing to accept a deal centred around future draft picks and see themselves drop back in the standings and there is no viable offer on the table to secure a genuine All-star as his replacemen­t.

Moore claims that Philly has been unable to secure any of the names on its list of five to 10 replacemen­ts so will stick with Simmons. It has been widely reported how Simmons is desperate to get out of Philadelph­ia and that he is willing to refuse to attend pre-season training camp or play another game for the Sixers in order to push a trade through.

His preference is to head to California, ideally with one of the Lakers, Clippers or Warriors, although no offers have been forthcomin­g.

Moore added in his report that the Sixers believe that once

Simmons is aware he is no longer on the trade table, he will have to show up and they plan to fine him for every day he doesn’t attend training camp, pre-season and games, which could be around $308,000 a day.

He wrote: “NBA source: The Sixers ‘are expecting Ben Simmons to play in 2020-21. The expectatio­n is they will. It’s bumpy right now and the team expects it to get better’.

“The 76ers don’t plan on making a deal that would drop them back in the standings and not get viable offers.

“More from NBA source: ‘Eventually he’s going to show up. Sixers will go from there’.

“They apparently plan to fine Simmons if he doesn’t attend 2021-22 camp, pre-season and so on.

“Don’t want to trade for draft picks and try to convert to players. Can’t get any of 5-10 NBA guys they like.”

 ??  ?? Ben Simmons.
Ben Simmons.

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