{"id":312698,"date":"2023-06-30T02:30:16","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T02:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=312698"},"modified":"2023-06-30T03:58:27","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T03:58:27","slug":"boomers-cop-disappointing-blow-as-simmons-says-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=312698","title":{"rendered":"Boomers cop 'disappointing' blow as Simmons says no"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aussie NBA<\/a> star Ben Simmons<\/a> will not play for the Boomers<\/a> at the FIBA World Cup, with confirmation on Friday morning he had ruled himself out of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Simmons 2022-2023 NBA season for the Brooklyn Nets<\/a> was cut short by a back injury, the rehabilitation for which is ongoing.<\/p>\n

His unavailability for the tournament, held in Japan from late August, was confirmed in a statement from Basketball Australia on Friday morning.<\/p>\n

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"Ben Simmons and the Brooklyn Nets have advised Basketball Australia that Ben is unavailable for the World Cup," the statement, posted to social media, read.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"Ben needs more time to focus on his rehab, and he looks forward to being part of the Boomers in the future.<\/p>\n

"We wish Ben all the best in his recovery."<\/p>\n

Aussie basketball legend Andrew Gaze said Simmons' withdrawal was "disappointing", but unsurprising.<\/p>\n

"The challenges he's faced over the last couple of years have been significant," he told the The Age.<\/a><\/p>\n

Simmons has battled the injury since his arrival at the Nets from the Philadelphia 76ers in February 2022 in a trade deal for James Harden.<\/p>\n

The deal \ufeffcame about following a series of on-court scandals and suggestions he wasn't a popular figure among teammates in the locker room.<\/p>\n

He hasn't played for the Boomers in a decade.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

"Despite some people's views, I think that I have a degree of compassion for what he's had to go through," Gaze said.<\/p>\n

"It hasn't been easy for him, and selfishly I'd love to see him play for Australia because I think he can help and make a real solid contribution."<\/p>\n

Although he had been left out of the original 18-man squad named in May, Boomers coach Brian Goorjian left the door open for the 26-year-old Simmons to train his way into the team via a selection camp on August 1.<\/p>\n

"I think [Ben's] mindset is getting healthy, getting in shape and getting ready to play in this [World Cup]," Goorjian told SEN at the time.<\/p>\n

The Boomers are in Group E with Finland, Germany and hosts Japan. The Boomers' first game is against Finland on August 25.<\/p>\n

Extended Boomers squad:<\/strong> Xavier Cooks, Dyson Daniels, Matthew Dellavedova, Dante Exum, Sam Froling, Josh Giddey, Chris Goulding, Josh Green, Joe Ingles, Nick Kay, Jock Landale, Thon Maker, Will McDowell-White, Patty Mills, Keanu Pinder, Duop Reath, Matisse Thybulle, Jack White<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aussie NBA star Ben Simmons will not play for the Boomers at the FIBA World Cup, with confirmation on Friday morning he had ruled himself […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":312700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=312698"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":312702,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312698\/revisions\/312702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/312700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=312698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=312698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=312698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}