{"id":340869,"date":"2023-10-22T02:06:55","date_gmt":"2023-10-22T02:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=340869"},"modified":"2023-10-22T03:02:43","modified_gmt":"2023-10-22T03:02:43","slug":"simmons-throws-down-olympic-challenge-to-lebron-us-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=340869","title":{"rendered":"Simmons throws down Olympic challenge to LeBron, US stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Simmons<\/a> says he is not daunted by the likes of LeBron James<\/a> and Stephen Curry<\/a> teaming up at the Olympics<\/a> as he reaffirmed his commitment to joining the Boomers<\/a> in Paris next year.<\/p>\n

After several false starts over the years, the 27-year-old, is finally ready to don the green and gold for the first time since beginning his professional basketball career in 2016 when he was drafted No.1 overall by the Philadelphia 76ers.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffI've said it prior, this Olympics, I'm 100 per cent committed," he told Nine's Sports Sunday<\/em>.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Volkanovski destroyed in brutal first round KO<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> English hearts broken by clutch world champions<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Football world mourns death of Man United icon<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"Knock on wood everything goes well with health, but I'm locked in. This will be the first one for me.<\/p>\n

\"NEW<\/p>\n

"Hopefully we get everybody in, Patty (Mills), Joe (Ingles), (Josh) Giddey, Dante (Exum), it's going to be an exciting team, so I'm committed."<\/p>\n

Following United States' shocking exit at this year's FIBA World Cup, James, who has not represented the USA since the 2012 Olympics in London, privately began recruiting other A-graders to board the flight to Paris.<\/p>\n

The four-time NBA MVP is believed to have recruited the likes of Curry, Lakers teammate Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant to help the USA back to the top of the basketball world.<\/p>\n

Team USA will also be boosted by the addition of last year's league MVP Joel Embiid, who recently \ufeffconfirmed he would represent the team<\/a> in Paris.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"Honestly, I'm like, 'Hmmm, f–k it'," Simmons said when asked about his reaction to James and other stars teaming up for the USA.<\/p>\n

\"LeBron<\/p>\n

"Let's go and play, it is what it is. I'm a competitor too, this is what we do. We're ready to go out and play. I've got my dream team too, you know."<\/p>\n

On the surface, Simmons, who was born in Melbourne and also spent time growing up in Newcastle, doesn't seem very Australian. He speaks with an American slur having lived in the US since his teen years, and said people thinking he is un-Australian is a common misconception.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffI think it gets lost because I've been here for so long now, but my roots are Australian, that's where I'm from and that's where I grew up," he said.<\/p>\n

"That's home for me. I haven't been back in a while, but when I'm in America I try to explain it to people, I'm like, 'This is not even my home, this is temporary right now', I probably will go back home."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ben Simmons says he is not daunted by the likes of LeBron James and Stephen Curry teaming up at the Olympics as he reaffirmed his […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":340871,"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\/340869"}],"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=340869"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":340874,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340869\/revisions\/340874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/340871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=340869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=340869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=340869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}