Ben Simmons (Photo : Twitter)
Ben Simmons, despite an anti-climactic college season with the LSU Tigers, is still one of basketball's coveted prizes.
However, he has been making him scarce of late. His school declined any postseason invitations after failing to qualify for the NCAA tournament. Now, in an ESPN report, he has also "postponed" representing Australia in the Rio De Janeiro Olympics.
In a statement released by his agent, Rich Paul:
"Ben Simmons will postpone playing with the Australian Olympic team this summer in order to concentrate fully on his NBA activities following the upcoming 2016 NBA draft," Paul said.
He elaborated: "Australian Olympic Team training and competition takes place at the same time as the various NBA summer development programs, and therefore, Ben will look forward to his national team participation at some time later in his career.''
Paul also handles LeBron James, Tristan Thompson and Eric Bledsoe among others and are now very aggressive not just in recruiting talents but also building their brand.
It is not surprising that Paul would steer his client in this direction. Simmons has been a lock for the first overall pick in 2016 for the last two years but Brandon Ingram of Duke has issued a very serious challenge and has even overtaken Simmons in some draft boards.
There are some critics of Simmons who are wary of his feeling of entitlement. The argument is that Simmons did not feel like he had anything to prove and his play at LSU was perceived to lack passion and energy that's why, despite his talent, he was not able to bring them to the Big Dance.
However, it should be a knock on LSU and not Simmons as his statistics have made him a contender for College of the Year honors if he was not disqualified due to academics.
That perception of entitlement was the question on ESPN show Russillo and Kannell. In light of the recent trend where players start to control their own destiny, it was bound to happen that one draft aspirant would try to influence their draft destiny. It also was not surprising that it came from the agency where LeBron James belongs.
There were rumors that Kristaps Porzingis, through his agent, dodged workouts to avoid falling to the Sixers, but that could all prove immaterial because the team can draft him anyway. The same applies for Ben Simmons.
However, Simmons can make it seem problematic for the Sixers, and he may threaten to just play overseas (even if it means sacrificing financially). The Sixers could cave and just draft Brandon Ingram instead.
It's the worst kept secret that Simmons wants to end up with the Lakers. D'Angelo Russell was his high school teammate and he has brazenly worn a Magic Johnson (a player whom Simmons was compared to) jersey in an LSU football game. From a marketing standpoint, Paul would probably want one of his prime talents in the rich LA market.
