Anon
Years ago

No LeBron in Australia

Per ESPN. Out of the World Cup to film Space Jam 2, still interested in the 2020 Olympic team. So he won't be part of the 2 game series in Melbourne (and rumor has it there will be a third game in Sydney). http://www.espn.com/olympics/basketball/story/_/id/26417153/pass-world-cup-20-olympics-play

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Ben  
Years ago

Bummer for sure, but as a ticket holder for both games I'm not sweating it, there will be a stack of other prime talent coming out.

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Food for thought (he/kangaroo)  
Years ago

There have been a lot of casual fans autisticly screeching about this on Facebook, saying now they're bring their "B Team", as thought the USA's B Team wasn't full of NBA ALL Stars or something.

James Harden has announced that he wants to play. You still have guys like Anthony Davis, Westbrook, Curry, Durant, Thompson looking to line up, and Zion Williams being spoekn of, which will be exciting as he certainly is going to be big in the NBA.

It sucks that Lebron wont be there, sure. But I don't think it makes this any less a spectacle. There have been people also saying it wont be the USA's world cup team, but I assume they have a hard enough time breathing and walking at the same time, and think USA will switch teams with less than a week til the Cup.

In other news, (and take with a grain of salt) Worthington said recently on his Podcast 'trash talk' with Homicide that his mail is that Ben Simmons in fact WILL be playing the two games in Melbourne. Take that as you wish.

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Food for thought (he/kangaroo)  
Years ago

To follow up on the Ben Simmons comment, he said that someone with deep pockets has more or less ensured that he will play, and that his contract negotiations etc will not be an issue.

To hear where he talks about it, fast forward 29 minutes and 45 seconds into this podcast.


https://player.whooshkaa.com/the-sportsbet-basketball-podcast?episode=351569&fbclid=IwAR0yDFK1xkRtPh8EZQgI6UBqD151iRhPKDq28oHHROg6-L-ePh-ETrs77RY

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Aussie  
Years ago

So assuming Wortho is right about Simmons playing against the US in Melbourne, do we then assume that he will also play at this years World Cup?

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Food for thought (he/kangaroo)  
Years ago

"So assuming Wortho is right about Simmons playing against the US in Melbourne, do we then assume that he will also play at this years World Cup?"

I would only assume so. I don't see Lemanis chopping and changing the line up a week out from the cup, seeing as his job rests on the results at the cup and not a somewhat meaningless (in the scheme of things) warm up game. Plus if Simmons' is covered, in the sense that his contract and endorsement deals won't financially affect him either way due to this cash injection, you can only assume that will free him up for the Cup by extension. My personal guess is that someone like Nike has put the money down for him to do it because it's great publicity not only in Australia, but China when the team is there.

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