The Ben Simmons saga continues. Just moments before he was scheduled to meet with the media for the first time since ending his holdout, the Sixers announced that they had suspended the point guard one game for conduct detrimental to the team:

If we’re being honest here, there was virtually no chance Simmons was going to talk to the media. The question was whether he’d just stare into space, take the “no comment” route, or sabotage practice to get himself out of the media scrum. He chose the latter per WOJ:

Doc Rivers has said everything he can publicly in support of reintegrating Simmons into the lineup, with his status for the opener up in the air. After practicing with a cell phone in his pocket yesterday, Simmons must have done something egregious to get tossed from practice today.

Realistically, this looks like a cluster-eff. It’s a mess. It’s an untenable situation. Look, the team wants to either rebuild any trade value for the player or is delusional enough to believe there’s a shot to repair this relationship. Ultimately, though, this fall on the shoulders of a pampered star who never had the cajones to work on integrating a jumpshot into his game. Who never had the intrinsic motivation to unlock his full potential. Who finally had extrinsic pressure thrust onto him by his own team and collapsed like a house of cards. Who has burned virtually any and every bridge with even his most ardent supporters who feel like they’ve been duped, hoodwinked, and bamboozled.

Kevin is down at Sixers practice and offered this update:


UPDATE: Here’s the Doc Rivers availability: