Philadelphia 76ers Rumors
LeBron recruiting Butler, Leonard?
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst was a guest for Thursday’s episode of Pardon The Interruption and during his appearance he gave some evidence to what many were already assuming: LeBron is recruiting free agents, namely Toronto’s Kawhi Leonard and Philadelphia’s Jimmy Butler.
“From what I understand, he has already begun the recruiting process. I’ve heard he has had contact with Kawhi Leonard. I’ve heard he has had contact with Jimmy Butler. There is no tampering enforcement by players. … The thing about it is, I don’t know if texts and calls and maybe a dinner with LeBron is enough for the Lakers to overcome the hurdles that they’re going to have.”
That meant that LeBron James did not get a first team All-NBA selection for the first time in 11 years, since he was named to the second team in 2007. James did, however, extend his streak of consecutive All-NBA selections to 15 — tying him with Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most in NBA history — by earning a third-team nod in his first year with the Los Angeles Lakers. The second team consisted of Damian Lillard and Kyrie Irving at guard, Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard at forward and Joel Embiid at center. Beyond James, the third team consisted of Russell Westbrook and Kemba Walker at guard, Blake Griffin at forward and Rudy Gobert at center.
Ben Simmons, Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills and Aron Baynes are among the NBA players picked in an extended Australia squad to prepare for the FIBA World Cup. Boomers coach Andrej Lemanis announced a 17-man squad on Thursday for warmup games the U.S. team and Canada in August. Simmons, who missed Australia’s run to the semifinals at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, confirmed his availability for the World Cup after his Philadelphia 76ers were knocked out of the Eastern Conference semifinals last week on Kawhi Leonard’s Game 7-ending buzzer-beater for Toronto.
Kendall Jenner and NBA star Ben Simmons have split, according to sources. Sources said that at the same time a new Australia Vogue cover story dropped — quoting supermodel Jenner saying of potentially marrying Simmons, “Maybe. Definitely not now, but maybe one day” — Simmons was partying solo in Atlantic City, NJ, with pals.
Ben Simmons is the headliner for the Australian Boomers’ 17-man training camp squad, exactly 100 days before the 2019 FIBA World Cup is set to begin. It’s a squad that features nine NBA players, with a final team of 12 to be chosen after the August training camp.
He’ll be joined by a host of fellow NBA players — Joe Ingles, Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova, Aron Baynes, Jonah Bolden, Andrew Bogut, Deng Adel, and Mitch Creek — as well as Australians who’ve excelled in Europe or the NBL.
