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After the John Mitchell report for Philly.com that Andrew Bynum practiced with the team, I was really skeptical (and half-awake) about him being the only beat reporter to confirm this. Why wouldn't the Sixers come out with a big, happy report? Why wouldn't the players be talking about it on Twitter? Why wouldn't Tom Moore and Chris Vito and John Finger and Bob Cooney have the story?
Well, maybe it's because he didn't happen.
Mitchell said according to his sources, Bynum "took part in five-on-five drills" and "participated in a spirited practice" with the Sixers on Friday. It was apparently "a scrimmage" and now they're all about waiting to see how his knees recover.
But nobody reported it. Chris Vito reiterated to me on Twitter that in the 15-minute portion of the practice in which the media were allowed to watch, Bynum only participated in the post-practice huddle. And the previous report from Bynum himself that he was still some time away from practicing with the team.
It seems Vito asked Rod Thorn about the report and Thorn gave no comment.
Mitchell claims the scrimmage wasn't open to the media and reporters have yet to see him play with his teammates. But if his sources are to be believed, then Bynum practiced under the cover of darkness.
Weirdly, the CSN Philly twitter retweeted a The 700 Level story, which cited LB and the Mitchell post in its article. CSN Philly employs John Finger and Dei Lynam, neither of whom have said anything about Bynum practicing with the team.
I don't really know what the truth is and it seems like nobody does. There's a chance the Sixers are playing it close to the vest and that Bynum really did practice but they don't want to go wide with it until they know for sure. There's also a chance that Mitchell is wrong again (he said Bynum could play before the All-Star Break only like 3 weeks before the Break, which was ridiculous at the time and ridiculous now) and Bynum didn't scrimmage at all.
Obviously we all hope Mitchell is right, but this is just another weird obstacle in this poopstorm of a season. I'm waiting to hear back from PR man Mike Preston via email, but I'm not optimistic about getting a clear response.