After going ahead and forcing the Sixers to play with seven available players on Saturday, the league has postponed yesterday’s Celtics-Heat game, tonight’s Mavericks-Pelicans game, and tomorrow’s Celtics-Bulls game. The NBA has issued an apology to Philadelphia for putting their players and those of the Nuggets at an unnecessary health risk, while also placing the Sixers at an unfair competitive disadvantage...(someone yells offscreen)...wait, they didn’t? They did what?
The NBA has fined the Sixers $25,000 for violating the league’s injury reporting guidelines:
The Sixers have been fined $25,000 for failing to report Ben Simmons’ recent knee injury according to league guidelines pic.twitter.com/8yPUe57Q5t
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) January 11, 2021
After not being on the initial injury report, Ben Simmons was a late scratch for Saturday afternoon’s game with a knee injury. We know the injury is legitimate because Simmons is currently not with the team in Atlanta while receiving treatment. The Athletic’s Rich Hofmann does a nice job concisely laying out why there might have been some miscommunication with Ben not being on the initial injury report.
Some additional context: Friday would normally have been a recovery day for the Sixers. Because of the COVID issues, they spent the entire day in a hotel and didn't get home until 1:00 a.m. Saturday with a game that afternoon. https://t.co/jWPXJjuwjM
— Rich Hofmann (@rich_hofmann) January 11, 2021
So after playing Thursday night, Ben was stuck alone in a hotel room all day Friday, then got home Saturday morning at 1:00am, still needing a night’s sleep and with a 3:00pm game just 14 hours away. I’m not sure when exactly he could or should have let the training staff know his knee was bothering him, but it isn’t crazy the information wasn’t disclosed on the injury report given all the extenuating circumstances. But, sure, NBA, let’s fine the team. It’s not like you have anything else going on you should be worried about at the moment.
It bears repeating:
THEY HATE THE PROCESS
— Joel “Troel” Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) January 10, 2021
Off-topic for the site, but thanks again for the Super Bowl, Doug.