The Philadelphia 76ers have officially suspended Ben Simmons, one of their star players. This means that the team will be a key player short during their season opener on Wednesday night. The 76ers will be playing New Orleans, and it’s a big game simply because the sport is officially back.

Ben Simmons Wants Out

Ben Simmons was holding out during training camp, and it came just in time for him to demand an offseason trade. After practicing with the 76ers on Sunday and Monday, he had practice scheduled and also a talk with the media. Doc Rivers, who is the coach for the 76ers, decided to kick him out of practice after Simmons refused to participate where required.

Doc Rivers believed that Simmons was more of a distraction than a team player during practice. He also stated that he didn’t think Ben Simmons wanted to be part of what the rest of the team was doing.

After being drafted as a first-round pick into the NBA back in 2016, Ben Simmons hasn’t left his original team of the 76ers. Now, he wants to be free from his contract.

Simmons Seems Uninterested

Before Monday’s practice, Simmons was seen simply lingering around in the huddle, while dribbling, and more. According to Doc Rivers, Simmons was lingering outside of the huddle and dribbling the basketball in an uninterested-looking way during practice. At that same practice, Simmons didn’t practice with the first team. Other sources reveal that Ben Simmons has not engaged much with the team since he came back to the 76ers after his holdout.

Fellow players have commented on Simmons’ actions lately, like Joel Embiid who said he’s not going to babysit Simmons and doesn’t care about him since Simmons does whatever he wants. Ben Simmons still has $147 million left on his contract with Philadelphia but is interested in a trade.

Rebecca Meyers, the six-time Paralympic medalist swimmer has withdrawn her candidature from Tokyo 2020 over a dispute with authority. The three golds winning champion from the 2016 Rio games has withdrawn her name from the team USA competing for this summer Olympic after United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) didn’t allow her to take personal care assistant (PCA) in Tokyo with her.

The Dispute

The 26 years old deaf and blind swimmer was expected to compete in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics for up to four medals. But Meyer informed the team USA that she was quitting, after being instructed that she could not bring her mother Maria Meyers, who is also her PCA, to help her navigate through the Olympic facilities in Tokyo. According to her statement in the Washington Post, she made this difficult decision to effect immediate change against long-going discriminatory practices within the Olympics process.

The Cause Behind

Last June, USOPC informed Mark Meyers, Becca’s father, that the Japanese Government and the Tokyo 2020 organizers have prohibited her to bring a PCA to Tokyo, due to newly set Covid-19 regulations, which are under effect by strictly limiting travel allowances in the country as an Olympic Delegate. The committee also noted that one authorized PCA will be accompanying the 34-member USA Paralympic Swimming Team along with six team coaches to assist the competitors in their personal needs. But, sources from Meyers’s side have blamed USOPC for the entire debacle, believing that the committee simply did not choose to allocate Maria Meyers one of its limited ‘essential personnel slots’.

Meyer’s Rare Condition

Meyers was deaf at birth, due to ‘Usher Syndrome’, a rare genetic disorder, which has also eroded her eyesight gradually. She is not completely blind, but according to the Washington Post report, her eyesight has recently been downgraded to the middle-class Paralympic classification of S12 from the least-impaired classification of S13. Paralympians with S11 designation are categorized as completely blind or almost close to being one. Meyers was the only swimmer among the 34 members on Team USA, who is both blind and deaf.