Kobi Simmons banned from USA Basketball?
- Thread starter Rhavicc
- Start date
Ehh, that's small potatoes. Is "Very last moment" when they're already in the locker room suiting up, or just before the deadline to notify them? I mean, it almost sounds like his declination just pissed somebody off. Kind of sounds like sour grapes to be honest.
He wasn't banned from anything, so to answer the question to the title of this thread, no.
He chose not to attend, but because he waited til the last minute to tell them, they're upset about it.
He chose not to attend, but because he waited til the last minute to tell them, they're upset about it.
Banned from the Coach K suckfest.
I don't see how the topic title is false.
Apparently, Simmons waited until the last second to tell USA Basketball he wasn't coming, and then they told him that he was out of the program for good. Which equals banned. The only difference is that the ban came after he pulled out of this specific event, but it still ends up in the same place.
In unrelated news, Simmons dropped Duke from possible schools on Monday.
ETA: Sorry this is not true. Please ignore.
ETA: Sorry this is not true. Please ignore.
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Seriously? I didn't know that. There's sour grapes all over this one.
Shyt. I apologize. That is not true. He cut his list to three on Monday. I was sure Duek was on the list of six before that. He cut them months ago.
Sorry for the misinformation.
Is that a quote from USA, or an assumption on your part? The tweets don't say anything about him being banned and of course if he walked that could be the same as done with the program. Depends on how you look at it.
Doesn't specifically use the word "banned", but the tweet in the OP says he's "out of the program for good". I'd interpret it the same way.
Well, out of the program after he chose to not attend this camp.
Funny to say someone is not invited back with the program after he was the one who chose not to participate.
Funny to say someone is not invited back with the program after he was the one who chose not to participate.
"I have no idea what he did, or if he is at fault at all, but I don't want him at Kentucky."
Good call, OP.
Good call, OP.
Yea, I'd have to know a lot more about the situation. For all we know he could have pulled out because of a family emergency, a health issue, or anything. Or he could just be an a$$ clown, but no way do we know enough to make that call right now.
This is much to do about nothing IMO. Had it been a kid duke was chasing they would have held the spot with no time constraints so I have no issue with Simmons deciding not to play in the duke recruiting pipeline. Matter of fact makes me like him a little more--indy
The quote from Givony in the very first post in the thread says "Simmons is out of their program for good", which he expands upon in the next tweet. If you want to play lawyer here and parse words until they lose all meaning, go right on ahead, but the story seems pretty simple: Simmons pulled out at the last second, USA Basketball officials got ticked, and told him he wouldn't be back in the future. If that's not the story, then come up with a source for an alternate one. Until you do, I'll assume that it is the story.
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Until more info comes out, I don't see how some of you guys can just assume it was something bad. Maybe he didn't want to risk injury? Maybe he just wanted to rest a little, burnt out perhaps?
No doubt it was bad timing, but if it puts K in a bind, I'm all for it.
No doubt it was bad timing, but if it puts K in a bind, I'm all for it.
I could understand if it was an emergency or something, but that last minute nonsense doesn't pass. If he didn't want to risk injury, he probably should have said something weeks ago.
Do I begrudge him for not going to the USA camp? Nope, not even a little. Do I think he did them wrong by doing this on such a short notice? Yeah.
Find it hard to believe that he would be banned (and I call it a ban when you are no longer allowed to participate in something) if it was a family emergency or something of that nature that came up. Just leads me to believe it was his own selfish reasons for not going.
Usually when people use quotations, it's word for word, is it not?
I said "Not particularly sure what the kid did to get booted from USA Basketball, but I'm sure that it's something that I don't want at Kentucky"
Now tell me, let's say he commits to Kentucky, we expect him to come, and at the last minute, he says "Nah, I think I wanna play overseas." Is that something that you would welcome to our program?
Then why isn't Simmons committed yet? With as much as he openly said he loves UK, why is he not committed? Could it be that the man making millions of dollars a year to assess the character of these kids is not recruiting him any longer? We have heard that a few times, after all.
I'm just saying, I wouldn't want that to be an issue that comes up, and neither would you.
He was going to be "banned" anyway once he picked UK, so might as well get it out of the way now.
Remember, Colangelo and K were trying to convince everyone that Plumlee was a better "fit" for the team than Boogie. Wall will never make the team. You can bet KAT will get bypassed for Okafor down the road, regardless of how their careers go. Davis will play, but that's only because he so good he can't be left off.
Remember, Colangelo and K were trying to convince everyone that Plumlee was a better "fit" for the team than Boogie. Wall will never make the team. You can bet KAT will get bypassed for Okafor down the road, regardless of how their careers go. Davis will play, but that's only because he so good he can't be left off.
I'm sure everyone has changed their mind on doing something at the last second before. It happens to everyone. I'm sure they have alternates available so it isn't that big of a deal. Like others have mentioned, he might have had a very good reason for doing it and the USA Basketball people are just mad about it.
I sincerely doubt that Colangelo and K care about where a kid went to college when picking the *US national team.* Colangelo doesn't have a school affiliation, and K is an army veteran who is BIG on national pride and service. They will pick the team they think has the best chance to win, as they've demonstrated over and over by picking guys who played their college ball at a wide variety of schools... Including a bunch of UK guys.
Some worried at first that Cousins might be an issue because of attitude, but he went on to be chosen for team USA and has had a fantastic relationship with K... Davis is ON the team... KAT can't even BE on the team (not sure how any Kentucky fan wouldn't know that... Weren't you around during his recruitment and Cal coaching the Dominican National Team?)... and I have no idea how you have given up on Wall already... The kid is in his mid 20s. So... What is the issue again? You are upset that UK doesn't have three guys on the national team right now, and that shows how much USA basketball hates UK?
Listen... Outside of you guys, not a lot of people care which players went to UK. Good players are good players, and the folks running our national team have shown they know something about putting together a really good team, regardless of where the players spent their (sometimes very short) college careers.
It the kid didn't want to play for USA, that's cool. He should have gave them the heads up sooner though. You never want to burn too many bridges for the future. If he becomes good enough to make the NBA and becomes a star, i'm pretty sure all of this would be forgotten in a hurry. Whatever reason Cal doesn't seem to wanna take his commitment, i doubt it has anything to do with this. I think it has more to do with better players out there and waiting them out first. Why take Simmons and then risk losing a talent like FOX? Or risking losing a backcourt of FOX and MONK? That backcourt has so much upside, you just can't risk it. Even as freshmen, you won't see a better backcourt in the entire country as Fox and Monk. It even has a nice ring to it. haha.
Kobi Simmons has had attitude issues for a while now--it's not like this should be blown off. How you handle things is a sign of character. There is a reason he went from "Their Guy" at UK to being told to they won't take his commitment on his visit. Again--said it many times--stay away from kids from ATL--too much drama and chaos. This kid couldn't handle Coach Cal's coaching--he'd wilt like Harrow did.
The lack of maturity to say he can't make it and give another player the opportunity to take his place is what USA Basketball is upset about--and rightfully so.
The lack of maturity to say he can't make it and give another player the opportunity to take his place is what USA Basketball is upset about--and rightfully so.
Cal has already offered the kid. Now whether he is slow playing him or not may be another issue...
I'm not an expert by any means, but it's pretty clear that Cal made other players a priority over Simmons this summer. Some might say he cooled on him. In the past we've seen this happen, and we end up saying "wow coach cal dodged that bullet." Cal doesn't have to take guys with character issues.
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