As far as the league's investigation is concerned, it's a bit of a waste of time. While more could've went on behind the scenes, from the surface it would appear that all of these guys know each other well and went through the proper channels in seeing if this mentorship was a possibility.
Knowing the Los Angeles Lakers and their recent history of circumventing the NBA’s rules against tampering in the affairs of other franchises, the league has announced it will launch a full-scale investigation into the Ben Simmons-Magic Johnson situation to ensure that all communication between the parties was copacetic.
If you haven’t been following along, the Sixers‘ All-Star point guard reportedly asked permission from GM Elton Brand to seek out the professional advice of Johnson, the Lakers legend and current team president, which obviously caused a bit of a stir when this news was revealed to the media prior to Philadelphia’s 143-120 win over L.A. on Sunday. According to reports, Johnson was among a handful of NBA Hall of Famers and former stars with whom Simmons formally requested an audience.
Because of a certain paranoia amongst a subset of 76ers fans, this potential get-together with Johnson was met with outrage given Simmons’ close relationship with Lakers forward LeBron James and the fact that his famous girlfriend is a Hollywood elite. Thankfully, Brand on Monday afternoon helped ease some of the tension by going on-record to say that he rejected this request “over a month ago.”
“I had brief dialogue with [Lakers GM] Rob Pelinka, who I’ve known for a long time, but nothing is planned,” Brand told ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski later in the day. “Our collective focus is on making a postseason push. Again, we aren’t sweating this – end of story.”
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As far as the league’s investigation is concerned, it’s a bit of a waste of time. While more could’ve went on behind the scenes, from the surface it would appear that all of these guys know each other well and went through the proper channels in seeing if this mentorship was a possibility.
The Lakers were fined for breaking the NBA’s anti-tampering rules two years ago in their pursuit of small forward Paul George, who was under contract with the Indiana Pacers at the time. This season, James was fined $ 500,000 for complimentary statements he made about Milwaukee Bucks All-Star Giannis Antetokounmpo. The self-proclaimed “King” again drew criticism recently for his candidness in discussing a trade for Pelicans center Anthony Davis. Los Angeles is clearly still paying for its mistakes as league officials have no choice but to get involved, even if this investigation is merely due diligence.
Brand went on to tell ESPN that he has “no issue” with Simmons’ desire to chop it up with NBA icons in his quest to better perform as an oversized point guard. “I have a great relationship with Ben and [his agent] Rich [Paul] and we expect him to be a Sixer for a long time,” the first-year general manager said. “He has taken interest in chatting with some of the game’s all-time greats and we’re supportive.”
Joe Trinacria covers the Sixers for NJ.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jtrinacria.