LDN - Sports

National Basketball Association roundup

[October 03, 2016] Oct 1 (The Sports Xchange) - Philadelphia 76ers rookie forward Ben Simmons is scheduled to undergo surgery next week on the broken bone in his right foot.

The top overall pick out of LSU is expected to miss approximately three months, a source told ESPN's Jeff Goodman on Saturday. Simmons, 20, is the 76ers' top overall pick since Allen Iverson in 1996.

Australian Simmons landed on the foot of teammate Shawn Long during Friday's scrimmage and sustained an acute fracture of the fifth metatarsal bone.

An injury to a high draft pick is nothing new for star-crossed Philadelphia, which has seen Nerlens Noel sit out his entire rookie season in 2013-14 with a torn ACL. Noel was the third overall pick of the 2013 draft.

Joel Embiid, who was also selected third overall in 2014, has yet to play in an NBA game following multiple surgeries on his right foot. Jahlil Okafor, also chosen third in the 2015 draft, sustained a season-ending knee injury after playing in 53 games.

The Sixers begin their preseason schedule against the Boston Celtics in Amherst, Mass., on Tuesday. Coach Brett Brown said both Embiid and Okafor will play in the game.

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Chris Bosh fired back at the Miami Heat and president Pat Riley, who said earlier this week that he believes the star power forward has played his final game for the team.

Bosh claims the Heat did not inform him that he failed the team's physical last week before putting out a news release.

"I didn't see my career in Miami ending like this," Bosh said Friday in his ongoing video series on the Uninterrupted digital network.

"I didn't get a call or a text or anything like that. I mean, it's a business. We understand that. We always say those things. But if you say certain things to the person and you win championships and you have these moments, you don't want to find things out through the media.

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"It's kind of tough. We say all these things, the commitment, brotherhood and all these things. And then, for whatever reason, you find out, or I find out like this. So, it hurts."

A Heat spokesman told ESPN that the team was unable to reach Bosh after calling, emailing and texting him before putting out the statement.

Riley told reporters Monday the team is no longer working toward Bosh's return -- an hour before the Heat opened training camp with their media day at AmericanAirlines Arena.

The 32-year-old Bosh has missed the second half of the past two seasons due to blood clots and then failed the Heat preseason physical days before Riley's announcement. Bosh is promising to continue his career away from the Heat.

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The Golden State Warriors will wear a No. 42 patch on their uniforms for every game this season in honor of the late Hall of Famer Nate Thurmond.

The Warriors legend died on July 16 at the age of 74 after a short battle with leukemia.

Thurmond, voted one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA history, was a member of the Warriors organization for more than four decades as a player and a community relations ambassador.

Thurmond spent 11 of his 14 NBA seasons with the San Francisco and Golden State Warriors. Golden State retired his jersey No. 42 in 1978 and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1985. (Editing by Andrew Both)

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