Australian basketball star Josh Giddey has revealed he ruptured an ankle ligament while playing for Australia at the Olympics in Paris, while Ben Simmons has defended his stop-start career but insists he is ready to re-emerge as a key figure in the league.
Speaking at the Chicago Bulls’ media day on Monday, Giddey said he had hurt his anterior talofibular ligament in the final Olympic game, an overtime loss to Serbia, and it had been worse than initially expected.
Giddey, traded from the Oklahoma City Thunder in June, will ease himself into training camp and through the exhibition season but expects to be fully fit when the season proper starts against the New Orleans Pelicans on October 23.
Hurt locker: Josh Giddey takes on fellow NBA star Nikola Jokic in the Australia-Serbia quarter-final at the Paris Olympics.Credit: Getty Images
“We thought it was just a regular ankle [sprain] at the time, but flew back to Melbourne, got scans, and they kind of confirmed that. It’s getting better, it’s getting to the point where I’m almost back out there. But we’re taking it slow,” Giddey said.
“This is not something you want to rush because we got time on our side at this point in the off-season. We’re just making sure it’s 100 per cent before we get back to playing. Everything has been great. Rehab has been going well, and I’m looking forward to getting out there with the guys.
“ … Everything is getting much better. It’s probably at a point where if it was a play-off game, I’d be out there playing. But because we’re in the off-season, this isn’t something you want to rush.
“Opening day? Yeah, yeah. I’ll be fine by then.”
Giddey fell out of the Thunder’s rotation through last year’s play-offs, but had the option of remaining with the franchise this season provided he could accept spending more time on the bench.
“Once it becomes a habit, this team’s going to be pretty scary in the open court.”
He was the No. 6 selection in the 2021 NBA draft by the Thunder.
Ready to go: Ben Simmons is looking forward to the 2024-25 NBA season.Credit: Getty Images
Meanwhile, fellow Australian Simmons says he is “ready to go” following his second back surgery in three years. It’s been six months since the point guard-forward had surgery, Simmons declaring “everything’s going well” and that there have been no setbacks.
“It feels like a new start, a fresh start, and then obviously, for me personally, just being healthy and being able to compete and play, you know, it does feel like that,” he said.
Simmons, 28, enters an intriguing stage of his career. His five-year, $177 million contract expires at the end of this season and has averaged only 6.7 points per game, six assists and 6.7 rebounds a game since he was traded from the Philadelphia 76ers to the Nets.
He needs to show new coach Jordi Fernandez – and the wider NBA – that he can be a strong contributor, even if his days as an NBA All-Star may be over.
“The priority is just to play and be healthy. So all the other stuff that’s being said, that’s just words from people that, obviously, have something to say about something they don’t know have information [on],” Simmons, set to make $40 million this season, said.
Simmons, who refused to fully participate or play in regular-season games in his final year with the 76ers, citing his mental health, was traded to the Nets in exchange for James Harden and has become a much-maligned figure in the NBA.
The three-time All-Star and two-time all-defensive first team selection has played just 57 games with the Nets since February 2022, and could be traded this season, if the rebuilding Nets are keen to improve their hopes of securing the No.1 draft pick.
Reflecting on his career, Simmons said, as a player, he was “not that bad” and maybe even “pretty good.”
“I’m not that bad at basketball,” Simmons replied after being informed he was 14th all-time triple-doubles.
“That’s not too bad, but I think got some more in me.”
However, as New York-based reporters noted, Simmons’s last triple-double was in June 2021, when he was with the 76ers.
