The Philadelphia 76ers haven’t had much luck with rookies and their injuries; most notably is Joel Embiid who missed his first two years in the league with a foot injury. While Embiid is ruled out for summer league, 2016 No. 1 draft pick Ben Simmons made his debut, unfortunately it wasn’t a great one.
The Sixers rookie battled cramping in both legs and needed assistance getting off the court in the fourth quarter of a 102-94 loss to the Boston Celtics. Simmons did not return to the game and Sixers have ruled him out for Tuesday’s game against the San Antonio Spurs as a precaution.
“We might have been able to put him back in, but on July Fourth, we didn’t need to create those fireworks,” Philadelphia summer coach Billy Lange said via ESPN. “We’ve got a long summer league schedule ahead of us, between the rest of this summer league and Vegas. We said yesterday we were going to take it smart from here on out.”
Simmons said he would make an effort to ward off cramps by drinking more fluids.
“That’s the worst I’ve ever cramped, so I’m definitely going to stay on that,” he said.
In his first NBA appearance, Simmons posted 10 points, eight rebounds and five assists over 23:41 of play.
