Australia will be deprived the chance to see its brightest young basketball star play at this year's Rio Olympics, with Ben Simmons set to miss the games in order to focus on his impending NBA debut season.
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Simmons, 19, has long been tipped as the likely No. 1 pick in this year's NBA draft. Having impressed for LSU in college basketball, he announced in March that he would nominate for the draft.
His agent Rich Paul explained Simmons' decision not to play for the Boomers in Brazil. "Ben Simmons will postpone playing with the Australian Olympic team this summer in order to concentrate fully on his NBA activities following the upcoming 2016 NBA draft," Paul told ESPN.
"Australian Olympic Team training and competition takes place at the same time as the various NBA summer development programs, and therefore, Ben will look forward to his national team participation at some later time in his career."
