Pointgod wrote:Sixerscan wrote:Pointgod wrote:
You bring about a good point about disclosure as per the CBA but the question is what are the Sixers actually getting out of this information? It’s not like Simmons is going to some psychiatrist at the strip mall, it’s through the NBAPA so not sure why they can’t go through other channels to get that info.
From Simmons’ point of view I could see he’s reluctant to disclose too much, especially with the risk of leaks. Not that Morey would leak it, but you never know what could happen,with an organization as large as the Sixers. And from Morey’s perspective his interest is just getting Simmons back on the court, but not sure if he’s going to get the answer to that from therapist notes alone. And I still assume there are still HIPPA rights regarding what can be disclosed. The problem is that neither side trusts the other one so any type of mutual resolution seems far away.
They get proof that he has a legit reason under the CBA to get paid millions of dollars despite not performing services.
If he doesn't want to disclose anything that's fine but if he wants to get paid under his contract, he has to disclose certain things under it. I'm not going to explain HIPPA here but trust me it is not relevant (and google it if you don't want to take my word for it).
And the bold is exactly the problem with the approach the Sixers are taking. Like I said, there’s no trust from either party and in normal circumstances would any team go to these lengths to disprove mental health issues? This isn’t something at even a psychiatrist could make a definitive statement on. It really depends on if Simmons is in the mental state to play. Other than “Simmons is making progress” I don’t know exactly what they expect from the therapist. They’re not going to go into details and there’s a good reason that players wouldn’t want teams to know about the specifics of their mental health issues.
I’m not American so I don’t know exactly how HIPPA works in all situations but I’ll take your word that it doesn’t apply here.
HIPPA basically stops hospitals and similar entities from sharing patient medical information without their consent. So first, a professional sports league isn't covered by HIPPA. Second, there's a provision in every player's contract that they have to disclose their medical information to the team, and the team can disclose it, which is why you get hourly injury reports about every player's availability to play.
I would agree with you about the Sixers' approach if this just came out of nowhere, the thing is it is a culmination of months and months of him pulling every trick in the book to avoid rejoining the team, and even this latest thing is the culmination of him going several weeks of not cooperating with them, which may very well include providing such a statement from his psychiatrist or therapist. When he first said he was having mental issues, he met with the team, the two sides clearly set expectations, and he's clearly blowing them off. How long would you expect them to wait while also paying him millions of dollars? He's basically backed the team into a corner where either they just have to be treated like fools or play hardball with him.
Again, if the team is doing anything wrong, I would expect his agent or the players association (or heck, how about we hear from Ben himself?) to say so and explain what it is, otherwise all he has defending him is random people online who don't know anything about the situation.
