Simmons out for home opener, still not ready to join 76ers

PHILADELPHIA — Ben Simmons sat out the Philadelphia 76ers’ home opener on Friday night for personal reasons and the franchise does not know when the three-time All-Star guard will return.

Simmons was suspended for the first game of the season for conduct detrimental to the team after coach Doc Rivers threw him out of practice for refusing to participate in a drill. He returned Friday and addressed the team before the shootaround for the opener against Brooklyn. Rivers said it was a “productive day” and hoped the meeting was a start toward bringing Simmons back into the fold.

“It still doesn’t mean things will work out perfect, or it could,” Rivers said. “I’ve always believed that. I’ve never wavered from that.”

Simmons averaged 15.9 points, 8.1 rebounds and 7.7 assists over four seasons with Philadelphia, which drafted him No. 1 in 2016 out of LSU, where he played only one season. His defining moment as a Sixer

came when he passed up a wide-open dunk against Atlanta in the second round of last year’s playoffs that would have tied the game late in Game 7. Simmons took the blame for Philly’s early postseason exit.

Rivers said he didn’t want to predict when Simmons might rejoin the Sixers — if the guard returns at all.

UCLA’s Cronin a winner at the track ahead of hoops opener

LOS ANGELES — UCLA coach Mick Cronin is a winner even before the college basketball season starts next month.

A 3-year-old filly co-owned by Cronin won the $63,000 feature at Santa Anita by three-quarters of a length on Friday.

Sent off at 6-1 odds, So Very Smart paid $14.40, $6.40 and $8.20

The victory, worth $37,800, increased So Very Smart’s career earnings to $84,860, with two wins in seven starts. Cronin and his Boom Racing own the filly in partnership with three other stables.

Trained by Doug O’Neill and ridden by Abel Cedillo, So Very Smart ran six furlongs in 1:11.16.

So Very Smart overhauled leader Rain Diva a sixteenth of a mile from the finish, holding off Smooth like buttah at the wire.

So Very Smart won her first career race on Oct. 16 by 6¼ lengths.

The second-ranked Bruins open the season on Nov. 9.

Virus keeps Kingsbury from practice as Cards prep for Texans

TEMPE, Ariz. — Linebacker Chandler Jones was back at the Arizona’s practice facility on Friday. Head coach Kliff Kingsbury was not.

The undefeated Cardinals are still sifting through COVID-19 issues as they prepare to face the Houston Texans on Sunday. Arizona’s trying to push to 7-0 for the first time since 1974.

Kingsbury, quarterbacks

coach Cam Turner, Jones and defensive linemen Zach Allen and Corey Peters all missed last week’s 37-14 win over the Cleveland Browns after testing positive on the virus. So far, only Turner and Jones have returned.

Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said Kingsbury is “getting better by the day” and the team is still hoping he’d be cleared by Sunday. Joseph added that if Kingsbury’s not available, the Cardinals would go with a similar plan as last week’s game in Cleveland, where Joseph was in charge of the defense and assistant receviers coach Spencer Whipple called the offensive plays.

Kingsbury has been able to handle all the offensive meetings virtually from his home.

Pens’ star Crosby: still no timetable for return from injury

CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby still isn’t sure when he will be cleared to return after he had left wrist surgery last month.