The Sixers Were Ordered To Pay The Pelicans $3 Million For Not Disclosing Jrue Holiday’s Injuries

When the Philadelphia 76ers abruptly traded All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday to the New Orleans Pelicans for the rights to Nerlens Noel on the night of the 2013 Draft, it came as a bit of shock. But now, according to a new report from the Philadelphia Inquirer, their rationale is more clear.

Last season, the league offices apparently mandated that the Sixers pay the Pelicans $3 million in recompense for allegedly failing to fully disclose Holiday’s injury history. Here’s more from Keith Pompey of Philly.com:

“The sources said Holiday played with stress fractures in his lower right leg during his final season with the Sixers. However, the sources said, those injures weren’t fully disclosed to the Pelicans.”

Sources inside the 76ers organization have denied those allegations, but in a turn of poetic justice, the Sixers are now apparently trying to receive recompense of their own from the Los Angeles Lakers due to similar allegations surrounding the ill-fated Andrew Bynum trade in 2012. Bynum, you’ll recall, never even suited up for the Sixers and was in near-constant off-the-court trouble as well.

Holiday hasn’t fared quite as bad, but he’s played less than 50 percent of the games during the past two seasons since the trade. It’s unclear whether the Sixers will receive the money their looking for, and complicating matter further is the fact that teams are given the opportunity to evaluate a given player’s physical health prior to the prospective trade. Both teams did their due diligence in these cases yet still somehow managed to overlook relatively serious health concerns.

(via Philly.com)

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