Report: 76ers suspend Kirilenko without pay for not joining team after trade

The Philadelphia 76ers have suspended forward Andrei Kirilenko for failing to report to the team, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. His suspension is without pay and he was informed of the team's decision earlier this week, Wojnarowski added. 

Kirilenko was traded to the 76ers from the Brooklyn Nets in December but never reported to the team. 

When the Nets traded Kirilenko, the understanding was that the forward was going to be released, but that never happened and Kirilenko refused to join the team despite a request from the 76ers to do so. 

The 76ers reportedly agreed to release the veteran after the deal was completed, according to Bob Ford of The Philadelphia Inquirer, but have yet to follow through on that agreement.

Both 76ers general manager Sam Hinkie and Nets GM Billy King declined to comment on the report, said Ford. But a source of Ford's weighed in on the situation. 

"I think he started thinking he can just hold onto him and use him at the trade deadline in a package to get something," an NBA source told Ford. 

More from Ford:

According to two sources, the Nets told the Sixers that Kirilenko would not report and wished to become a free agent. Brooklyn had other trade options that would have worked out just as well or better if Kirilenko had been willing to play. Those sources insist the Sixers agreed to release Kirilenko but did not.

"That's 100 percent accurate," one source said. "(The Nets) clearly believed there was a handshake deal."

If the Sixers truly viewed Kirilenko as a possible player for them, as their team source indicated, it is hard to understand why they agreed to waive physicals as a condition of the trade when acquiring a player who had been unable to stay on the court because of injury.

A 76ers team source, however, shot down the allegations. 

"We made the trade to get the draft pick and in hopes (Kirilenko) might play for us," the 76ers source said. "(Releasing him) was not a condition of the trade, but I have no idea what was said to him on the other end."

The Nets moved Kirilenko in a salary dump, while Philadelphia's interest in acquiring him was to obtain draft picks, which it did.

Kirilenko has been limited to just seven games this season. A personal matter with his wife, reportedly a difficulty in her pregnancy, kept him off the court while he was with the Nets after he fell out of Brooklyn coach Lionel Hollins' rotation.