experiencing the news each day can feel like a journey with up first from npr though it doesn't have to be welcome to 15 easy minutes of breaking news clarity on international and national affairs and a casual tone that you can take in with breakfast begin your day informed ready and refreshed Begin your day with Up First.

Subscribe to Up First from NPR on the IHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hello and welcome.

It's our number three.

The Ben Maller Radio Show repackaged in the podcast format.

We're just a couple days away from the NBA draft and a lot of rumors bouncing around the echo chamber of sports conversation, including Ben Simmons.

His name has popped up.

What are the odds that the 76ers trade Ben Simmons before the start of next NBA season.

We will release the Mallor odds, and we'll do that right now in our number three.

Going AWOL, but is it true? Welcome in the beginning of yet another hour of the Ben Maler show chopping down the overnight hours.

We are in the air everywhere as we scream like a manchee, coast to coast, border to border,

and beyond on the vast and powerful microphones of FSR emanating live from another dimension,

a dimension of only sound and mind to the boundaries of imagination, the Fox Sports Radio Studios.

That's our homage to a classic piece of American television.

But our lead this hour coming from the Sour Push Department of the NBA.

Now, I know I had promised that we would not be doing pro-bouncy ball monologues,

but the draft is a couple days away, and I don't really want to get too much into the draft.

I will do the standard, rare and appropriate NBA draft monologue following the NBA draft,

but we have a story that caught my attention.

Ben Simmons, I always say the better stories in the losing locker room,

and that's Ben Simmons locker in the losing locker room.

And so we're being told that Ben Simmons has been playing a cat and mouse game with the Sixers.

...