By By TIM REYNOLDS

AP Basketball Writer

By The Associated Press

Simmons in line

for $170M contract

Ben Simmons is apparently about to become the next recipient of a big commitment from the Philadelphia 76ers.

The All-Star point guard and the 76ers are negotiating a $170 million, five-year extension.

The deal will begin in the 2020-21 season.

Simmons will make about $8.1 million this season, the last of his four-year rookie deal. Assuming the sides agree on what will be a full max, Simmons’ salary for the following season would jump to about $29.3 million and eventually rise to nearly $39 million in 2024-25.

Simmons was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 draft out of LSU.

Celtics assistant gets probation, fine

MIAMI — A Boston Celtics assistant coach was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay a fine for accepting $300,000 in bribes to get a wealthy Florida businessman’s son into the University of Pennsylvania.

Court records show a federal judge imposed the sentence Monday on Jerome Allen, the former head basketball coach at Penn. In addition to four years’ probation, the 47-year-old Allen must pay a $202,000 fine and forfeit another $18,000.

Allen received a lenient sentence after testifying for prosecutors against Philip Esformes in a $1 billion Medicare fraud trial. Esformes was convicted in April of 20 counts including money laundering and obstruction of justice and awaits sentencing.

Lawyers: Person was broke

NEW YORK — Lawyers for former Auburn assistant basketball coach Chuck Person said Tuesday the 13-year NBA veteran was broke and financially desperate when he joined a bribery conspiracy that cheated young athletes by steering them toward bribe-paying advisers and managers.

They asked a judge in papers filed in Manhattan federal court to spare him from prison.

Prosecutors say Person, scheduled to be sentenced next Tuesday, accepted $91,500 in bribes to steer top players to a government cooperator posing as a financial adviser. Sentencing guidelines call for two years in prison.

Ex-Howard coach joins LSU staff

BATON ROUGE — LSU men’s basketball coach Will Wade said he named former Howard head coach Kevin Nickelberry as an assistant.

The 54-year-old Nickelberry spent the past nine seasons as head coach at Howard and spent three seasons as Hampton’s head coach before that.

Wade says he’s known Nickelberry for 15 years.