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The plan is to stay in L.A. for a few days and then return to Miami, where he’ll ramp up his training: two and a half to three hours of lifting and body work, as well as hour-and-a-half sessions on the court, with a day or two off every week. He hopes to be back to full strength by his 30th birthday, July 20. He’s now an unrestricted free agent, and I ask him explicitly if he’s planning to play in the NBA next year. “I plan on getting as strong as I can physically, getting my ass on the court, and then the team realizing that my abilities will be needed,” he says. “I don’t have a plan on where.” He feels like he still has a lot to offer teams (“You can’t teach 6'10" and IQ,” he says), and he’s been talking to coaches who have told him to get healthy, because if he’s healthy, he has a spot. “Maybe I’ll go back to Philly,” Ben Simmons says. “Miami would be nice. And not because it’s Miami—I like Erik Spoelstra, I like the Heat, I like their organization, I like the culture.”
Ben Simmons says it took him a long time to realize that it was also a nervous system issue. “You can’t be in a state where you’re in a high-stress situation all the time, especially trying to recover from a back injury,” he says. “I would’ve rather gone through a broken foot again, ’cause it would have been clear and easy.”
This is why Simmons finds it particularly frustrating when people question his love of the game or his competitiveness, or constantly evaluate his game through the lens of how he once played. “The joy that I play with comes from being healthy,” he says. “How do you love something when you’re fucked up? How do you love something that you do when you’re incapable of doing it?” When I ask Simmons why he didn’t just tell people how much pain he was in, he says that he didn’t want it to sound like an excuse. “The people I’m closest to, I’ll explain it to them,” he says. “But at the same time, I don’t have the energy to prove it to everybody, you know? And people are gonna make up whatever they want anyway.”
Simmons seems to be in a good place mentally now, but with all the scrutiny that comes from being Ben Simmons, I wanted to know if there’s added pressure for this comeback. “Nah, there’s no pressure,” he says. “I had pressure when I was injured. People are gonna say the same thing every single time. It’s like, All right, well, if that’s what you think, then that’s what you think.” He thinks people are quick to forget the impact he could have on the court in his best moments, the way he contributes in ways that don’t show up on a stat sheet. “When I’m out there, I make everybody better. I play defense. I get offensive rebounds.”
Danny Green says Darryn Peterson resume right now it’s looking like a Ben Simmons type of thing: “Like we haven’t seen anything like this since Ben Simmons was in college. Kind of like shutting it down mid-season or like in game type thing. I don’t know want his draft process is like, but like again, this history you’re having right now is not a good start, man, to the career. Like, you want to be known as a guy that’s willing to be out there and lay it on the line. You have to prove yourself like P said every day, every night. Like, reprove yourself. You can’t start off thinking you’re just going to be the best thing ever and be a diva coming into this league right away.” (Via @NFGShow )
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Over the past few weeks, there has been plenty of chatter around three-time NBA All-Star Ben Simmons and his next stop on the hardwood. The 29-year-old, who has 422 NBA games to his name, hasn’t featured in a basketball game since the end of the 2024-25 season with the Los Angeles Clippers. The latest to weigh in on the future of the 2016 first overall Draft pick isAustralian basketball icon Andrew Gaze. "He's an interesting prospect. If he has the desire, then there's no doubt in my mind, it's still a guy in his late 20s that he could play at a high level,” Gaze told NBL Media. “He's an NBA All-Star, and provided his body is in the right shape and he's comfortable where he's at, he would dominate this competition. “[He’s] a 6’10 point guard, a guy that we can equate to Magic Johnson type skills. “I think this [League] would be a great platform for him to come back and continue his career in basketball. He's a superstar.”
This comes after 2001 NBL champion Damon Lowery called on NBL teams to pick up the phone and reach out to the 2020 All-NBA Third Team selection. “To all your NBL GMs out there, I know you love basketball, but do you love it enough to reach out to Ben and see how he’s doing?” Lowery said on Instagram. “[Because] what if a healthy Ben Simmons showed up in NBL27? Can you imagine? It would be carnage. “Who going to guard him? Because he could guard everyone. “He would win MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in the same year.”
Ben Simmons is now a champion ... in sportfishing. On Sunday, the South Florida Sails captured the Sport Fishing Championship Blue Marlin Open at Walker's Cay in the Bahamas. Helping South Florida to the title was none other than Simmons, a co-owner and angler for the club. Better known for his NBA career, Simmons was taken by the Philadelphia 76ers with the first pick in the 2016 draft and went on to play seven seasons in the league.
South Florida first surged atop the leaderboard on the event's first day, when angler Alex Stanley released a blue marlin, worth 450 points -- the first of the 2026 SFC season. Another blue marlin release by Stanley later in the afternoon helped the Sails end Day 1 in first place. A dominant Saturday saw South Florida build a commanding lead, and the Sails secured the win on Sunday's Day 3. The club finished the event with 2,925 points, almost 1,500 points clear of the second-place New Jersey Sea Birds.
Around the league, Tyronn Lue is widely regarded as one of the NBA’s top coaches, as cited in the league’s annual general manager survey. His players buy in quickly. They arrive enthusiastic, energized to play for one of the league’s most respected coaches. They talk about his feel for the game, his ability to connect and why they trust him. But that same identity has produced a reoccurring pattern: At point guard in particular, those relationships have rarely lasted. In recent years, a steady stream of veteran guards have passed through the LA Clippers, drawn by Lue’s leadership and the promise of playing in his system. The list is long: Rajon Rondo, Eric Bledsoe, John Wall, Russell Westbrook, Ben Simmons. Each player has different résumés and expectations — and, in most cases, similar endings: quiet departures with little sense of closure.
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The ESPN personality Smith went viral during Tuesday's episode of "First Take" over his comments about the former NBA All-Star forward Simmons. During a discussion about the Los Angeles Lakers' poor perimeter shooting, Smith quipped, "They ain't quite Ben Simmons." When questioned by his co-hosts as to why he had brought up a player who was no longer in the NBA, Smith promptly went in Simmons. "As long as 'First Take' is in existence, Ben Simmons will catch strays," said Smith. "I ain't apologizing for it to a damn soul. There is no bigger thief in the history of the NBA than that man. "If Ben Simmons runs near a basketball arena, he should be arrested," Smith added.
Tired of playing hurt, Ben Simmons said he decided against signing with another NBA team in the offseason, opting instead for an extended rehab effort meant to restore his health in time to return to the league either later this season or before the 2026-27 campaign. “I’m about to be 30 years old, and I need to make the best decision for Ben Simmons,” he said. “It’s not fun going out there, not being able to move, not be able to jump, or, you know, take hits. There’s no fun in that. Sometimes you got to make a decision with how you feel and what’s best for yourself. And that’s what I’ve done, and it’s not for everybody to really understand, because they’re not in my shoes.”
Before he attempts another comeback, Simmons said he is training in Los Angeles with the goal of becoming “bulletproof” to avoid further setbacks. He also said his shot finally feels good and that he can now take a simple hook shot without any discomfort. Injuries, of course, weren’t the only reason Simmons’ career stalled. After the Philadelphia 76ers denied his trade request before the 2021 season, Simmons skipped training camp and wound up missing the entire season.
