{"id":367566,"date":"2025-12-23T22:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T22:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/367566\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T22:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T22:29:07","slug":"ben-simmons-venture-into-pro-fishing-basketball-career-on-hold-report-where-could-he-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/367566\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Simmons venture into pro fishing, basketball career on hold, report, where could he play?"},"content":{"rendered":"

With his NBA career still in jeopardy, Ben Simmons has made a curious foray into a new sport: fishing.<\/p>\n

Watch NBA with ESPN on Kayo Sports | Stream an average 9 LIVE Regular Season games per week plus the best of the NBA Playoffs.| New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Australian former no.1 overall draft pick isn\u2019t on an NBA team in the month of December for the first time in his professional career as deep-seated back nerve issues have continued to plague his progress. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rather, Simmons has recently become the new controlling operator of the South Florida Sails of the Sport Fishing Championship \u2014 a professional offshore saltwater fishing league comprised of 16 pro angling clubs founded in 2021. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe way I see it, it\u2019s like the new F1 (Formula 1) for fishing. The new LIV Golf for fishing,\u201d Simmons told Andscape\u2019s Marc Spears<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe first real competitive sport fishing championship. It\u2019s a league of 16 teams, which is growing and expanding … we\u2019ll go out there and compete in various different tournaments, and there\u2019ll be a champion crowned at the end. It\u2019s a point-scored system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simmons, the NBA\u2019s Rookie of the Year in 2017-18 for the Philadelphia 76ers, last suited up for the Los Angeles Clippers for 18 games last season. <\/p>\n

The now-free-agent averaged 2.9 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists while with the Clippers. <\/p>\n

Aussie NBA stars go head-to-head | 00:51<\/p>\n

The soon-to-be 30-year-old acknowledged his new venture was a tad left-of-centre but said: \u201cIt\u2019s a very niche sport. And if you don\u2019t know, you don\u2019t know. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut once you experience it and get out there and see what it\u2019s about, you\u2019re kind of in awe of what the sport is. And that\u2019s just something I\u2019ve always been interested in in terms of the sport of fishing. The technique.\u201d <\/p>\n

But make no mistake, Simmons is still planning on making a return to the NBA hardwood. <\/p>\n

Spears reports Simmons has been stacking basketball, strength and rehabilitation workouts six days a week \u201cin hopes of getting fully healthy for a return to action\u201d. <\/p>\n

But while Simmons knows he could contribute to a contender in the short term, the much-maligned guard-forward has placed a premium on his health. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe it\u2019s just (about) getting on a team,\u201d Simmons told Spears. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, if I were to play right now, I think I\u2019d fit right into the NBA just given what I can do. But I want to give everything I can to the game. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any point in just wasting a spot just to be out there. I think that\u2019s a little selfish. And there are guys that do it now. But that\u2019s what it is, the business.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I\u2019m very blessed to not have to be in that situation where I need to fight right now. But I want to get to the best of my ability and physical peak to compete. Otherwise, it doesn\u2019t really serve me any purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With his NBA career still in jeopardy, Ben Simmons has made a curious foray into a new sport:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[2095,7218,64,63,199324,49505,15607,5127,2066,199321,199322,12840,800,199319,2105,9286,91117,7236,199320,590,199318,2041,2067,9207,199323,199317,199326,85,199325,42008,2614,11898],"class_list":["post-367566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-america","tag-atlanta-hawks","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-back-nerve-issues","tag-basketball-career","tag-ben-simmons","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-controlling-operator","tag-curious-foray","tag-dyson-daniels","tag-espn-inc","tag-fix-basketball","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-illinois","tag-j-michael-reaves","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-marc-spears","tag-nba","tag-niche-sport","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-professional-career","tag-rehabilitation-workouts","tag-saltwater-fishing-league","tag-shock-foray","tag-sports","tag-tad-left-of-centre","tag-united-center","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-utah-jazz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}