Clay Skipper<\/a> of Men’s Health. “I don’t have a plan on where. … Maybe I’ll go back to Philly. Miami would be nice. And not because it’s Miami\u2014I like Erik Spoelstra, I like the Heat, I like their organization, I like the culture.”<\/p>\nSimmons, 29, said he was dealing with issues in his lower back and legs after pinching a nerve in his back in 2020. While there were major question marks about his confidence as a player late in his Philadelphia 76ers tenure\u2014everybody remembers him passing up an easy dunk against the Atlanta Hawks in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals\u2014Simmons said it was simply an injury issue.<\/p>\n
“I was injured,” he told Men’s Health when asked about his confidence at the time. “So many people speak about confidence. If I was not confident, I would not get on the court again, I would not go to the Los Angeles Clippers, I wouldn’t play in Brooklyn. It’s health. It’s just being healthy.”<\/p>\n
He indicated he was in so much pain that basically every basketball activity became difficult.<\/p>\n
“Go and get a rebound. Dunk the ball. Guard. Play defense. Be physical,” he said. “Everything you need to be a basketball player. It felt like I was just kinda out there as a body.”<\/p>\n
After that series, Simmons infamously demanded a trade and stayed away from the team before ultimately being dealt to the Nets in Feb. 2022 in a deal that sent James Harden to the Sixers. He ultimately didn’t play at all in the 2021-22 season and only appeared in 90 games for Brooklyn over the following three seasons. <\/p>\n
He had a brief stint with the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2024-25 season, appearing in 18 games, before sitting out last year. In December, he bought a majority ownership stake in the South Florida Sails Angling Club, which competes in the Sport Fishing Championship. <\/p>\n
Simmons, at his peak, was a three-time All-Star who was an elite defender and playmaker. His size and athleticism made him a monster in transition, though his lack of a jump shot and his offensive passiveness in general was a limitation in the halfcourt. <\/p>\n
But a healthy and motivated Simmons\u2014and one willing to play on the veteran minimum\u2014surely would intrigue teams. His defense and passing alone would make him a nice asset to bring off the bench. <\/p>\n
“When I’m out there, I make everybody better,” Simmons told Skipper. “I play defense. I get offensive rebounds.”<\/p>\n
And he said he still loves the game.<\/p>\n
“I think this is just what I’m choosing to do, like, no one’s forcing me. It’s never been about, do I love playing basketball? That’s never a question,” he said. “That’s in my DNA. I think sometimes you get over all the bulls–t that comes with it, though.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Professional fisherman Ben Simmons is going to attempt an NBA comeback this summer. “I plan on getting as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-768292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768292","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=768292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}