SI

Ben Simmons Comeback Season Has Arrived: 'Big Season Loading'

Basketball season is right around the corner. Is Simmons?

Stephen Douglas

Feb 29, 2024; Brooklyn, New York, USA; Brooklyn Nets guard Ben Simmons (not in uniform) sits on the bench in the first quarter against the Atlanta Hawks at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images
Feb 29, 2024; Brooklyn, New York, USA; Brooklyn Nets guard Ben Simmons (not in uniform) sits on the bench in the first quarter against the Atlanta Hawks at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images / Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images
In this story:

Ben Simmons was the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. He immediately broke a bone in his foot during his first training camp and missed the entirety of the 2016-2017 season. Fans have basically been waiting for him to return at full strength ever since.

Yet hope springs eternal. Despite Simmons's history and reputation, every year there are whispers, anecdotes and videos purporting to show that he is healthy. That he is motivated. That he is going to shoot three-pointers.

He won Rookie of the Year in 2018 and was an All-Star in 2019 and then the wheels started to come off, despite sources saying otherwise. Simmons suffered a nerve impingement that took him out of the lineup in early 2020. By the time the league was ramping up to continue the season at Disney World during the pandemic, reports started to trickle out that he was getting in shape.

“I was able to get pilates in almost every day, lifting weights taking care of my body, getting back to 100%,” Simmons said. “So I’ve just been trying to go overboard with that, and be prepared to be down there (in Orlando) and play.”

The hiatus had obviously come at a good time for him personally! Simmons played the first three games in the Disney bubble before shutting it down again.

By October he was back on the court looking good in private workouts with other Klutch clients.

Simmons would play most of the '20-'21 season, make first team All-Defense and finish second in Defensive Player of the Year voting. The season ended with him passing up a layup in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Atlanta Hawks. Sixers coach Doc Rivers didn't even know if he was a point guard.

He was back in the gym shooting transition threes in workouts, but decided he wanted a trade. He missed the entirety of the '21-'22 season while holding out and dealing with mental health issues.

Finally, in February 2022 he was traded to the Brooklyn Nets. That brings us to the greatest moment in Ben Simmons comeback hype history. Having acquired Simmons two months earlier, the Nets were still waiting for him to get back on the court. In April 2022 the Brooklyn Nets were preparing to take on the Boston Celtics in the first round of the NBA playoffs.

Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Simmons had been "running and shooting pain-free for over a week" and the Nets expected Simmons to take the next step any minute now. That same day the New York Post reported that a source told the paper that the NBA postseason scheduled was a "huge favor" to the Nets in regards to Simmons comeback. Simmons put an exclamation mark on the report by telling assembled media to watch him dunk during practice.

Simmons would not appear in Boston's sweep of Brooklyn.

When the '22-'23 season started the Associated Press ran a story about how he wascoming into the season healthy and he told the New York Post he felt "amazing" and "great."

“Naturally I’ve always been one of the guys who can get their fitness up pretty quickly, so that really wasn’t a worry for me,” Simmons told the Post. “It’s the endurance of just playing five-on-five, getting hit up and down. But overall, I feel great.”

He would miss 40 games and shut things down for the season in February.

As the '23-'24 season rolled around Andscape wrote about Simmons's latest comeback. He was "locked in" and admitted that he probably shouldn't have been on the court at the start of the previous season. Despite the locked in status and playing in seven of the team's first eight games, he missed 67 games and was again shut down in February.

Which brings us to this week when accounts started to post things about Simmons being back based on a quote from his trainer.

You know basketball season is getting close when you start to see pictures of Ben Simmons back in the lab. The league—and the accounts that follow it—have officially been put on notice.

feed

Published
Stephen Douglas

STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a Senior Writer on the Breaking & Trending News Team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in journalism and media since 2008, and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Stephen spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and has previously written for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.

Home/NBA