'Abomination': Nuclear reaction to Simmons' latest NBA declaration
Ben Simmons wants back in.
Some ten years after being drafted as the No.1 pick to the 76ers, the Australian is targeting a comeback to the NBA for the upcoming season after the three-time All Star spent a year on the sidelines.
Ben Simmons. Getty
Simmons, who turns 30 in July, last played with the LA Clippers in 2024-25.
He told Men’s Health he needed to get away from the sport and “find myself again.”
“I plan on getting as strong as I can physically, getting my ass on the court, and then the team realising that my abilities will be needed,” Simmons said. “I don’t have a plan on where.”
However, Simmons, the No.1 pick in the 2016 draft, said he has spoken to coaches who have told him that he can play again in the NBA if he can get healthy.
“Maybe I’ll go back to Philly,” he said.
“Miami would be nice. And not because it’s Miami. I like Erik Spoelstra, I like the Heat, I like their organisation, I like the culture.”
During the interview, Simmons was also asked about arguably the most controversial moment of his career, when he chose to hand the ball off to teammate Matisse Thybulle, rather than dunk over a much smaller Trae Young close to the basket in the 2021 eastern conference semi-finals.
With less than four minutes left in the match and the 76ers down a bucket, Thybulle was fouled on his dunk attempt and missed a free throw, with the Sixers going down and Simmons’ reputation taking a massive hit.
The Australian was asked about the internal dialogue he had with himself when Thybulle missed.
“Motherf----, you knock it down!” he said.
Ben Simmons played for the Clippers the season before last. nna\sworthington
“I just gave it to somebody who was shooting a higher percentage free throw at the time. So what is the difference?
“How about he should’ve made the f----ng free throws? But he didn’t and it is what it is. That’s still my boy. I love the guy.”
While Simmons is optimistic about returning to the league, it’s fair to say the news of the Aussie’s potential return did not go over well with sections of America’s media.
ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith believes he has no place in the NBA, and that if he does make a comeback, he should pay a team, rather than the other way around.
“I think Ben Simmons is a basketball abomination,” he said on the Stephen A. Smith Show.
“He is the only player that I have ever witnessed in NBA history, who I believe should pay NBA teams to have him play — not the other way around.
“This brother was literally on the basketball and treated attempting a jump shot as if you had asked him to be on the front lines in Iran or Iraq.”
Smith added: “The biggest waste of talent we have seen in NBA history, if not all of professional sports, in our lifetime.
“Never has somebody been so damn good — that good — and was a waste of space,” Smith concluded.
The Melbourne-born Simmons has been busy during his time off after he bought into the South Florida Sails professional fishing team, spending the past eight months fishing in Florida.
If he can get on the court, Simmons would be available to play for the Boomers at 2027 FIBA Men’s World Cup and the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
But since he’s only ever played for Australia once as a 17-year-old on debut against New Zealand in 2013, there’s a level of uncertainty around his place in the Australian team.
“As for Ben’s relationship with the Boomers, from what I understand, there’s a bit of history there,” Hawks and Boomers big man Jock Landale told the Dyl & Friends podcast.
“I wasn’t involved back then, and I don’t hold any judgment towards it.
“I would’ve loved to have had him along many times. I don’t know where he sits with basketball right now.
“I see him working out every now and again.
“I think it’s one of those things where we’d love to have him if he’s ready to go, healthy, mentally in a good spot and willing, like everyone else, to buy into the Boomers culture. But if not, no hard feelings.
“He could’ve helped us a lot at times. It would’ve been cool to come home with a few more medals with his help.
“But that’s reality. We’re not going to beg.
“We’ve got this thing where if you want to be a part of it, you’re there.
“It’s just that simple. The invite’s there. The invite’s always there.”
