Marc J. Spears: NBA free agent forward Ben Simmons is expected to be a full participant with “zeros restrictions” in a player-led Aussie men’s national team mini-camp in Melbourne beginning Monday, sources to @andscape. Simmons took last season off in hopes of completely healing from injuries. The three-time NBA All-Star paid his own way to the camp. A coach who worked out Simmons recently said he has regained his athleticism. The injury-plagued 30-year-old recently told @andscape this is the best he’s felt in years. He last played with the Nets & Clippers 24-25 season. Sources: Several NBA teams have expressed interest to Simmons’ camp, including one West squad that offered a training camp invite. He is also open to signing a vet minimum contract.
Simmons has dreams of playing for Australia during 2028 LA Olympics. Attending mini-camp aids hope.
More on Ben Simmons: Recent HoopsHype Rumors
Ben Simmons appears to be teasing a major push to fulfill his plans of an NBA comeback. On Instagram, the former NBA star sparked plenty of reactions with his latest post, which featured a photo of him inside a basketball gym. Simmons said he is proud of where he stands and is “ready for wherever this goes” in the caption. "I wouldn't change the story," Simmons wrote. "The highs, the lows, the pain, the time, the lessons. I embrace all of it. Every chapter built something in me that I couldn't have built any other way. Grateful for where I've been. Proud of where I stand. Ready for wherever this goes." — 8/9/2026 BasketNews
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.” — 6/29/2026 Men's Health
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.” — 6/29/2026 Men's Health
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.” — 6/29/2026 Men's Health
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.” — 6/29/2026 Men's Health
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 ) — 6/22/2026 x.com
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.” — 6/3/2026 NBL.com.au
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.” — 6/3/2026 NBL.com.au
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. — 5/21/2026 ESPN
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. — 5/21/2026 ESPN
This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: 'Several NBA teams' have expressed interest in Ben Simmons, including a team that offered him training camp invite
