Ben Simmons will step onto the court in Melbourne on Monday with something he has not had in years: zero restrictions.
The former No. 1 pick is expected to be a full participant at a player-led minicamp for the Australian men’s national team, a source told ESPN Andscape. The session opens in his hometown. It is the city where his comeback story now quietly takes shape.
Simmons, 30, sat out the entire 2025-26 NBA season. He wanted his back, and the other injuries that have chased him since college, to fully heal before he stepped onto an NBA floor again.
His last NBA action came with the Los Angeles Clippers. He signed with the team in February 2025 after the Brooklyn Nets waived him following a contract buyout. He appeared in 18 regular season games for Los Angeles, then five more in the playoffs.
Several NBA teams have shown interest in Simmons this offseason, according to sources. He is open to signing for the veteran minimum. One source said a Western Conference team has already put a non-guaranteed offer on the table tied to this week’s minicamp.
Is This the Gateway Back to the NBA?
That offer alone signals how closely teams are watching this week. A strong showing in Melbourne could turn a cautious interest into a firm roster spot before training camps open across the league.
It also raises the question hanging over this entire comeback. A clean bill of health at minicamp will not guarantee Simmons a contract. But it may be the clearest signal yet that his path back to the NBA runs through Australia first.
David Patrick has watched the rebuild up close. Patrick is an Arizona State assistant coach and Simmons’ godfather. He also serves as an assistant for the Australian national team.
Patrick told Andscape that Simmons has regained the athleticism that once made him a matchup nightmare. Simmons has done most of that work in Miami, where he lives.
Melbourne is not just a stop for Simmons. It is home. He hopes his path leads to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, where he could finally represent the Boomers on basketball’s biggest stage.
He paid his own way to attend this week’s camp. That detail speaks to how much the opportunity means to him after a season on the sideline.
Simmons has represented Australia before, though briefly. He played twice for the Boomers at the 2013 FIBA Men’s Oceania Championships as a 17-year-old. Many considered him a potential Olympic contributor in the years since.
Yet he did not suit up for Australia across the next three Games. That gap made this week’s minicamp feel overdue for Boomers fans who have waited to see him in green and gold again.
From LSU Phenom to a Career Interrupted
Simmons arrived in the United States as a teenager and starred for one season at LSU. He earned consensus first-team All-American honors and SEC Freshman of the Year before Philadelphia made him the No. 1 pick in the 2016 draft.
He won Rookie of the Year in 2018 and quickly became one of the league’s most unique players. Standing 6-foot-10, he pushed the ball like a guard and defended four positions. He earned three straight All-Star selections from 2019 to 2021.
He also picked up a spot on the 2020 All-NBA third team. He added All-Defensive first team honors in both 2020 and 2021, a peak that once put him among the league’s most versatile defenders.
That peak came with a turning point. Simmons passed up an open dunk late in Game 7 of the 2021 Eastern Conference semifinals against Atlanta, a moment that still follows him. Philadelphia’s season ended that night, and Simmons never played another game for the 76ers.
He sat out the following season amid a trade request and well-documented mental health struggles. Philadelphia finally moved him to Brooklyn in February 2022 in a blockbuster deal built around James Harden.
His Nets tenure never matched the hype. Back injuries limited him to a fraction of his talent, and Brooklyn eventually bought out his contract before the Clippers signed him in February 2025.
Injuries have interrupted nearly every chapter since Philadelphia. Simmons has not played more than 60 games in a single season since 2018-19. That stretch of setbacks has followed him from Philadelphia to Brooklyn to Los Angeles.
Life Beyond the Court
Away from basketball, Simmons has built something new. In December 2025, the avid fisherman purchased a 50 percent majority stake in the South Florida Sails Angling Club. He became the team’s controlling operator in the Sport Fishing Championship.
For now, all eyes turn to Melbourne. A healthy, unrestricted Ben Simmons on an Australian practice court is the clearest sign yet that this comeback is real.
This version of Simmons intends to prove it on his own terms, starting with the people and the country that shaped him first.
