Ben Simmons will return to the NBA on a one-year deal with the Sacramento Kings. According to ESPN's Shams Charania and Marc J. Spears, Simmons signed a $3.5 million contract with Sacramento on Friday.
He sat out the entire 2025-26 season recovering from back issues. Simmons entered the league to considerable fanfare as the No. 1 pick of the 2016 draft. After missing his entire first season due to a foot injury, he won Rookie of the Year honors for the Philadelphia 76ers before receiving three straight All-Star nods.
The 6-foot-10 guard stuffed the stat sheet, averaging 15.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, 7.7 assists, and 1.7 steals in 275 games with Philadelphia. Simmons looked like one of the league's brightest stars despite never making a 3-point shot, but his career took a turn for the worse after infamously passing up a wide-open dunk near the end of a Game 7 playoff loss in 2021. Simmons sat out the 2021-22 season for physical and mental health reasons before going to the Brooklyn Nets in a blockbuster trade involving James Harden.
He averaged 6.5 points in 90 games before concluding the 2025 campaign with the Los Angeles Clippers, where he played limited minutes off the bench. During his year away from the league, Simmons became a controlling owner in the Sport Fishing Championship's South Florida Sails. He teased a comeback in a Men's Health profile published in late June, identifying the Miami Heat as a team of interest.
Simmons will instead join the Kings, who went 22-60 last season. The 30-year-old can particularly help a defense that allowed 121 points per game, the NBA's fourth-highest average. According to Spears, the Golden State Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves showed interest in Simmons after an impressive minicamp performance with the Australian men's national basketball team.
Yet the Kings were the only NBA team to offer him a contract. "A source said Simmons is excited about playing for the Kings and believes the organization will give him the support and opportunity he has hoped for in his return to the NBA," Spears wrote.
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