No angles (yet) for 'Deep Blue Ben' NBA comeback

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Australian basketball multi-millionaire Ben Simmons has gone fishin’ at least until October 2026, and what that means for a potential return to the NBA is more clouded than ever before.

Simmons, 29, played his last NBA game almost a year ago for the Los Angeles Clippers on May, 30, 2025, against the Denver Nuggets. Since then, the unrestricted free agent danced around signing with the New York Knicks and became the controlling owner of the South Florida Sails (SFS) in the Sport Fishing Championship.

Simmons’ SFS won the 2026 SFC Walker’s Cay Open over the weekend as the club’s site reported: “By the end of the weekend, Capt. Mike King, Brad Adam, Ben Simmons, and co. announced themselves as a force to be reckoned with.”

The three-time NBA All-Star and 2018 Rookie of the Year has taken to professional angling like a fish to water in a season that runs from April to October.

He posted to Instagram from the Florida Keys just a couple of days ago that he is spending more time “offline than on the phone” with a picture gallery that didn’t include a basketball.

Simmons earned USD $203.3M (AUD $284M) in a nine-year NBA career of extreme highs and exceptional lows. His Philadelphia 76ers numbers reflected Australia’s first Hall of Fame career, but a single play derailed the then-24-year-old’s meteoric career.

The Sport Fishing Championship overlaps the NBA Draft, Draft Combine, Summer League, free agency, training camp and preseason, and finally bumps up against the start of the 2026-27 NBA season.

At 2.08m, Simmons' length and playmaking ability were overshadowed by his inability and unwillingness to shoot the ball, which is a liability in the modern NBA. He played just 4:42 minutes in his last NBA contest (Game 5) and was a DNP-coach’s decision in the final two games – 6 and 7 – against the Nuggets in the first round of the 2025 Playoffs.

Simmons has been warm and even colder with the Australian Boomers, playing just twice for the senior national team at the 2013 FIBA Oceania Championships. He has reportedly expressed an interest in trying to earn a spot ahead of the 2027 World Cup and 2028 Olympic Games, but the potential of him joining Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels on that roster appears as elusive as a 450-point Blue Marlin.

There is zero chatter about Simmons’ fit on a 2026-27 NBA roster, nor a return to the NBL, unlike Boomers’ legends Patty Mills and Joe Ingles, more than 10 years his senior, for the 2026-27 season.

Between 2017 and 2021, Simmons was a three-time NBA All-Star (2019–2021); All-NBA Third Team (2020); 2-time NBA All-Defensive First Team (2020, 2021); NBA Rookie of the Year (2018); NBA All-Rookie First Team (2018); and NBA steals leader (2020). It came off the back of being a consensus first-team All-American (2016) playing at LSU; USBWA National Freshman of the Year (2016); First-team All-SEC (2016); SEC Freshman of the Year (2016); National high school player of the year (2015); McDonald's All-American (2015); and First-team Parade All-American (2015).

"I mean, he had all the talent in the world,’’ First Ballot NBA Hall of Famer and NBA champion Dirk Nowitzki said before the start of the 2025-26 season.

“Not quite sure all the stuff that happened there in Philly, but it was disappointing.

“He was like the rising star there for a long, long time. So we’ll see what happens.

"It’s still early. Sometimes things get picked up later. You just got to stay ready, stay working out.

“There’s still a bunch of free agents out there that I thought had a chance to be in the league.

"But there’s just unfortunately only so many spots in our league … hopefully Ben can find a way back in.’’

But in the six months since Nowitzki’s assessment, Simmons has immersed himself deeper into blue water fishing and winning SFC tournaments.

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