Ben Simmons' attempt to restart his career hit another painful setback on Sunday, when 's Shams Charania reported that the 30-year-old tore his right Achilles tendon during a Sacramento Kings practice.
The injury comes before the regular season opener and effectively ends Simmons' 2025-26 season before it truly began. It also removes a preseason rotation option for a Kings team that has been projected to be among the NBA's worst.
A brief preseason spark
Simmons had only just begun to create some momentum. Last week, he played in a preseason blowout loss to the San Antonio Spurs and finished with 14 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and four made free throws. For a player who went completely unsigned during the 2025-26 season until joining the Kings, that performance was at least a sign that he might still have something to offer.
That was part of the story around his arrival in Sacramento. At Kings media day, Simmons said he did not touch a ball for the whole year and did not watch basketball, explaining that he spent the time focusing on getting his body and mind right. For a former All-Star who had spent the past year away from the game, even getting back on the floor felt like a meaningful step.
What the injury means
Now that step has been cut short. Achilles injuries are among the most serious setbacks in basketball, and Simmons' timeline leaves no room for optimism this season. The Kings had already been searching for stability, and losing a player with Simmons' size and playmaking ability only adds to the uncertainty around the roster.
On Sunday night, Simmons addressed the injury in an Instagram story and framed it as another test in a long career of setbacks. He wrote that he had faced challenges before that tested him mentally, physically and emotionally, and said this injury was another chapter in his journey, not the end of his story. He added that adversity does not define a player, but the response to it does.
For the Kings, the immediate concern is obvious: a preseason chance to see whether Simmons could revive his career is gone. For Simmons, the next question is more basic and more difficult. He now has to work through another major injury before he can even think about the basketball part again.
