Connect with us

Sports

Ben Simmons makes NBA return with Sacramento Kings

Published

1 hour ago

on

Ben Simmons NBA return Sacramento Kings

Ben Simmons #25 of the Los Angeles Clippers in action against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Intuit Dome on March 23, 2025 in Inglewood, California. Luke Hales/Getty Images/AFP

Ben Simmons is making a comeback to the NBA after sitting out last season with injuries, agreeing to a one-year contract with the Sacramento Kings.

A person familiar with the deal confirmed to The Associated Press that he will sign with Sacramento. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the deal hadn’t been announced.

Article continues after this advertisement
Advertisement

ESPN first reported the move and said Simmons would be paid $3.5 million.

READ: NBA: Ben Simmons ready to play at high level for Clippers

The 30-year-old from Australia is a former No. 1 draft pick, three-time All-Star and Rookie of the Year, but he has struggled to perform and stay healthy in recent years. He sat out last season while dealing with back and leg injuries after ending the 2024-25 season in a reserve role for the Los Angeles Clippers.

Sacramento is coming off a 22-60 season and is trying to rebuild around rookie Darius Acuff Jr., who was picked seventh in the draft after a stellar freshman season at Arkansas. The Kings were looking for veteran help after waiving DeMar DeRozan and deciding not to bring back Russell Westbrook. Those two scored the most points last season for Sacramento.

The Kings believe Simmons provides value as a versatile defender that can guard almost any position and can be the backup point guard to Acuff as well as play in other spots.

Advertisement
Article continues after this advertisement

Simmons was the first overall pick by Philadelphia in 2016 after playing one season in college at LSU. He sat out his first season with an injured foot but quickly developed into a star player for the 76ers once he returned. He was the Rookie of the Year in 2017-18, was an All-Star the following three seasons, as well as a third-team All-NBA player in 2019-20 and a first-team All-Defense selection in 2019-20 and 2020-21.

READ: NBA: Clippers sign Ben Simmons in latest change of scenery

But his career hasn’t been the same after sitting out the 2021-22 season when he was dealing with mental health concerns, other physical injuries and was seeking a trade out of Philadelphia.

He was sent to Brooklyn at the 2022 trade deadline but missed the rest of that season with a bad back. He then played 2 1/2 seasons with the Brooklyn before getting cut in February 2025. He finished that season with the Los Angeles Clippers before sitting out last season.

Advertisement
Article continues after this advertisement

But he never came close to his level of play early in his career in Philadelphia, averaging 5.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 5.8 assists during his time with the Nets and Clippers.



Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.


Your subscription has been successful.
Advertisement

Source link

Advertisement
Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

Sports

Team Vitality stay alive again in BLAST Open Fall playoffs

Published

6 minutes ago

on

5 September 2026

By

YMCA member Austin Manengu works the keyboard as he plays a game of Fortnite during the unveiling of the new gaming lab at the Maplewood Family YMCA in Rochester Thursday, June 20, 2024. YMCA of Greater Rochester in partnership with Metro Sports & Entertainment Group will open two gaming labs for youth and teens this year.YMCA member Austin Manengu works the keyboard as he plays a game of Fortnite during the unveiling of the new gaming lab at the Maplewood Family YMCA in Rochester Thursday, June 20, 2024. YMCA of Greater Rochester in partnership with Metro Sports & Entertainment Group will open two gaming labs for youth and teens this year.

Team Vitality certainly aren’t going down without a fight in Portugal.

Facing elimination for the fourth straight match, Vitality again survived at the BLAST Open Fall 2026 in Porto. But what they did Friday was a whole new level of survival.

Facing FURIA in the playoff quarterfinals, Vitality dropped the first map but won the next two to take the match. In the other quarterfinal, Team Falcons had more drama-free experience, sweeping G2 Esports 2-0.

In the semifinals on Saturday, Group A winner Team Spirit will oppose Team Falcons, and Group B winner MOUZ will take their turn at trying to send Vitality home.

The $1.1 million Counter-Strike 2 event began with 16 teams divided into two groups for the double-elimination opening stage. The group winners advanced to the playoff semifinals, the group runners-up moved on to the quarterfinals as high seeds and the two third-place teams headed to the playoff quarterfinals as low seeds. The remaining teams were eliminated.

Advertisement

The single-elimination playoffs in Porto include best-of-three matches in the quarterfinals and semifinals. The grand final on Sunday will be best-of-five.

The championship team will receive $250,000 ($150,000 for the players, $100,000 for the club) plus three BLAST Frequent Flyer Tokens.

After losing 13-6 on Nuke, Vitality won 13-11 on Cache and 13-4 on Dust II to advance. Estonia’s Robin “ropz” Kool led the winners with 44 kills while Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut of France added 39 kills in the tightly contested match. Latvia’s Mareks “YEKINDAR” Galinskis had 41 kills to pace FURIA, but he also sustained a match-high 47 deaths.

Advertisement

In the other quarterfinal, Falcons quickly took care of G2 with a 13-6 win on Inferno and 13-9 victory on Dust II. The top three kills totals all belonged to Falcons players — Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Nikola “NiKo” Kovac with 37 kills and Russians Maksim “kyousuke” Lukin and Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov with 36 and 32, respectively.

BLAST Open Fall prize pool, with money winnings (player prize, team share) and BLAST Frequent Flyer Tokens

1. $250,000 ($150,000, $100,000), 3 BFFT

2. $160,000 ($60,000, $100,000), 1 BFFT

Advertisement

3-4. $115,000 ($40,000, $75,000), 1 BFFT

5-6. $75,000 ($20,000, $55,000), 1 BFFT — G2 Esports, FURIA

7-8. $50,000 ($10,000, $40,000) — Aurora Gaming, FUT Esports

9-12. $32,500 ($7,500, $25,000) — M80, Natus Vincere, IC Esports, Legacy

Advertisement

13-16. $20,000 ($5,000, $15,000) — DENDELE CS, paiN Gaming, Lynn Vision Gaming, 9z Team

–Field Level Media

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Sports

Nikkita Lyons Sends A One-Word Message To Royce Keys After Revealing The Name Of His WWE Faction

Published

19 minutes ago

on

5 September 2026

By

Nikkita Lyons sent a one-word message to Royce Keys, and he and OTM revealed their faction’s name. The group is called “946,” and they issued a stern warning via social media.

Keys and OTM debuted on the August 24, 2026 edition of Monday Night RAW. They attacked The Usos, Solo Sikoa, and LA Knight on their first night together on the main roster. The trio crashed the main event tag team match featuring Jimmy and Jey against Sikoa and Knight.

On Instagram, Lyons reacted with a one-word message to Keys and OTM’s newly released promo. Keys, who narrated the promo, stated that nobody was safe amid their issues with The Bloodline, Solo Sikoa, and Knight.

Advertisement

“facts,” wrote Lyons.

Check out a screengrab of Lyons’ Instagram comment:

Sam Roberts Suggested That Royce Keys and OTM Are A Mix Of The Shield And Nexus

Sam Roberts had an interesting take on the trio of Royce Keys and OTM. The analyst stated that the trio reminded him of The Shield and Nexus, considering the amount of chaos they caused on Monday Night RAW.

Speaking on RAW Recap, Roberts had the following to say:

“Out of nowhere, Royce Keys and Out the Mud invade Monday Night Raw to end the show. It was almost like the Shield meets the Nexus in terms of just like utter chaos and the fact that they weren’t necessarily on anybody’s side… Nobody saw it coming… Nowadays, everybody wanna talk like they got something to say, but nothing comes out when they move their lips, just a bunch of gibberish, and what is that? ‘Cause they forgot about Royce Keys. Is what everybody has been saying.”

Keys and OTM once again made a statement on the latest edition of Monday Night RAW when they attacked The Usos in the parking lot before laying waste to Solo Sikoa backstage and leaving him in a bloody mess.

Advertisement

The faction’s issues with The Bloodline are far from over. Roman Reigns has ordered Jacob Fatu to deal with Keys and his group, while he deals with the LA Knight problem.