Ben Simmons Tears His Right Achilles in Kings Practice, and the Comeback Is Over Before It Starts

SACRAMENTO, Calif.

Ben Simmons’s comeback lasted exactly as long as the preseason. The Sacramento Kings guard tore his right Achilles tendon during a live drill in practice on Sunday, an injury an MRI confirmed later in the day and one that will require surgery — ending, in all likelihood, the former No. 1 overall pick’s season three days before it was supposed to begin.

ESPN’s Shams Charania first reported that Simmons was believed to have torn the Achilles at practice, calling it a suspected season-ending injury after what he described as rejuvenated and impressive training camp and preseason performances. Charania followed up within the half hour with the confirmation: the MRI was back, the tear was real, and the injury was season-ending — a devastating turn on the eve of Simmons’s return from a year spent rehabilitating his back.

The Kings confirmed the diagnosis in a medical update on Sunday. “Sacramento Kings guard Ben Simmons was injured during a live drill in practice on Sunday, Oct. 18,” the team said. “An MRI revealed a torn right Achilles tendon. Simmons will undergo surgery. Further updates will be provided as appropriate.” The club offered no timeline for a return. ESPN reported the injury is expected to end his season.

The timing could hardly have been crueller. On Sunday afternoon, ESPN premiered Being Ben, the E60 documentary hosted by Marc Spears that follows Simmons’s long road back to the league. By Sunday evening, the comeback the film documents was over. Simmons, 30, had been projected to start on opening night — Wednesday, on the road against the Los Angeles Clippers, the last team he played for — in a big starting five alongside rookie Darius Acuff Jr., Zach LaVine, Keegan Murray and Domantas Sabonis, with Sacramento valuing his size and his ability to guard every position, according to USA Today.

What it does to the Kings

Sacramento now has three days to rebuild a rotation it spent all of camp constructing around Simmons’s return. De’Andre Hunter is the obvious candidate to move into the starting group, Precious Achiuwa — who started four preseason games — is another option, and Malik Monk is positioned to absorb more of the playmaking. The ripple runs deeper than one lineup card: the Kings signed Simmons to their final open roster spot, and his one-year contract was mostly non-guaranteed, its money tied to making the opening-night roster, according to reports — which means the worst injury of the NBA’s preseason also lands on its thinnest financial ice. As Marc Stein noted, it is remarkably the league’s third Achilles tear of the month, after Philadelphia’s Ariel Hukporti and Oklahoma City’s Otega Oweh.

“Not the end of my story”

Simmons addressed the injury himself on Instagram on Sunday evening, and he did not sound like a man retiring. “I’ve faced challenges before that tested me mentally, physically, and emotionally, and I’ve found a way through every single one of them,” he wrote. “This injury is another chapter in my journey, not the end of my story. It’s never easy being away from the game I love, especially after everything it took to get back here. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that adversity doesn’t define you. How you respond to it does. I’ve been knocked down before, and I’ve always found a way to get back up. This time will be no different.”

The long road that led here

To understand why a practice injury in October lands this hard, you have to rewind the whole arc. Simmons arrived from LSU as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 draft — he had averaged 19.2 points, 11.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists as a freshman — and promptly missed his entire first season with a fractured right foot suffered in his first training camp. When he finally played, he was everything advertised: Rookie of the Year in 2018, an All-Star three straight years, an All-Defensive first-teamer in back-to-back seasons, the league’s steals leader in 2019–20 and the Defensive Player of the Year runner-up in 2020–21. His career averages — 15.8 points, 8.1 rebounds and 8.2 assists — still describe a star. His full career line is on his Previously player page.

Then came the unraveling: the passed-up dunk late in Game 7 of the 2021 Eastern Conference semifinals against Atlanta, the trade demand, the holdout, the mental-health absence and a lost 2021–22 season. Traded to Brooklyn in February 2022, he was never whole again — a microdiscectomy for a herniated disc in May 2022, a second back procedure in March 2024, and seasons repeatedly cut short by knee trouble and nerve pain. In 2024–25 he played 33 games for the Nets before being waived, then 18 for the Clippers. Last season he played none at all, sitting out the full year as a free agent to rehabilitate his back. He has not played more than 51 games in a season since 2020–21.

Which is why this fall felt different. Simmons showed his health at an Australian national team minicamp in August; Kings general manager Scott Perry’s staff had watched him there, and Sacramento signed him in September. In Friday’s preseason finale against San Antonio, he put up 14 points, eight rebounds and seven assists in 26 minutes — the complete Simmons stat line, gone so long it read like a rumor. Across his two preseason appearances he averaged 10.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists, and the Kings had him in the starting lineup.

What happens now

Surgery comes first; everything after that is uncharted. A torn Achilles typically consumes the better part of a year, and for a 30-year-old whose game was built on size, speed and explosion — and whose body has already absorbed two back surgeries — the questions are heavier than any timeline. Sacramento has decisions to make about the roster spot in the coming days, and a season to start on Wednesday without the player its final spot was saved for. What is certain tonight is narrower, and sadder: the most scrutinized comeback in the NBA ended in a practice gym, on a live drill, three days before opening night. Simmons says he will be back. The whole league just watched how much it cost him to get this close.