Ben Simmons it is expected that in The necklaces“starting lineup when they open the season on Oct. 21, according to Mark J. Spears from Andscapecontinuing a remarkable transition back to the NBA after not playing for a year and a half. Simmons didn’t sign with the team until Sept. 7, but he has reportedly been very impressive in training camp, showing flashes of the talent that has made him a three-time All-Star.
Simmons played nine minutes in his preseason debut Saturday and plans to increase those totals to 18 and 27 in a pair of games this week as he builds toward the regular season. The 30-year-old guard, who was a professional fisherman during his time away from the league, used a fishing analogy to describe the experience.
“Feeling (game action) is a different feeling. It’s like feeling a fish bite.” he said. “It’s just two different feelings. It’s a feeling you can’t replicate. I wasn’t nervous. I was like, ‘Let’s go! Let’s go!” It feels like a new era is starting after you’ve just been there and come back, which is really cool and nice to feel.”
Simmons will detail his story in the ESPN documentary “Being Ben,” which debuts Sunday. He talks about the extreme highs and lows of his career and tries to clear up misconceptions about his relationship with basketball.
“What I want people to take away from this is that away from the game, I am who I am.” Simmons said. “But I love the game. I wouldn’t go through all this (rehab) to not play. I love the game. I love to play. I love to compete. And my game is my game.”
There are more from Sacramento:
- In the latest episode of his podcast (Link to Twitter), Draymond Green relays some of the guidance he offered the Kings rookie guard Darius Acuff Jr during a preseason game. “My advice to him was just, ‘Hey man, who else has touched the ball, who’s had the ball?’, he’s like ‘nobody,’ and I said, ‘Not too many,’ because you could have a bunch of those with the Sacramento Kings this year, and some things can happen,” – said Green. “You can get guys to start plotting against you, guys that don’t really want to see you do well, guys that start fighting on the sidelines with other guys … you can get guys that get upset, like, ‘oh man, they want to give this rookie this, they want to do the f**k!’ … and when I saw it, I just wanted to give it a little play.”
- Dylan Cardwell sat out Monday with pain in his left calf, at the time Malik Monk is still dealing with ankle soreness and hopes to play in a preseason game soon, per KCRA’s Sean Cunningham (Link to Twitter).
- He was reported by Zach Lowe of The Ringer podcast that which host Vivek Ranadiv intended to be a motivational speech at a recent team event, “turned dinner into a roast,” relay Kurt Hellin of NBC Sports. Ranadiv was apparently trying to show how outsiders felt about the organization, but Lowe says some people at the dinner were “alarmed” by his comments.