Nets guard/forward Ben Simmons underwent a successful microscopic partial discectomy on Thursday to alleviate the nerve impingement in his lower left back, the team announced in a press release (Twitter link via Michael Scotto of HoopsHype).
The former No. 1 overall pick is expected to make a full recovery ahead of training camp in the fall, the club added.
This is the second time Simmons has undergone back surgery in the past two years. His first surgery, a microdiscectomy back in May 2022, was to alleviate the pain and symptoms from a herniated disc on the right side of his spine.
A former three-time All-Star and two-time All-Defensive team member who also made the All-NBA Third Team in 2019/20, Simmons’ career has been derailed by injuries the past few seasons. After a lengthy holdout with Philadelphia, he was traded to Brooklyn in February 2022, but never played for the Nets in 2021/22.
Last season, Simmons averaged 6.9 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 6.1 APG and 1.3 SPG in 42 games (26.3 MPG), later admitting he hadn’t fully recovered from his first back surgery. Entering the ’23/24 campaign, the 27-year-old was far more optimistic, but was limited to just 15 games (23.9 MPG) after sustaining the nerve impingement in early November. He averaged 6.1 PPG, 7.9 RPG and 5.7 APG in those appearances.
Simmons was officially shut down for the season a week ago, as he was consulting with specialists and considering treatment options for the nerve impingement in his lower back. Obviously, it was decided that undergoing another surgery was the best course of action.
Simmons will be entering the final year of his current maximum-salary contract in ’24/25. He’s on track to earn $40,338,144 before becoming eligible for unrestricted free agency.
Is this one to add a spine perhaps?
And a Brain, and Courage, and Heart
OK that was pretty damn funny
The nerve!!. No really, it’s a nerve!!!
“The former No. 1 overall pick is expected to make a full recovery ahead of training camp” -this is was copied and pasted from every other article saying he is out for that year.
Time to hang it up bruh. The dude probably makes over $1 mill a game for his career.
After this contract is up, he’ll be a league min player. Wow what a fall from grace.
You just know he will be miraculously fine for the last 20-25 games of next season and will ball out. On the strength of that, some bad team will give him another decent contract.
The medical bills would surpass the minimum salary.
He needs to be thinking about just being able to walk and have a normal life because he still got over half of it left. I don’t think he should play any more basketball for his health’s sake.
At this point, I almost want to see him succeed just from the novelty of it.
Yeah, I never liked the guy but it wasn’t because of the mental and physical ailments. I didn’t like his attitude, his work ethic and thought he was overrated but yeah after the last few seasons of getting drug through the mud by the sports media and fans I find myself almost rooting for the guy.
Why does this guy get so much flak for having chronic back issues but Lonzo Ball is god with chronic knee issues
uuuuhm, no.
He never had back issues in Philly. This happened during off season. The yr he was traded. Didn’t happen on the basketball court. It’s a shame to lose your gm. But to lose your cojones ……. Nobody should ever sign this guy. What a waste ……..
Except he did have back issues in philly.
He injured his back against Milwaukee in 2020 right before the season got shut down from the pandemic. He rehabbed and came back for the bubble. Brett Brown said Simmons was laying on his back in the locker room vomiting because of the pain after the game.
I had this same surgery 3 weeks ago. Hurt my back lifting weights in September. Felt like it was getting better with just rehab and avoiding lifting heavy things. Then I went to the driving range in December and woke up the next day and could barely walk. Pain was so bad I had to go to the emergency room. They gave me some steroids and muscle relaxers, and then later in the week I went to a spine specialist and he gave me a really strong anti inflammatory medicine. That worked decent for the month and a half until I was able to have surgery. Herniated discs that touch the nerve are ridiculously painful.
He will be the Best expensive expiring contract next season
All the physical tools in the world and he wasted it all.
How do waste your physical tools when you mess up your back?
Had this same procedure last year and probably will sadly need another one like him. Feel for him because that injury is not fun.
Ben definitely made a lot of mistakes but to try to write off his severe back injury at this point is like saying the earth is flat.
Sad to see because he was a good player.
People are not undergoing serious back surgeries just for the heck of it, or because they have no desire to play basketball and just want to collect their checks. Say what you want about Ben Simmons, not saying it is not justified to some extent to bash him, but cut the guy some slack at least now, he was a talented, unique player when healthy and with this now, his career is probably over.
His career isn’t over. He has one more year for sure and if he does well then …
Teams will want his talent if he can prove himself healthy and play well.
Unfortunately, he is on his last year of real pay
BS might be the biggest wuss I’ve ever seen in the NBA. I don’t doubt he has back issues, but the surgery that he just had is fairly non invasive and doesn’t normally have a long recovery time.
For his sake, I hope he comes back and is able to play significant minutes next year. But I kinda doubt it.
I guess a second back surgery isn’t enough for you? How many does he need before people cut him any slack on the injury front? And recovery times are meaningless when it comes to such injuries. Once you begin to have recurring back problems, a) they aren’t going to go away, b) things will only get worse. He will never be close to the same player again even IF he magically developed a mamba mentality overnight.
We all know he is a headcase and has a questionable work ethic at best. But this has nothing to do with that.
“The former No. 1 overall pick is expected to make a full recovery ahead of training camp in the fall, the team added.”
No, he won’t.
Contract year…. He’ll make a miraculous recovery.
Will be lucky to get 2yr/12mil
Don’t comment often, but it’s always interesting when a Ben Simmons story pops up and all the putrid comments come flying in from people on here whose lives aren’t going the way they would like and want to dump on someone they PERCEIVE as weak. Being hateful to someone you don’t even know IS a weak move. House of mirrors people.
I will pull for Ben Simmons to make it back and do well. He’ll certainly have super motivation to show his critics up. We’ll then see what he’s made of.