Ben Simmons Suffers Suspected Torn Achilles Just As His Kings Comeback Was Starting

Ben Simmons finally looked like he was back, and the basketball gods immediately hit the smite button. Shams Charania reported on Sunday that the Sacramento Kings guard suffered a suspected torn Achilles tendon in practice.

Just when the revenge tour hype videos were starting to look credible after a genuinely impressive training camp, his season is likely over before it even started. An Achilles tear is the kind of brutal injury that makes you want to throw your phone into the ocean, especially for a guy who has spent the last three years battling back issues and mental health struggles just to get on the floor.

"Shams Charania reported the injury occurred at practice Sunday and is a suspected season-ending torn Achilles."

This is a catastrophic blow for a Sacramento team that is currently living through a basketball nightmare. The Kings are riding a historically bad four-game losing streak where they have been outscored by a combined 105 points. For context, losing by an average of 26 points a night in the modern NBA means your defense is essentially just a suggestion.

Losing Simmons removes one of the few bright spots from their preseason and stretches an already thin rotation to its absolute breaking point. Keegan Murray has not even made his season debut yet due to thumb surgery, while Domantas Sabonis is playing through a ribcage contusion and Malik Monk is dealing with a bad ankle.

If you were holding a ticket on the Kings to make some noise in the Western Conference or for Simmons to win Comeback Player of the Year, those slips are officially dead. The market is going to adjust Sacramento's win total violently downward, and rightfully so. You cannot survive in this league when half your starting lineup is in the trainer's room and the healthy guys are getting blown out by 30.

Now, the Kings have to figure out how to stop the bleeding without their primary defensive stopper and transition engine. Sacramento faces the Minnesota Timberwolves next, a team that just beat them by 27 points last week. As for Simmons, he faces another grueling, year-long rehab process just as he was finally finding his joy for the game again.