Ben Simmons is officially a champion — just not in the NBA originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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Ben Simmons has finally won a championship. For years, the former Brooklyn Nets star has been chasing an NBA championship, but he has never made it to the NBA Finals. However, after coming up empty in free agency, he tried a different sport and found immediate success.
The three-time NBA All-Star helped the South Florida Sails capture the 2026 Walker’s Cay Open in the Bahamas. It is the second and a major event on the Sport Fishing Championship calendar. Simmons has a controlling interest in the Sails.
Simmons’ team finished the three-day event with 2,925 points, nearly 1,500 more than the runner-up. The Sails recorded six blue marlin releases in the tournament.
Ben Simmons just won a title 🏆
(Via @TheSFC_official ) pic.twitter.com/RKl8h3CTjz
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) May 19, 2026
For context, the Sport Fishing Championship is played between 16 professional teams in North America. It includes six stops and 12 tournaments before the ultimate Zane Grey Playoffs.
Ben Simmons couldn’t overcome his Achilles heel in NBA
Ben Simmons was the first overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft, picked up by the Philadelphia 76ers. These were his golden years, as along with Joel Embiid and Tobias Harris, he went deep into the postseasons.
However, teams soon found his Achilles heel. He can’t shoot free throws before the weakness expanded to his jump shooting.
As a result, teams started targeting him in the fourth quarter, and he became a liability on the floor as rival players would intentionally foul him, knowing he doesn’t make free throws at a high clip.
From the 76ers, he went to the Nets, and in his later years there, he became a bench player. Last season, he signed with the LA Clippers, but after modest averages of 2.9 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game in 18 contests, no team offered him in free agency before the 2025-26 season.
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