 Now, we get to hear from Ben Simmons. Christian? How's it going, Ben? Good. How you doing? Doing good. Thank you. I guess, first of all, how are you feeling physically? Are you ready to go? Yeah, physically. I feel great. You think you could, I guess, hypothetically play in the first few games this season and be good? That's the goal. That's the plan. Copy. And second, just what was it like being a part of this organization while everything was falling into place during the offseason when you had kind of the trade requests, the contract negotiations? Was it like just watching all that, wondering where you would be in all of it? There was a lot going on, but for me, I got to focus on, the first thing was my health, getting back on the court. So that was my priority. Besides that, I worry about what I can control, and everything else, that's where it was. So for me, I had to prepare for the team. Ben, I got two for you. Just starting with training camp tomorrow, will you be fully cleared for everything? Ready to go. And if you could walk us through since we last talked to you, I mean, you had the back injury when you got here, you had the epidural look like you were feeling good, able to practice, get on the court, and then you ended up getting surgery. I mean, can you just walk us through how quickly it went from feeling good enough to maybe play to ending up needing surgery? Pretty quickly. I'm glad I got it done. It was much needed. I don't think people really realized where I was at. That day, I was supposed to play game four. I woke up on the floor, couldn't move, could barely walk. So I'm glad to be in this position, this situation. We have myself and got myself into a place where I can compete now. So I'm excited. You had said on JJ's podcast that you were feeling the glutes. I want to say, is that the day of game four? Just to correct? Down the glute, down the calf, in my foot, all of that. The physical ailments, the back, I guess that's essentially only maybe half. I don't want to put a percentage on it, but you were dealing with both physical and mental issues last year. You said you're physically ready to go. Do you expect you'll be in a proper head space to compete or would not know that until you're out there? I put myself in a position. I've been working on myself this past year to get back on the floor and play at a high level. So I deserve to take this opportunity by the horns and get back on the floor. So I'm excited to team up with these guys and these coaches. I'm looking forward to it. Ben, to your left. Good to see you. In the past, taking a lot of pride in your ability at your size to play point guard. What have been your conversations with the coaching staff and some of your teammates about where you fit in on both ends of the court and are you willing at this point in your career to compromise and play off the ball or play a different position? You know me. You know my game. For me, I just want to go out there and impact the game in any way I can, whether it's setting a pick, passing the ball, scoring the ball, getting a stop, rebound the ball, getting a block. So there's so many ways you can affect the game and it's not just scoring. It's not just defense. And for me, I feel like I cover most of those things. Obviously, I have weaknesses in my game, but that's everybody. Can I be the first to ask how many threes you're going to take this year? Who knows? Hey, Ben, over here. Obviously, it's been 18 months, I think, give or take, since fans, everybody saw you on a court last. And so all the doubts that go with that, no one's seen you play. You've obviously been through a lot physically, emotionally and otherwise. Just kind of open-ended. Like, what do you, what's different about you the next time NBA fans see you on a court? What are you expecting from yourself? That's up for everybody else to decide. That's not to me. I'm going to go out there and play. I'll let everybody else talk. I know it's your job to ask questions and stuff like that, but for me, my focus is going out there and doing what I can for my team to win in any way I can. So expectations, that's for you guys. Ben, in terms of just the way you now fit with, obviously, two of the big stars on this team, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, three of you have never played together. So do you have any sense of, have you been in that? We've been playing all week. Yeah. How's that look? Incredible. Ben, right here in the middle. I remember in February when you mentioned or disclosed to us that you had dark days and a lot of people didn't really know what was behind the curtain. How are you mentally now and what can you do to make sure that those feelings of frustration and that darkness doesn't resurface during the season? That's just working on yourself. And I feel like everybody has dark days, but you know, when you're able to address it and work towards getting to a place where you need to be, that's where I am. So for me, I work on myself every day. Is there any part of frustration that there still is a narrative out there that? No, I don't care about narrative. I don't care about people making or saying certain things because I can't control that, you know? All I can do is focus on what I can do in the court, win games, help this team win a championship. So, you know, that's the end goal for the Nets, obviously. You know, we're here for one reason. Hey, Ben, it looked like at one point you were maybe a day away from finally getting to play with Kevin and Kyrie, and it didn't happen in the summertime. Were you ever at the point like, come on, give us a chance. This guy might leave. This guy might not come back. We're never going to get to see what we can actually do. I can't. Yeah, I know that. Obviously, you know, you know, somebody after a trade, Kyrie wasn't around. Like different things were going on, but I can't. I don't worry about that stuff because I can't control it, you know? Obviously, it's a blessing to be able to play against a lot of talented players or play with them. Sorry. But I just focus on what I can contribute and do for this team. And in that moment, it was getting healthy. You mentioned you feel like you're in a good headspace right now. What gives you the confidence that not only you can stay there in the moment, but stay there throughout the season, no matter what happens? Because I put a lot of time and effort into myself. What went into that? We could be here all day talking about this, but a lot of time and energy has been spent on getting myself to a place where I want to play. But then in terms of, you know, back injuries can be tricky sometimes, right? And this has flared up for you a few times. Is there like a maintenance portion of it where you have to just like routinely make sure that you're not overloading it? How does that work? Every day. It's a lot of core, a lot of maintenance pilates, manual work, massage, taking care of my body. Just normal stuff. Just staying on top of it and going the extra mile. Does the recurrence of back issues give you any, I guess, precautions on how you play or are you just going to go out there and play? I don't want to be on the court if I can't play, you know? Ben, right here. You said that you can't be concerned with what the media says, what the public thinks, all of that. That's too much for you. But what about your peer group, guys you play with, guys you play against? Do you feel like that there's questions from them about you that you want to clear up with your play on the floor, your availability? Do I play against? Yeah. I don't care about people I'm playing against. I'm worried about my teammates here, my coaches in this organization. Ben, to your left. This is kind of a different looking roster than what ended the season last year. They're getting you back in the mix. Joe Harris and some additions over this summer. I mean, what do you see from this team stylistically about how you guys are going to play and look out there? I think we got a team that wants to run. And guys who can make plays, obviously, push the ball, get out and transition. And obviously Guard, too. We got some great new additions. Then defensively, I think we're going to be great. Ben, there were some games in Philly when Joel was hurt. And you basically played the five. There was a couple of games out west, especially on the road trip where the ball was just kind of flying all over the place. You had some huge scoring nights. Does this seem like maybe roster-wise this could be a little similar to that, the way you guys played then? Yeah, I think obviously not having a guy like Joel on the team. He's so dominant in the post. Allows us to get out and run more, move the ball a lot more. And obviously the weapons we have from the arc is incredible. So I'm looking forward to playing with these guys. And I think the chemistry is going to grow. I think the best example I could probably give is when we had that team in Philly with Marco, JJ, or Sonny Liasova. I think we won like 15-14 games in a row. So I'm excited. The roster, I like the roster. I'm excited to play with these guys. I think it's a good opportunity for us. We have a lot to prove. Ben, is there a deeper right here in the middle? Is there a deeper meaning to changing your number? Are you trying to leave what happened in the past? I know you said on the podcast you were excited, just with the jersey changing everything. No, I wasn't that deep. I would have 25, but I think it's retired. Thanks, Ben. All right, thank you.