Nets' Ben Simmons credited for a year of service for 2021-22 season, per report

Simmons missed that entire season, which started with a trade request and a holdout

Happy birthday to Ben Simmons, who turned 27 on Thursday and, according to ESPN's Zach Lowe, has received credit for a year of service for the 2021-22 season, in which Simmons didn't play in a game. Officially, Simmons is now a seven-year veteran.

From ESPN:

The NBA's new collective bargaining agreement, released late last month ahead of free agency, came with a previously undisclosed side letter indicating Ben Simmons has received credit for a year of service for the season in which he held out from the Philadelphia 76ers and was eventually traded to the Brooklyn Nets, sources familiar with the matter told ESPN on Wednesday.

Years of service come into play when determining whether players are eligible for maximum contracts of certain sizes and for other benefits. Counting the 2021-22 season at issue, Simmons now has seven official years of service in the NBA. Officials from several teams had argued Simmons should not receive credit for the 2021-22 season, sources said.

The side letter is intended as a standalone, applying only to Simmons, and is not intended to set precedent for future cases, sources told ESPN.

Simmons asked the Philadelphia 76ers to trade him during the 2021 offseason. Then came a holdout, months of drama and, eventually, a trade to the Brooklyn Nets in February 2022. Simmons cited his mental health when he wasn't playing in Philadelphia, and he filed a grievance against the team for withholding about $20 million of his salary -- the dispute was settled last August, with Simmons recouping some of the money. He did not play for the Nets that season, either, because of a back injury, which required surgery that May.

Last season, Simmons returned to the court but only played in 42 games, none after the All-Star break, and was unable to perform at the All-Star level he had reached with the Sixers. In March, Brooklyn announced that he had a nerve impingement in his back. 

On July 9 at summer league in Las Vegas, Nets general manager Sean Marks said that Simmons is "in great physical shape" and champing at the bit to play again, expressing optimism that he will find his pre-injury form. 

"Reasonably, I think the hope is that he returns to that level of play," Marks told reporters. "If he was 35 years old, I wouldn't honestly be able to tell you that. But I think, knowing that he's mid-20s and he has still hopefully not reached his prime, we've gotta make sure he can get back out there and get back to that form and hopefully we see his game even evolve past that. But health is going to be the key."