There's media crammed on the pathway like a flock of seagulls to chips. Cameras are flashing and microphones are being shoved to the sky. All waiting for Ben Simmons.

I weave my way past them, shoes in my left hand, roller in my right, unnoticed, excited to get to work.

Boomers camp day one. I had a specific lift I wanted to do before training to prepare my body. The flights recently had been leaving me with a sore lower left back, something I wanted to solve before the scrimmage. But I didn't touch a single weight.

Jacob Chance, the new Melbourne United head coach, was the first familiar face I saw. We embraced with my favourite type of hug. The side dap up into the full two arm hug. We talked shit, we laughed, we enjoyed seeing each other for the first time since the Olympics two years ago.

This repeated itself. Nick Kay. Delly. Dante. Giddey. The list could go on. Laughs, memories and stories about our recent seasons. The two hours locked away for movement and weights disappeared in a snap.

It was time to play.

I slammed on my shoes. I raced my laces in a hurry. But before I stepped onto the court, I had to take a moment.

For the first time in my career, I wasn't sitting on the edge of my seat. I wasn't scanning the room for danger. I wasn't desperately trying to impress people or worried about what people were thinking of me. Instead I was filled with joy, gratitude and a calmness I had never felt in a new room. I belonged. My nervous system was calm. I was here, in the now.

This scrimmage was going to be the highest quality in Australia. The fear that my body was not going to perform still arose, but it was snuffed out quickly with the laughs. The doubt that my shots would not go in still showed up in my shaky hands, but that disappeared with the first bounce of the ball. My desire to prove to people that I am good at basketball still peeked its cheeky little head above the water, but without hesitation I looked the other way.

I was ready to play. Just to play.

The scrimmages went really well. I hit a bunch of shots. Our team won. I played some great defence, which is a focus I've been working on. The basketball was just basketball.

So much of my career has been built on navigating stress, pressure and fear and still finding a way to rise above. I've used visualisation, breath work, and hundreds of other tools. But nothing has impacted my ability to perform like the work I have done to feel like I belong. The relationships I've put time into have shown me that I belong in the room. The stories I've rewritten about myself have taught me that I belong as I am.

This Boomers camp, or work retreat as we were calling it, was one of the great joys of my career. To be able to stand with not only some of the greatest hoopers in Australia, but some of the greatest people, and to enjoy that moment with a full sense of belonging.

Now that was fun.