In April 2013, he helped Montverde rally from a 16-point deficit to beat New Jersey's St Benedict's 67–65 in the final of the High School National Tournament. He attended Montverde Academy in Montverde, Florida, where he immediately started playing. to compete against boys of comparable size and athleticism. In January 2013, Simmons moved to the U.S. Despite being only 15 years old, he was chosen to represent Australia at the 2012 FIBA Under-17 World Championship. Later that year, Simmons made his first appearance in the United States at the renowned Pangos All-American Camp for basketball prospects. In year 9, at the age of 15, Simmons played basketball for Box Hill Senior Secondary College at the 2011 Australian Schools Championships before taking up a scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport in 2012. Īs a teenager, Simmons was torn between his two loves of basketball and Australian rules football, but he eventually decided to focus on basketball. In year 7, while attending Whitefriars College, Simmons was named MVP after he helped Whitefriars win the Year-7 Division 1A Basketball premiership. Along with basketball, he also played Australian rules football at the junior level. Īt age 10, Simmons returned to Melbourne and began playing junior basketball for the Knox Raiders. While in Newcastle, he also played junior rugby league. Simmons began playing basketball at the age of seven in the Newcastle Hunters' under-12 representative team and played two more years for Lake Macquarie and Newcastle. Simmons was raised in Newcastle from the age of 18 months while his father played and coached in the city. His father played college basketball for Oklahoma City University in the United States before turning professional with the Melbourne Tigers in Australia's National Basketball League in 1989. He was raised alongside five siblings-Melissa, Emily, Liam, Sean, and Olivia-the first four being from his mother's previous marriage. His father is an African-American expatriate who became a naturalised citizen of Australia, and his mother is a white Australian. Simmons was born in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy to father Dave and mother Julie. A dual citizen of Australia and the United States, Simmons has played for the Australian national team. Simmons is the son of an American-born father, Dave, who played professional basketball in Australia. Simmons left school to enter the NBA draft, becoming the third Melbourne-born number one overall pick (following Andrew Bogut and Kyrie Irving) in 11 years. In his only season in college, LSU began the season with high expectations, but they failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament. Simmons attended Box Hill Senior Secondary College in his hometown of Melbourne, Victoria, before moving to the United States to attend Montverde Academy in Montverde, Florida. As the result of a holdout from the 76ers following the 2020–21 season, which led him to be traded to the Nets, Simmons is the most-fined player in NBA history. After sitting out a year due to an injured right foot, he was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2018 and was selected three times to the NBA All-Star Game. Simmons was selected with the first overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft by the Philadelphia 76ers. He played college basketball for one season with the LSU Tigers, after which he was named a consensus first-team All-American and the USBWA National Freshman of the Year.
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