The American dream in the USA is to go to school, get a degree, use that degree to obtain a career and have a family, then retire. In reality, that sometimes doesn’t go as planned. The basketball dream is similar. Go to school, go to college and use that experience and exposure to obtain a professional basketball career, then retire. Again, that sometimes doesnt go as planned. Its rare we see high school players become stars like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Dwight Howard.
Not impossible though.
The 7th ranked high school player from Altamonte Springs Florida had a chance to follow the basketball dream as he received several offers from top basketball programs like Florida, Louisville, Memphis, Oklahoma State and more. Rick Pitino scandal may have caused altered the decision so Anfernee Simons decided to follow Kobe and LeBron’s footsteps instead.
Simons played in Montverde Academy in Florida his sophomore year, an academy known for producing stars Ben Simmons and D’Angelo Russell. Then the 6-foot-4 guard enrolled into prep school, IMG Academy in Bradenton and averaged 20.2 points per game 4.4 assists, 4.3 boards and 1.3 steals.
Now arriving at the 2018 NBA Combine, we asked the 18-year old how he came to the decision of entering the draft.
“I talked to my parents,” Simons said. “Talked about it a lot for the past two months.”
When they came to an agreement, he signed with NFL agent Drew Rosenhaus who is not certified with the National Basketball Players Associations. Simon will he is second client as NBA player Diamond Stone was his first who was drafted in the second round in 2016.
To prepare for the combine, Simons has been training in Miami. “(Since) March. I’ve gained about seven pounds”.
From my interview with Arizona Rawle Atkins, these guys don’t care about mock drafts and where analyst believe they’ll end up. Simons came out and said his number.
“Probably right now I’d say between 18 and 20.”
Simon’s advice to high school athletes who want to jump into the league was to do it but be prepared.
“What ever is best for you and your family honestly. If you’re ready for it.”
There will be a lot of changes in a year or so when it comes to high school basketball, the NCA and the NBA. With the recent corruption cases in the NCAA and people like Lavar Ball starting associations to assist high school players to get into the league, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a decrease in athletes committing to college and an increase in players like Simon.