Australian Simmons Tops NBA Draft
Tuesday, June 28th, 2016June 28, 2016
Last week, on June 23, 2016, the Philadelphia 76ers selected Louisiana State University (LSU) forward Ben Simmons as the number one overall pick of the National Basketball Association (NBA) draft in Brooklyn, New York. A 19-year-old out of Australia, Simmons decided to go pro after his first collegiate season, in which he averaged 19.2 points, 11.8 rebounds, and 4.8 assists per game for the LSU Tigers. Simmons earned Freshman of the Year honors in LSU’s Southeastern Conference and was named to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Men’s Basketball All-American first team.
Simmons was born in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy in 1996, the son of Dave Simmons, a former star of Australia’s National Basketball League. Young Ben grew up playing basketball, rugby, and Australian Rules football. In 2013, Simmons moved to Florida, where he graduated from high school in 2015. Simmons is the third Australian to be chosen number one overall in the NBA draft, after Kyrie Irving (born in Melbourne but raised in New Jersey) in 2011 and Andrew Bogut (born and raised in Melbourne) in 2005. Simmons is the second top pick out of LSU. The first was Hall of Fame center Shaquille O’Neal in 1992.
The Los Angeles Lakers, fresh off the worst season in team history, chose Duke University forward Brandon Ingram with the second pick in the draft. With the third pick, the Boston Celtics chose forward Jaylen Brown out of the University of California. The Milwaukee Bucks rounded out the “down under” portion of the first round by choosing 7’1” power forward Thon Maker, a Sudanese-Australian out of Perth who has most recently played and lived in Canada, as the 10th overall pick.