NEW NLEX import Jonathon Simmons got the endorsement from no less than Converge import Quincy Miller as the former NBA player suits up for the Road Warriors in the PBA Governors Cup.
Quincy Miller on Jonathan Simmons
Miller said the Road Warriors did make a great choice of tapping the 33-year-old Simons to reinforce the franchise in the season-ending conference.
“Great pick up. Y’all gone (sic) love him,” said Miller, commenting in the IG account of the East Asia Super League (EASL) where it posted NLEX’s signing of Simmons and referred to him as ‘The New King of the Road.’
Miller of course, is familiar with Simmons as the two played at the same time in the NBA.
Simmons was with the San Antonio Spurs in 2015 at about the same stretch Miller spent time with the Sacramento Kings, and later the Detroit Pistons.
After the season, Miller, who led the fourth seeded FiberXers to the playoffs of the Commissioner’s Cup, began playing overseas.
Simmons meanwhile, stayed in the NBA and played for two more seasons with the Orlando Magic and Philadelphia 76ers.
A native of Houston, Texas, Simmons was undrafted in the NBA 2012 draft, but made his way to the Spurs roster three years later after helping the team win the Las Vegas Summer League Championship where he was named Finals MVP.
He played for the US Team in the 2017 Rising Stars Challenge during the NBA All-Star Weekend,
In the playoffs that same season, Simmons made his first career playoff start as a replacement for the injured Kahwi Leonard. He scored 18 points as the Spurs finished off the Houston Rockets, 114-75, in Game 6 to advance in the Western Conference finals where they lost to eventual champion Golden State Warriors.
In a Feb. 2018 game for the Orlando Magic, Simmons exploded for 22 points in the third quarter of a 116-98 win against the Cleveland Cavaliers. He finished with a career-high 34 points, while the 22 points he scored in the third was three points short of the franchise record held by Tracy McGrady, who did the feat in 2003.
A month later, Simmons erased his career-best by finishing with 35 points in a 126-117 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.