Ben Simmons Quotes

No parent or coach can be true to any child and say he's ready for the N.F.L. out of high school.

My five years at Virginia truly prepared me for the NBA and for life after the NBA.

My high school class was the first one to know, during the college recruiting process, to know there was the option to play professional basketball, to know that the WNBA was there, and to know I better pick a school that is going to help me get to the next level.

If I'd gone straight to the NBA, I don't think I would have been ready as a player or a person.

Francisco Garcia could have been a high draft choice last year, probably in the 20s. He's the best wing player I've ever coached. But he's done it the right way. He knew he had to work on his body to become a good pro. When he goes into the pros, he'll be physically ready.

If they're out of high school, and they can go directly to the NBA and get drafted and get millions of dollars, I'm for it 100 percent. Just let's not devalue education. Let's just not devalue it.

Strong college basketball is great for the NBA.

There's a lot of guys who are drafted and end up not playing in the NBA. They get their money for their first whatever years and end up going overseas or something like that.

The NBA is kind of where I've grown up, coming out of high school at 18.

I was 20 years old when I started playing in the Premier League. Maybe mentally I wasn't quite prepared for it, and that has earned me a reputation.

I would hope the NBA Players Association would say that people like LeBron could come out early because he's so gifted, but if you stay, you stay three years. Your skill level will be greater, and the chances of you going to the NBA are much greater.

I always said in my mind I wanted to be an All-Star and show four-year guys in the NBA can be good players as opposed to just one-and-done guys. If I left after my freshman year, I wouldn't have gotten drafted, I probably couldn't deal with D-League and travel on the bus.

When I got to Central Arkansas, I was a small, slim guy with little chance of playing in the NBA. Then, I went through a two-year growth spurt, and suddenly, I was 6-foot-7.

I've always found myself watching the NBA game more, even when I was coaching college. So I'll probably gravitate toward doing something in the NBA.

I was a million miles from being a Premier League player. You see some people, at 18 they are ready. At 21, I wasn't. Physically nowhere near.

College, our job is to get guys to get better. Work hard, get better and be in position so when your time comes you get to play in the NBA.

Don't encourage 8th-, 9th- and 10th-graders to forgo education just to go to the G League.

I didn't do any football stuff when I was a kid... Mostly baseball and basketball the whole time. That's all I did. I played football starting in seventh grade. As I got older, I started playing a little bit more. Then in high school, I really fell in love with it.

There was no professional basketball for me in the United States when I was in grade school and middle school. I could look to the Olympics and college basketball, but that was only on TV for the Final Four.

There's no disrespect in playing in the G League.

Guys are coming into the league a little more mature when they take the three or four years in college.

I only started playing top football when I was 17 and a half.

If you know people around me, even in college, I was confident, but the possible thought of making it to the NBA was crazy.

When I was growing up Harlequins were interested in signing me because I was very fast and strong at an early age, but I wasn't interested in rugby at the time.

For me, when I was in high school, that was my ultimate dream, was to make it to the NBA.