Aamir Earl Simms (born February 17, 1999) is an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for

Paris Basketball Paris Basketball is a French professional basketball club based in Paris. The club currently plays in the LNB Pro A, the first division of basketball in France, and the EuroCup. The club was founded in 2018 by David Kahn and Eric Schwartz. Th ...

of the

LNB Pro A The LNB Pro A, currently known for sponsorship reasons as Betclic Élite, is the top-tier men's professional basketball league in France. The competition has existed since 1921. Since 1987, the Ligue Nationale de Basket has governed the league. ...

. He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

Clemson Tigers The Clemson Tigers are the athletic teams that represent Clemson University, located in Clemson, South Carolina. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) ...

Early life and high school career

Simms spent his early childhood in

East Orange, New Jersey East Orange is a City (New Jersey), city in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 69,612. The city was List of municipalities in ...

but moved to

Palmyra, Virginia Palmyra is a census-designated place (CDP) in and the county seat of Fluvanna County, Virginia, Fluvanna County, Virginia, United States. The population as of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census was 104. Palmyra lies on the eastern bank of t ...

in 2008 after his mother, Lateasha Jones, decided East Orange was too dangerous. Simms spent hours on the basketball court near the family's home, often playing deep into the night. Simms scored 377 points as a freshman at

Fluvanna County High School Fluvanna County High School is a public school about two miles west of Palmyra, Virginia on Virginia State Route 53. It opened in 1934 as one of the first county consolidated high schools in the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia. The school is not ...

. At an AAU Tournament, Simms' performance drew the attention of Cade Lemcke, coach at the

Blue Ridge School Blue Ridge School is a private, all-male boarding school for students grades 9-12 located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Saint George, Virginia, near Charlottesville and the University of Virginia. The school was originally ...

, and Simms decided to attend the school after getting a scholarship. He helped the team win a state championship as a sophomore. As a senior at Blue Ridge, Simms averaged 13.0 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. He helped the team win a second state title, contributing 16 points and 10 rebounds in the championship game against Miller. Simms was named the Central Virginia Player of the Year. He committed to playing college basketball at Clemson over offers from more than a dozen schools.

College career

Simms averaged 4.0 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 0.9 blocks per game as a freshman. He helped Clemson reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament before losing to

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

, 80–76. As a sophomore, Simms averaged 8.1 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. On November 5, 2019, Simms had his first double-double with 12 points and 15 rebounds in a 67–60 loss to

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

. He was named

ACC ACC most often refers to: * Atlantic Coast Conference, an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference located in the US *American College of Cardiology, A US-based nonprofit medical association that bestows credentials upon cardiovascular spec ...

Co-Player of the Week (alongside

Tre Jones Tre Isiah Jones (born January 8, 2000) is an American professional basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Duke Blue Devils. High school career Jones played h ...

) on January 13, 2020, after leading Clemson in points (20), rebounds (8), assists (6), blocks (4) and steals (3) in Clemson's first-ever win at

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, and hit a three-pointer with 3.5 seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime. On January 14, Simms scored a career-high 25 points to go along with nine rebounds in a 79–72 win over third-ranked

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

. As a junior, Simms averaged 13.0 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game, earning Third Team All-ACC honors. Following the season, he declared for the

2020 NBA draft The 2020 NBA draft was held on November 18, 2020. The draft was originally scheduled to be held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on June 25, but due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it was instead conducted at ESPN's facilities in Bristol, Connecti ...

. Simms withdrew from the draft on June 1, returning for his senior season. He averaged 13.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game, garnering Second Team All-ACC honors. Simms declared for the

2021 NBA draft The 2021 NBA draft, the 75th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual draft, was held on July 29, 2021, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. With the first overall pick, the Detroit Pistons selected Cade Cunningham. The NBA us ...

and hired an agent, forgoing his final season of eligibility granted by the NCAA as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Professional career

After going undrafted in the

, Simms joined the

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

for the

2021 NBA Summer League The 2021 NBA Summer League was an off-season competition held by the National Basketball Association (NBA) at the Thomas and Mack Center and Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nevada on the campus of University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The summer league cons ...

and averaged 3.8 points and 2.8 rebounds per game. On August 19, 2021, he signed with the Knicks. However, he was waived on October 16. In October 2021, Simms joined the

Westchester Knicks The Westchester Knicks are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in White Plains, New York, and are affiliated with the New York Knicks. The Knicks typically play their home games at Westchester County Center in White ...

as an affiliate player. He averaged 11.3 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. On July 29, 2022, Simms signed with

of the

National team career

Simms was a part of the Clemson team chosen to represent the United States in the

2019 Summer Universiade ) , Nations participating = 118 , Athletes participating = 5,971 , Events = 220 , Sports = 18 , Opening ceremony = 3 July , Closing ceremony = 14 July , Officially opened by = President Se ...

in Italy. The U.S. received a gold medal after defeating Ukraine in the title game behind 12 points from Simms. Simms played in all six games and led the team in scoring and rebounding with 15.2 points and 9.8 rebounds per game.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;", Clemson , 34 , , 12 , , 15.4 , , .473 , , .326 , , .577 , , 3.2 , , .6 , , .2 , , .9 , , 4.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;", Clemson , 34 , , 34 , , 26.6 , , .441 , , .331 , , .750 , , 4.6 , , 1.0 , , .6 , , .7 , , 8.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;", Clemson , 30 , , 30 , , 31.6 , , .474 , , .400 , , .705 , , 7.2 , , 2.6 , , 1.0 , , .8 , , 13.0 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;", Clemson , 24 , , 24 , , 29.7 , , .532 , , .400 , , .825 , , 6.4 , , 2.7 , , .9 , , .7 , , 13.4 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 122 , , 100 , , 25.3 , , .481 , , .362 , , .730 , , 5.2 , , 1.6 , , .7 , , .8 , , 9.2

References

External links

Clemson Tigers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simms, Aamir 1999 births Living people American men's basketball players Basketball players from Virginia Blue Ridge School alumni Clemson Tigers men's basketball players Medalists at the 2019 Summer Universiade Paris Basketball players People from Palmyra, Virginia Power forwards (basketball) Universiade gold medalists for the United States Universiade medalists in basketball Westchester Knicks players