Hornets Hot Seat: Cedric Simmons
April 11, 2007
|
Periodically throughout the 2006-07 season, Hornets television play-by-play announcer Bob Licht is putting members of the team on the Hornets Hot Seat. In this edition, Licht grilled rookie forward Cedric Simmons with several probing questions.
Licht: Alright Cedric Simmons, you are officially our first rookie on the Hornets Hot Seat. What was harder for you, picking out a suit for draft day, or going through Byron Scott’s first training camp?
Simmons: Going through Byron Scott’s training camp. It felt like the first day of school, and I didn’t really know what to expect. I was really nervous and kind of scared, to be honest with you. When people say “training camp,” you think of running a lot and defensive drills, being tired and sleeping all day after (practices).
Licht: When you were picking out your suit for draft night, was that a decision made solely by you, or did you bring your whole family into it?
Simmons: I brought my whole family into it. It was between two suits – a brown suit and a blue suit. I picked the blue suit with the pinstripes. It really wasn’t too hard of a decision.
Licht: Draft day is a special one in every professional athlete’s life. When did you realize that you were probably going to be a first-round pick?
Simmons: When I decided to sign with an agent. It took me a while to sign with an agent, because I wanted to be sure in my decision (to leave North Carolina State after his sophomore year and enter the NBA draft). That’s when I knew I would be a first-round pick.
Licht: A lot of rookies in pro sports are asked to do things that they wouldn’t normally do. In the case of Hornets rookies, providing donuts for veterans and coaches is a very important job, prior to practices and shootarounds. Unfortunately, one time that duty was neglected. Tell us what happens when a rookie forgets to bring the donuts.
Simmons: There was one day in training camp when myself, Hilton (Armstrong) and Marquinhos (Marcus Vinicius) forgot to bring the donuts, so the next day our vehicles were all filled with popcorn. I got a Chevy Tahoe, and the whole thing was filled with popcorn. I think I got the worst of it, because my truck is bigger. (Simmons’ veteran teammates) had to use more popcorn to fill up the inside of it.
Licht: Now, it wasn’t just popcorn. It was buttered popcorn…
Simmons: [laughs] Yes. I started eating some on the way home before I cleaned it all out. I saw Bobby (Jackson) on the road and tried to throw some at Bobby, but I was going too fast and couldn’t hit his car with the popcorn.
Licht: Was it difficult to clean?
Simmons: Oh yeah. It was getting stuck in the vacuum cleaner and clogging it up. When I started trying to vacuum, it was just breaking up into smaller pieces. I think it was about 75 degrees outside the next couple days, so the scent was in my truck for a little while.
Licht: Is it safe to say that popcorn is kind of low on your list?
Simmons: [laughs] Of course.
Licht: True or false. Cedric Simmons would rather block a shot than receive an alley-oop dunk?
Simmons: False. The crowd reacts better to alley-oop dunks. I like blocking shots, but I love catching alley oops.
Licht: But you do get a great feeling when you block a shot and keep it in play?
Simmons: Oh yeah. That’s something I try to pick up from Bill Russell and some of the great players. Sometimes I get upset at myself if I think (after the block) that I could have caught the ball instead of spiking it out of bounds.
Licht: Who works most with you on your individual skills?
Simmons: I would say (assistant coach Kenny) Gattison and some of the older guys like David West and Marc Jackson. They tell me certain things to do to be a better player in the post or the perimeter, understanding spacing of the game and the timing of it. Also, just knowing the game.
Licht: You grew up in a basketball state, growing up in Shallotte, N.C. How much did you follow basketball? Did you follow the Hornets when you were a kid?
Simmons: Not so much the Hornets when they were in Charlotte, but I followed a lot of college basketball. I followed North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C. State, Wake Forest when Tim Duncan was there. I was always a basketball fan, but when I was younger I wanted to play baseball, so I always watched baseball, too.
Licht: Did you ever have any thoughts of playing baseball at the college level?
Simmons: Nah. By then it was too late. I thought I had been out of the game too long. It was too late. It was too difficult to go from (facing) 65 mph pitchers in Little League to facing 95 mph pitching. That’s a big adjustment.
Licht: Michael Jordan kind of found that out.
Simmons: [chuckles] Oh yeah.
Licht: Tell me a little bit about Cedric Simmons off the court. What is your primary interest when you’re not playing basketball?
Simmons: I play video games, I try to hang out with my family, those types of things. For the most part, I am all about basketball. I also like movies, funny movies, Will Ferrell movies and scary movies.
Licht: What’s your favorite scary movie?
Simmons: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I haven’t seen the second one, but the first one was pretty scary and pretty nasty. I watched it in the theater.
Licht: How about some of your personal interests. What’s your favorite electronic gadget?
Simmons: My PlayStation 3. I just got it and have been playing “Call of Duty” and “Madden.” I’m waiting for some more games to come out. My favorite game is “Call of Duty” because it’s an Army game and pretty realistic. It’s kind of like being a soldier back in the day.
Licht: Do you play against any of your teammates, and what is your success rate?
Simmons: I’ve played Madden 07 against Marc Jackson a couple times. My record is I think 5-1.
Licht: Isn’t that like old school going up against new school?
Simmons: [grins] Well Marc is pretty good, and he’s always wanting to play.
Licht: What’s the hardest adjustment you’ve had to make from college to pros?
Simmons: In college, we had so many days to prepare for the next game. If you had a game on Saturday, on Wednesday you would start going through the whole scouting report, so that by the time the game was played, I knew the other team’s calls and knew what they were going to do. In the NBA, you only have shootaround the day of the game. You have to know your basketball principles and just try to understand the game more.
Licht: Your nickname. You told me that at N.C. State it was just “Ced.” But then you get drafted by the Hornets and the coaches all call you “Grasshopper.” Where did that come from?
Simmons: It came from Coach Gattison. All of a sudden one day he started calling me “Grasshopper” like David Carradine from “Kung Fu.” It’s not about me jumping high; it’s about being a young player and learning.
Licht: Do you like it?
Simmons: Yeah. I don’t mind it. I think it’s funny, and I’m starting to like it a lot.
Licht: Think of the marketing possibilities.
Simmons: Yeah, I was thinking of that, too.
Licht: If you owned an NBA team and had the first pick in the draft next year, who would you take?
Simmons: Greg Oden. He looks like he’s playing with little kids out there – he’s just too big and too strong.
Licht: How much do you and Chris Paul talk about the ACC and Wake Forest and N.C. State?
Simmons: You know, I really can’t say too much, because Wake Forest won the ACC championship in football. In the year that I played against Chris in college, his team won both times and he made the game-winner. And I didn’t really play that much my freshman year, so I can’t say much.
Licht: So you knew about the Chris Paul legend before the NBA folks did?
Simmons: Oh yeah. I saw him play in high school – I was a year younger than him – and when I was coming up, that was all I heard about, about Chris Paul and P.J. Tucker and some of the other big-name players in the state (of North Carolina).
Licht: Did you ever play against him in high school?
Simmons: I did one time at N.C.-Wilmington at a team (summer) camp. He was the same player back then that he is now. Back then they weren’t calling backcourt (violations), so he was running all over the court and we couldn’t steal the ball from him. Sometimes we couldn’t get close enough to him to foul him. Those were some of the bad memories I have of playing against him.
Licht: Did you have a special kinship with Chris Paul because you are both from North Carolina and have great family backgrounds?
Simmons: Yeah. Chris is a great guy. He’s easy to get along with and is a funny guy. I enjoy being around him.
Licht: Cedric Simmons, I am happy to inform you that you are officially off the Hornets Hot Seat.
Simmons: Thank you.
