Monday night marked the first time an Australian professional basketball player recorded a Triple Double, and it was done at the hands of 21-year old Sixers star, Ben Simmons. Ben, who was born in Melbourne, Australia finished Monday night’s game against Andre Drummond and the Detroit Pistons with 21 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists in their 97-86 victory. His all-around game was put on show as he also became the first rookie to record a triple double, beating Lonzo Ball who finished one assist shy of the mark against the Phoenix Suns earlier this week.
The young Aussie star is getting a lot of attention after his strong start to the season. He has already made a case that he may be the leader for the Rookie Of The Year award honors, although being drafted in 2016, injuries held him out of the entire 2016-17 season, making 2017-18 his rookie season. After his first triple double he is getting praised from other superstars in the league, one of those being the King, LeBron James.
LeBron sends Simmons a message on Instagram
After Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid led their Philadelphia 76ers team to a significant victory over the Detroit Pistons on Monday night, he took to his personal Instagram page to post a photo from the game with the caption “#OTTNO” representing (On To The Next One).
It didn’t take long for @KingJames to leave a comment. LeBron said “Way to work tonight lil bro!! 1st of many triples for you!."
LeBron James is good friends with young star Ben Simmons and has been supporting his journey since he was in high school. He considers Simmons his little brother, and their connections go further than just a friendship.
They both share the same agent, Rich Paul. Rich is a childhood friend of LeBron and has been working with James in the business aspects of life during his NBA career. A lot of NBA players aspire to be just like the King so they also have reached out to have Rich Paul as their agent, Ben Simmons being one of them.
Lots more triple doubles to come
Just like LeBron James, Ben Simmons is a great all-around player and his size, strength, and ability to pass the ball has been compared a lot to King James for the last few years. A lot of players have been labelled “the next LeBron” as teenagers, but Simmons might be the one to live up to the potential, if he can prove at a young age he has a great all around game.
Ben Simmons had his first triple double in the NBA recently, but "the chosen one" still holds the record for the youngest NBA player to ever record a triple double. He did so when he was just 20 years and 20 days old. Since that time, he has recorded 73 more triple doubles in both the regular season and the playoffs.
Rookies Simmons and Lonzo Ball look primed to do the same throughout their careers. Lonzo almost broke LeBron’s record but fell short of the one assist which would have given him a triple double at 19 years and 362 days old.
