Eyes of basketball world on Aussie Ben Simmons ahead of NBA Draft

Teenage Australian basketballer Ben Simmons, who grew up in suburban Melbourne, is set to be the focus of the sports world on Thursday when he is expected to be taken as the No.1 pick on basketball' s biggest day, the NBA Draft.

The college basketball star from Louisiana State University (LSU) is expected to be named by the Philadelphia 76ers at No.1, following in the footsteps of some of the game' s greatest players including LeBron James, Yao Ming and Shaquille O' Neal.

The June 23 NBA Draft, to be held in Brooklyn, New York is a date which Simmons would have had circled in his calendar since he chose to pursue basketball over Australian football at age 14.

Although Simmons was a promising Aussie Rules talent, it would seem basketball ran through his blood, after his US-born father, Dave Simmons, came to Australia in the 1990s to play in the country' s premier basketball competition, the NBL, as an import player for the Melbourne Tigers.

Now five years on, and four weeks shy of his 20th birthday, Simmons is ready to explode onto the NBA scene.

There are not many teenagers in the world who have been compared to LeBron James and have signed his first shoe deal with Nike and have been pronounced as Australia' s best basketballer before even playing a professional game.

But not many teenagers have the physical prowess and basketball talents of Ben Simmons.

At 2.08m, 109kg, and playing at the power forward position with incredible court vision and ball-handling skills, college basketball programs across the country were licking their lips at the prospect of having Simmons on their roster, and at their school.

LSU won the race to claim the wonder kid and, in his one and only college season, Simmons averaged 19.2 points, 11.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 2 steals and 0.8 blocks - figures which earned him comparisons to a budding James, who took the NBA by storm straight out of high school, aged 18.

Despite it being an impressive campaign for Simmons, controversy mounted as he was unable to lead his LSU Tigers to a spot in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) March Madness Championship - the pinnacle for American college basketball.

So Simmons' road to the NBA Draft has been far from a smooth one. In light of the LSU experience, many NBA experts expressed doubts about his leadership and ability to be a franchise player.

His only competitor for the No.1 title is 18-year-old Duke University forward Brandon Ingram, who is expected to be drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers with the second overall pick in the draft.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Andrew Gaze, who has long been considered Australia' s greatest basketball player, reinforced the 19-year-old' s credentials as the No. 1 pick.

"Based on what I' ve seen ... he has the potential to become something extraordinary on the world sporting stage," Gaze, the new coach of the Sydney Kings told Xinhua in May.

"I personally think, even though I haven't seen a lot of Ingram, Ben has a little more upside just because of his versatility, the way he sees the floor, the way he can instinctively put it on the floor and his rebounding," the one-time NBA champion and five-time Olympian said.

Since finishing his season with LSU, Simmons has seemingly been boosting his NBA and celebrity profile in the lead up to the draft. He signed with Lebron James' management team, Klutch Sports Group, and agreed to his first lucrative shoe deal with sneakerhead giants, Nike. As well as posting pictures to his social media of his vigorous workouts, Simmons has also been photographed courtside at NBA games.

Last week, it was announced that Simmons had snubbed the Philadelphia 76ers, after he said he wouldn' t be working out with the team ahead of the draft. This led many to believe Simmons would force his way to the Los Angeles Lakers, since he was a long-time fan of the purple and gold.

However, during an interview with an Australian radio station last week, Simmons stated that he did in fact want to be the number one pick.

"For me, I just want to be the number one player. It' s a once in a lifetime opportunity to go first, so if I go first it' s awesome. I' ve worked so far to just be that and go to a team like that. So, wherever I go I' ll be lucky to be picked up," Simmons said.

While the critics have picked apart his game, his personality and his future potential, it would seem Simmons has won over some of the biggest names in basketball, including Magic Johnson and LeBron James.

"LSU' s Ben Simmons is the best all-round player I' ve seen since LeBron James came out of high school straight to the NBA! Whatever team selects Ben Simmons, will be getting a player that will have an immediate impact on their squad!" Johnson, the Los Angeles Lakers legend, said on his social media account earlier this year.

"I think he is a great young talent," James told CBS Sports earlier this week.

"I think what he displays on the basketball court, we all notice.

"I think we all don't know just yet how great a kid he is and how down to earth he is with the game of basketball and life in general."

Simmons is aiming to become only the second Australian to be selected with the NBA' s No. 1 overall pick, 11 years after Andrew Bogut - the Golden State Warriors championship center - was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks at No.1 in 2005.

Since Bogut' s ground-breaking selection, more and more Australians have emerged in the NBA.

At present, eight Australian players are playing in NBA, including Bogut, Joe Ingles (Utah Jazz), Dante Exum (Utah Jazz), Kyrie Irving (Cleveland Cavaliers), Mathew Dellavedova (Cleveland Cavaliers), Patty Mills (San Antonio), Aron Baynes (Detroit Pistons) and Cameron Bairstow (Detroit Pistons).

Those numbers haven' t been seen since the 1990s when Gaze spent two separate stints in NBA with the San Antonio Spurs -- a period about to be superseded with the impending arrival of Simmons and another Australian who might get taken late in the first round, Thon Maker.

Simmons has been earmarked for greatness since dominating with the Bulleen Boomers junior basketball club in Melbourne five years ago. And on Thursday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, watched by his Australian mother and American father, he will take another step in his remarkable journey when he begins an NBA career full of expectation and promise. Endit