In fact, the Australian admits he attended Louisiana State University only for basketball and expresses disdain at being made to do so.
“I’m here to play,” said Simmons.
“I’m not here to go to school.”
Simmons, the 2016 No.1 NBA draft pick, is the subject of a documentary that chronicles his 2015-16 college season to analyse the so-called one-and-done system in US basketball.
Players who attend high school in the US can’t join an NBA franchise straight out of school, so they do a year of college before being drafted – ‘one and done’.
Fellow Australian Dante Exum, who’s with Utah Jazz, was able to forgo college due to attending high school in Melbourne.
Simmons, who is missing the start of his first NBA season with Philadelphia due to a foot injury, sees college as pointless.
“I’m going to the NBA next season … it’s not going to help me,” he said.
“I have to be getting better everyday … I’m not worried about my oceanography class.
“I can’t get a degree in two semesters, so what’s the point?”
The documentary follows Simmons during his freshman year where LSU competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball championship.
With his team under-performing, it wasn’t an easy time for the 76ers draftee.
The Melbourne product was ruled out of the running to win the Wooden Award for the year’s best college basketball player for academic reasons.
Nominees must have a cumulative 2.00 grade point average.
He was also benched for the start of LSU’s clash with Tennessee in February for his poor results at school from missing classes.
Simmons can help but let loose.
“The NCAA is really f****d up,” he said.
“Everybody’s making money except the players. We’re the ones waking up early as hell to be the best teams and do everything they want us to do and then the players get nothing.
“They say education, but if I’m there for a year, I can’t get much education.
“I don’t get paid to do it. Don’t say I’m an amateur and make me take pictures and sign stuff and go make hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars off one person.”
Academia aside, there are also other pressures.
His family speak of unfamiliar new associates, while Simmons details the “temptations” on offer.
“(A) Bentley, a Wraith Rolls-Royce, watches, jewellery, a house. It literally is anything. People coming at you, offering you things,” he said.
His sister Emily collects receipts to proof against accusations of financial impropriety, which could prove harmful in the draft.
“He’s got real pressure coming now. And all the media attention will eat you alive,” said Simmons’ father Dave, a former professional player in Australia.
One and Done will air in the US on Showtime on Friday night.
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