ST. LOUIS — Back in the day, Rayshawn Simmons used to terrorize opposing defenses on the football and field and basketball court. He excelled at both during his time at Webster Groves high school but opted to take the basketball route in college.
He landed at Central Michigan University before deciding to take his talents to the next stage, professional basketball overseas.
In his fourth season, everything was going smoothly until COVID-19 broke out.
“I was hearing about the corona[virus] back in like October, November, it was early,” Simmons said.
While he played in Germany, they first got word from China. He never thought it would spread as rapidly as it did.
“I’m just like 'man, no way they're gonna cancel our league, not gonna happen,'” he said. “Next thing you know it just all starts happening like real fast.”
The virus reached Italy causing everything to get shut down in Europe, even Simmons’ basketball season which had three months remaining. The shutdown left him stuck in his apartment with his American teammates, playing the game trying to pass time.
“In Europe, it’s not all those fast-food restaurants, so you know we [in the United States] go on lockdown and you can still go through a drive-thru, you can’t do that over there so we literally on lockdown,” he said describing the situation overseas.
Simmons ultimately made the decision to come home and be with family. But no basketball meant no paycheck.
“I’m living six months, off a six-month salary,” Simmons mentioned how his contract was nine months.
Three months short of a full season, and an additional three months away from the new season, Simmons was fortunate to have been smart with his money. Because it’s not just now he has to worry about.
“When we start back up, they're predicting a 20% decrease in pay across the board for the teams over there because of the economy,” Simmons said.
Despite the pay cut, Simmons still plans to go back overseas and play because he said it was never about the money. That’s why he’s using this pandemic, as a much-needed break seeing how he hasn’t taken any time off in two years.
“You know it’s time to take a break, this is actually helping me like 'Yo, let your body heal,'” Simmons said.
