Monday was the most special night in the young career of Anfernee Simons, but it will always hold meaning that goes beyond his career-high 43 points. Beyond his season-high seven assists. And beyond the Trail Blazers’ streak-snapping 136-131 victory over the Atlanta Hawks.
It will always be the game he played for his grandfather, Jake Carter, who passed away one day earlier at the age of 79 from pancreatic cancer.
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“Something felt different about today,” Simons said. “I knew kind of in the back of my mind that it was going to be a great night because my Papa was there to help me along the way.”
Simons’ memorable night, which helped the Blazers end a four-game losing streak and thwarted a career-high 56-point night from Trae Young, has some background.
It’s part serendipity, part divine intervention, part preparation meets opportunity. Combined, it created a breathtaking and emotional night that reverberated from Portland to Orlando.
See, Simons was bedside with his grandfather on Friday and Saturday, the two days before he passed. He was able to see him only because of a COVID-19 snafu that momentarily took him away from the Blazers.
Last Wednesday, after going 3-for-13 in a loss against Utah, Simons took a COVID-19 test. On Thursday morning, he learned the test came back positive, placing him in the NBA’s health and safety protocols and preventing him from accompanying the team’s Thursday flight to Los Angeles for Friday’s game against the Lakers. Worse yet, his parents had left Portland to fly to Orlando because they learned of Carter’s worsening condition.
But after testing again on Thursday, Simons learned Friday morning that he was negative. He wouldn’t be able to rejoin the Blazers until he recorded two consecutive negative tests, so he commissioned a private jet and flew to Florida to see his ailing grandfather.
Simons’ mother, Tameka, couldn’t help but notice the way the week unfolded, allowing her son to see her dad one last time.
“I’m a person of faith, and I believe it was meant to be that Anfernee could see my dad and then get back and do what he did today,” Tameka said. “I believe all things come together for a reason. Even though it’s not always what you want, it’s what is supposed to be.”
Anfernee would call him “Papa,” and in turn, his grandfather would call Anfernee “Red Man” — a nickname coined by a cousin when Simons was an infant. According to Tameka, Papa and Red Man looked alike and carried the same mannerisms and temperament.
“My dad was a funny guy, but if you didn’t know him, you would think he was quiet, kind of like Anfernee,” Tameka said. “But once he knew you, he would talk you to death.”
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There was an unmistakable bond between the two that really blossomed when Carter retired after working 45 years for the city of Winter Park, Fla., allowing him to spend more time with Anfernee, who was then in the fifth grade.
He would cook him breakfast — ” a good breakfast too,” Anfernee noted — with eggs, sausage, pancakes, and then would drop him off at the bus stop. He would be there to pick him up, and then take him to Subway, where the 12-year-old Simons would proudly boast he ate not one, but two, subs.
He bought him new shoes. Took him to basketball practices, waited, then took him home. Anfernee remembers the car rides, Papa giving encouragement, advice. And he remembers coming home and plopping on the couch, the two of them relaxing in front of the television.
“He was very pivotal in my life,” Anfernee said. “He was just a great man. He cared about a lot of people … he would go the extra mile to do things.”
It helped, of course, that Red Man was his favorite. A boy in a family of girls. A boy to bond with, to talk sports.
“He was excited about having a boy around. And in his mind, Anfernee could do no wrong,” Tameka said, chuckling. “Everyone else, it was always something. But not Anfernee. Anfernee would do everything he told him to do, and my dad loved that. He thought he was the smartest kid.”
When Anfernee was drafted by the Trail Blazers with the 24th pick in the 2018 draft, Papa was more than tickled. As Simons’ role evolved in each of his first three seasons, and as his stature grew after winning the 2021 NBA Slam Dunk Contest, Tameka could see her dad swelling with pride. She couldn’t hear it, but she could see it.
“Oh my goodness,” Tameka said. “Every time you saw my dad, it would be him in Portland Trail Blazers gear. Every single day. It was him saying ‘I’m not going to tell you I’m ecstatic about my grandson, but I’m going to show you.’ So, every picture of him, he has Portland gear on. Top to bottom. He loved it.”
And that’s why on Monday, as the shots fell one after the other, and the points kept climbing, both Anfernee and Tameka couldn’t help thinking Papa had something to do with it.
When Anfernee arrived at the hospital on Friday, Papa was sedated and not responsive. On Saturday, Anfernee said Papa opened his eyes. He said he felt his grandfather recognized that all his grandkids were present, but there was no conversation, no last words.
“Honestly, I feel like he was just waiting for me to get there,” Anfernee said.
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It was an important moment, his mother said because, in Anfernee’s 22 years, this was the first person close to him who had died.
“Ant is not an emotional person, but he is a family person, he really cares about his family,” Tameka said. “This is his first loss of someone he really knows, and I think it was important for him to get closure.”
Early in December, before the cancer had become so painful and debilitating, the two men who looked so much alike, the two pals who would eat Subway sandwiches after practices, were able to connect on the phone.
“I think it was more important for Anfernee to have that time because he did get a chance to talk with him before he went into the hospital,” Tameka said. “So I think this last trip was more about Anfernee’s closure.”
Anfernee returned to Portland on Sunday, and after he landed and settled in his home, his father, Charles, called and told him Papa had passed. That’s when Anfernee began to reflect on all that had transpired in the last week. The positive COVID test. The negative test. The visit. The passing.
It just seemed like it was all meant to be.
Then he awoke Monday with that different feeling, the one where he sensed something special might happen.
Another layer to the serendipity of Monday was Simons would start at point guard, a promotion because star Damian Lillard was taking the game off for injury management.
“I came in obviously with a heavy heart but kind of a clear mind,” Anfernee said. “I wanted to just play my game and play to the best of my ability for (Papa).”
Simons this season has been good, easily the best season of his four-year career. He entered the game averaging 11.9 points and 2.2 assists while shooting 42.3 percent from the field and 37.3 percent from 3-point range. His high game this season was 26; his career-high 37 set in the final game of his rookie season.
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He had 11 points in the first quarter, which included hitting 3-of-4 from 3-point range. Then he erupted for 18 points in the third quarter, hitting 6-of-8 shots including 4-of-6 from 3. Then late in the game, with Young keeping the Hawks in striking distance, Simons executed a pretty pass to a cutting Jusuf Nurkic for a layin with 42.6 seconds left that put Portland up 129-125.
Seldom before had Simons played so freely, so confidently, so expertly. When it was all said and done, he had 43 points on 13-of-21 shooting, which included 9-of-16 shooting from 3. He added seven assists, three rebounds and only two turnovers in 39 minutes.
Coach Chauncey Billups said he believed it was a case of a player finding escape on the basketball court.
“It’s just a place where nothing else matters for two and a half hours,” Billups said. “You can get out there and you can just zone out. There are a lot of things going on in the world, and you just get that time to yourself. There’s nobody around you, there’s no cellphones … nothing, other than just the game and your teammates. You value those moments and I think you are able to focus on a level that you can’t when you are distracted by the world.”
Back in Orlando, Tameka and Charles Simons watched with emotion. With every big basket, and every important play down the stretch, they knew their son’s career night was growing. And they also couldn’t help but feel something greater was at work.
“I think it was divine in the sense of Anfernee using his emotion, and carrying it out in the game, and doing what he feels like my dad would want him to do,” Tameka said. “But also, I feel like he did it because that’s what he is capable of doing. He played to the fullest of his potential tonight.”
She thought of her father, donned in Trail Blazers gear from head to toe, and imagined what this night would have been like for him. Her voice cracked.
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“It’s emotional for me, because he would stay up late to watch Anfernee’s games, and tonight would have been a night when he would call me and want to talk and talk about Ant and his game,” Tameka said. “It would have been a moment he would have called and really, really talked. And when I saw him tomorrow, he would want to talk some more about Ant and the game. So for me, him not being able to call me, that … that was a tough moment.”
She then chuckled. Anfernee had revealed during a postgame interview on the court that he played Monday’s game for his grandfather. Now, Tameka noted, the storyline was trending on social media.
“I’m just really happy for Anfernee,” Tameka said. “He puts in a lot of hard work. He wants to do the right thing. He wants to play well. And tonight, it all came together. He scored. He got some assists. And the team was able to have success and win. Those three things made it complete for me.”
Or maybe it was something bigger. Maybe what made it so special, so momentous, was that for one more night, Papa and the Red Man were together again.
“It worked out how it was supposed to,” Anfernee said.
(Top photo: Jaime Valdez / USA Today)
