Will Smith calls for NBA All-Star Ben Simmons
West Philadelphia born-and-raised Hollywood superstar Will Smith has joined the bandwagon to get the 76ers' Australian rookie Ben Simmons into the NBA All-Star game.
Smith, a minority owner in the franchise, appeared on Sunrise to promote his new movie -- but host David Koch redirected the conversation to discuss Simmons.
The 21-year-old Melbourne-born star was selected by Philadelphia with the No.1 pick in last year's NBA draft, and he's lived up to the hype so far this year.
Simmons is averaging 16.9 points, 8.2 rebounds and 7.3 assists through the first 38 games of his career.
Remarkably, fans have taken to the Australian so quickly that he is third among Eastern Conference guards in the All-Star vote count.
Fan voting is almost over and time is running out for Simmons to get voted in as one of the East's five starters, so Smith got to work on Sunrise: "Ben Simmons, All-Star game, Philadelphia 76ers, we gotta make it happen."
The connection between Simmons and Smith goes beyond their love for the 76ers, with fans anointing a very special nickname upon the Aussie: The Fresh Prince.
This is dope 🙌🏽 Thank you Will Smith, need to get you to a game when you’re done enjoying my homeland 🇦🇺 @sixers pic.twitter.com/b1WAJvlCVd
— Ben Simmons (@BenSimmons25) January 14, 2018
Simmons has some catching up to do after sitting 139,000 votes behind Toronto's DeMar DeRozan at the last count.
But he's received some help from other local sports stars.
Lets get behind @BenSimmons25 @sixers make and make him the first Aussie to play in the NBA All Star Game!
It’s real easy!
1 RT = 1 VOTE @BenSimmons25 #NBAVOTE— William Chambers (@WJChambers4) January 13, 2018
Wishing all the best to the bruv @BenSimmons25 Go Hard homie!! #NBAVote 💪💪
— mark richard hunt (@markhunt1974) January 14, 2018
#NBAvote @BenSimmons25 👌🏻👌🏻. Let’s get some retweet’s ey.
— Dane Swan (@swandane) January 14, 2018
Retweets = Votes
Let's send @BenSimmons25 to the @NBAAllStar game!
Let's go 💪 #NBAvote pic.twitter.com/SdZawa7eEu— Scott Pendlebury (@SP_10) January 14, 2018
He also picked up a glowing endorsement from none other than his friend LeBron James:
#NBAVote my lil bro @BenSimmons25! He definitely got next
— LeBron James (@KingJames) January 11, 2018
Final votes from fans, players and media will be revealed on Friday.
If Simmons misses out he will need to have influenced the 30 NBA coaches, who will select the reserves for the East and West teams.
The reserves will be revealed on January 24 ahead of the All-Star game on February 19.