Connie Simmons

Cornelius Leo "Connie" Simmons (March 15, 1925 – April 15, 1989) was an American professional basketball player. He was born in Newark, New Jersey.

A 6'8" forward/center from Flushing High School in New York City, Simmons played ten seasons (1946–56) in the National Basketball Association as a member of the Boston Celtics, Baltimore Bullets, New York Knicks, Syracuse Nationals and Rochester Royals. He averaged 9.8 points per game and 6.2 rebounds per game in his career and was a member of two league championship teams: the 1948 Bullets and the 1955 Nationals. He was the second player to enter the NBA without having played in college, after Tony Kappen.

Connie was the brother of professional basketball and baseball player Johnny Simmons.

BAA/NBA career statistics

Regular season Year Team GP MPG FG% FT% RPG APG PPG 1946–47 Boston 60 – .320 .677 – 1.0 10.3 1947–48 Boston 32 – .295 .593 – .5 7.8 1947–48† Baltimore 13 – .302 .556 – .5 10.6 1948–49 Baltimore 60 – .377 .683 – 1.9 13.0 New York 60 – .331 .662 – 1.7 11.3 New York 66 – .374 .702 6.5 1.8 9.2 New York 66 23.6 .378 .689 7.1 1.8 9.5 New York 65 26.3 .377 .732 7.0 2.0 11.2 New York 72 27.9 .358 .689 6.7 1.8 10.0 Baltimore / Syracuse 36 23.9 .357 .632 6.1 1.7 9.6 Rochester 68 13.3 .336 .605 3.5 1.2 5.4Career 598 22.9 .351 .678 6.2 1.6 9.8

Playoffs Year Team GP MPG FG% FT% RPG APG PPG 1948† Baltimore 11 – .371 .744 – 1.0 17.1 1949 Baltimore 3 – .351 .759 – 2.3 16.0 New York 5 – .275 .952 – 1.4 8.4 New York 14 – .364 .618 6.7 1.7 10.9 New York 14 30.5 .464 .764 7.7 .9 15.9 New York 11 31.0 .367 .729 7.5 2.3 13.2 New York 4 27.8 .323 .694 8.3 2.5 11.3Career 62 30.3 .382 .731 7.4 1.5 13.6