Simisola Shittu was born in the UK, Harrow to be precise. Shittu then moved to Canada at the age of 5. Before his freshman year he left to America to play at a higher level of basketball to further his successes in the sport of basketball as he was doing well in Canada. Moving to the US wasn’t an easy feat at first for Simi “when I first left the country it was a transition, like living by yourself. I was about 15 so it was just hard to adjust to stuff like that”, he also attributes his dog mentality to his move to the US because it was the first time he had to earn his minutes.
Simisola had a very successful high school campaign, he was the number one ranked power forward in the class of 2018 along with many other prestigious accolades; top 10 recruit in his class, being selected for the Jordan Brand Classic game and becoming a Mc Donald’s All American.
He committed and attended Vanderbilt university, “my goals this year, basically just winning. That’s the number one thing, getting to the finals four – obviously NBA is a really big dream and if I continue to play my game this upcoming year then hopefully my dream will come true next year”. He also didn’t seem bothered in the slightest about having to move to Nashville as he told the Tennessean: “This isn’t much of a culture shock for me,” Shittu said. “I’ve been in prep schools for three years, and I’ve been living away from home since I was 15. Things are busy here, but it’s not that different. I like it”.
Unfortunately, the five-star signee suffered a torn ACL injury in his last year of high school did put a stint in his freshman year at Vanderbilt. That didn’t stop him from declaring for the NBA Draft. Unfavorably, Simi went undrafted but that didn’t matter as the Harrow native signed with the Chicago Bulls and the rest was history. Shittu is now playing for Bulls’ the G-League affiliate team the Windy City Bulls and is having many successful nights, most recently a 32 point & 21 rebound outing.
Simi was over the moon signing with Chicago as he told us, “yeah it was an unbelievable feeling putting pen to paper, the bulls took a chance on me and I’m thankful for that. The hard work and efforts I’ve made this season were evident and I know I’ve created a buzz this past year”.
Via Getty Images
Shittu started to peak in March and unfortunately due to COVID-19 his season has been suspended at the wrong time he had this to say on the NBA/G-League being suspended, “In terms of the suspension, you can only control what you can control and I finished the season strong so I have no complaints. Only thing now is looking forward to next year and staying ready”. Simisola isn’t a stranger to adversity or proving people wrong, he’s a very strong rookie year in Chicago and looks to build on that throughout.
It is always refreshing to see talent from the UK putting in work in the NBA/G-League as Simi added to our conversation “I’m a Londoner always”.
“In terms of the suspension, you can only control what you can control and I finished the season strong so I have no complaints. Only thing now is looking forward to next year and staying ready”