Please don’t go, Jonathon.
With a lucrative offer to play in China on the table, that might be the NLEX management’s best pitch to their prized import who has already played match no. 2 of his four-game contract.
In Simmons’ second outing, the Road Warriors needed a late push to break away from the pesky NorthPort Batang Pier. On Saturday, the highly touted reinforcement once again came through. Pulling off a 121-112 win, Frankie Lim and his team are now 2-0 in the 2023 Governors’ Cup.
As an encore to his 32-point, 9-rebound, and 7-assist outing against the Blackwater Bossing, the 6-foot-6 wing posted 33 markers, 8 boards and 5 dimes in the Road Warriors’ second win of the season-ending conference. If there ever was a doubt about Simmons’ NBA pedigree, it has quickly faded into thin air given his pair of marvelous performances for NLEX. Two games in, and it’s clear that Jonathon Simmons is a keeper.
Nonetheless, if the offer from China or elsewhere is simply too good to pass up, the Road Warriors will have a tough task looking for a replacement that is as polished as Simmons. A significant portion of this challenge will fall on the shoulders of the Road Warriors’ new team manager Larry Fonacier. And since a talented, unselfish, and hardworking import with NBA experience doesn’t come by often, Fonacier really has his work cut out for him if Simmons ultimately decides to leave.
The four-year NBA veteran’s supposed last two games for the Road Warriors will take place on February 1 against TNT Tropang Giga, to be followed by an encounter with the Phoenix Super LPG Fuel Masters on February 4.