Background and career
Bobby Simmons (born June 2, 1980) is an American former professional basketball player. During his NBA career, Simmons played for five NBA teams between 2001 and 2012. He won the NBA Most Improved Player Award in 2005.
After graduating from Chicago's Neal F. Simeon High School, Simmons played three years of college basketball for DePaul University. During his three seasons at DePaul, Simmons averaged 13.6 points per game, 7.5 rebounds per game and 2.2 assists per game.
Simmons was selected in the second round (41st pick overall) of the 2001 NBA draft by the Seattle SuperSonics. Simmons's draft rights were traded to the Washington Wizards for Predrag Drobnjak on June 27, 2001. Simmons was traded by the Wizards on September 11, 2002, shortly before the start of the 2002–03 NBA season, to the Detroit Pistons with Hubert Davis and Richard Hamilton for Jerry Stackhouse, Brian Cardinal, and Ratko Varda. He was released by the Pistons on September 24 and, less than two weeks later, signed with the Wizards again on October 10.
Simmons signed a free-agent contract with the Los Angeles Clippers on September 26, 2003. The 6 ft 8 in (203 cm), 235 lb (107 kg) small forward had a breakout year during the 2004–05 NBA season with the Los Angeles Clippers in which he averaged a career-high 16.4 points per game. That season, on November 3, Simmons scored a team-leading and career-high 30 points during a win over the Seattle SuperSonics. He was rewarded for his stellar play with that season's NBA Most Improved Player Award.
Simmons signed a five-year, $47 million contract with the Milwaukee Bucks on August 8, 2005, shortly after the new collective bargaining agreement was finalized. Since his breakout year with the Clippers, Simmons struggled to reach the same level of play. In his first year with the Bucks, his points, rebounds and shooting percentages all declined. Then in 2006, an ankle injury suffered in training camp during October forced him to miss the entire 2006–07 season. In December of the same year and then January 2007, a surgery to remove bone spurs and surgery to remove a cyst in his foot both complicated his recovery.
Simmons was traded along with Yi Jianlian to the New Jersey Nets for Richard Jefferson on June 26, 2008, just a few hours before that year's NBA draft. While his season was not as productive as before, he still managed to finish 5th in the league in 3-point shooting percentage.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
