Australian Tour Diaries: Corey Simms

This trip has been fun in a lot of ways. There have been a lot of things that we’ve seen and experienced that we didn’t know anything about before we came here. It’s also been interesting because we had to do it together as a team in a foreign country. It’s been a great experience - not just in basketball terms but in the sense that this is a really a lesson in perspective of another way of life.

Today we learned a lot about the Aboriginal culture (at the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park), and it was an eye-opener. Their history has a common link to my history, and the things we learned in there really let us know that around the world a lot of people go through the same things, but overall all people are one. It’s really a good learning experience to come to things like this. If anyone ever has a chance to get to Australia, I really think this is one place they should check out.

Things like that make this the type of trip that in 30 years I will remember everything about it as a whole, not just one single thing. There were so many different things that we saw together as a team that really made this is a once in a lifetime experience and when I think back on it, I will remember the whole trip.

We found out more about our team on the court this week. We still have a lot of work to do, but by coming here to prepare for the season will really help us in the long run. These teams are pros and are at a talent level like our conference teams, if not higher, so getting this chance to play against bigger, stronger guys is going to help us a lot throughout our schedule.

This trip has really proved that basketball is an international sport. Over here, a lot of people love basketball just as much as they do back home, and we’re not the only country that has players who work hard at the game. They work just as hard as we do and you can see that in the way that they play.

I expected something similar to an NBA experience, but here they are just happy to be playing professionally. It’s really eye-opening. A lot of people back home play the game just for the money, but here they play because they love the game. They don’t care about the money or big arenas or anything like that. They just want to play the game and that’s something that I respect a lot. It was great to come over there and see a different aspect of the game and learn something at the same time.