Taylah Simmons: Carving her own path in Europe

After playing college a short train ride from Harlem, Taylah Simmons has spent the first few years of her professional career on a globetrotting journey.

Credit: Thomas Brüning

Taylah Simmons was just like any other university student graduating in 2020. Struggling to find what opportunities would lend themselves to her in a locked down world, she found herself working at her Mor Mor’s (grandma’s) cafe in Doncaster.

Unlike other university students, Simmons had a solid college basketball career. Her fire for travelling may have been sparked here as she spent three seasons with Wagner in the NCAA before transferring to Southeastern in the NAIA for one year. In her last stint with Wagner she averaged 15 points, seven rebounds and two assists to go along with a steal and a half per game. With Southeastern, she was NAIA Player of the Year, averaging 24.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.7 steals.

Although her resume read as such, Simmons’ professional career started as a barista. Her entrepreneurialism didn’t end here, however, and Mor Mor proved to be quite the business mogul.

“I made coffees there and started a face mask business with my Mor Mor,” Simmons told The Pick and Roll. “So I was just hustling and doing some photography and stuff. Not much basketball, aside from shooting for hours on end in the front yard with the world's best rebounder - my dad.”

Fast forward five years and Simmons’ still just as opportunistic, keeping a positive attitude through everything. She’s carved herself a nice early career in Europe with many more chapters to come.

“I've been to so many different places and have had so many experiences. I love to speak on my experiences with other young basketballers so they know there are other avenues and you can always find a different path to get somewhere that you want to get to. There’s not just one or two pathways, it’s infinite.

“I missed the beaten track, so I've taken the scenic route.”

Simmons has had two professional stints in Europe. In the 2022-23 season, she made her way to Slovenia to play with Cinkarna Celje, where she was part of leading a dominant unit.

“I went back and looked at all of our wins and losses, we were 50-3. 50. And three.”

This included a 29-1 record in the Slovenian league and two sweeps en route to an SKL championship, going 5-0 in the postseason overall. She led an egalitarian Celje in scoring through the finals, with 16 points per contest on her way to being named finals MVP.

Contributing to the 50 wins was more Celje dominance (obviously) through their play in the Women’s Adriatic Basketball Association (WABA). They snuck by Montenegrin club Buducnost Bemax Podgorica 66-64 in the championship match behind an efficient 15 from Simmons.

Here she is late in that game, playing every possible role on offence before forcing a steal to break a 58-58 deadlock, characteristic of the arm wrestle the final was.

Buducnost were equally as dominant as Celje in the 2022-23 season, led by four Montenegrin national team players. In this season, across 41 games, Buducnost were 39-2, with both losses coming against Simmons’ Celje. In their other loss, Celje won 61-59 with another 15 points from Simmons on 55-50-100 shooting splits, as well as nine boards, with four on the offensive end, and three steals.

Simmons was strong in league play, but always stronger during big matches. It wasn’t enough to play hard and execute, she willed herself to produce when the lights were brightest and the pressure was on.

“I think that it just comes down to confidence in yourself and your previous trainings and your previous games,” Simmons shared. “You've been in that situation hundreds of times but this time there just might be added pressure on the outside. So it's trying to quieten the outside noise and just be as present as you can.”

It doesn’t seem to matter where Simmons is, who the competition is, what position she’s playing or what language she’s hearin. When called upon, she’ll get you 15 points. Most basketballers would love to say they could provide that, no questions asked. When considering final scores in Slovenia usually find themselves in the 60s, her scoring load has been huge.

After a brief stint back home with the Melbourne Boomers, Simmons’ travel bug flared up again and she found herself back in Europe before the end of 2023. This time around she was playing with the Halle Lions, in Germany.

Here she is in her debut, going coast to coast for her first points with Halle, a game she scored 14 points.

She was key in turning the ship around, as Halle went 3-15 the season before she arrived. At the conclusion of her first season in 2023-24, they were 13-9, and 6-1 with Simmons. There was a learning curve to playing in Germany, and the league differed quite a lot to Slovenia.

“It wasn't as fast, it was a lot more structured, very black and white. Not as many reads. Whereas Slovenia was high-paced, a lot of reads, you just make the best decision for the team.”

Halle had earned a EuroCup berth with their play in 2023-24 but declined the invitation. This prompted a number of players to depart from the club, but Simmons returned for the 2024-25 season. Halle were resolute after so much turnover, making the postseason, but they faced Alba Berlin in the first round. Both of Simmons’ seasons in Germany finished at the hands of Berlin, who were a EuroCup fixture.

On Berlin’s strength, Simmons advised that “they had chemistry. They had girls in the team willing to do the dirty work and not put up crazy numbers. It was just a very well-rounded team.”

Two sweeps in postseason play against a structured, well oiled machine in Alba Berlin saw the end of Simmons tenure in Germany.

“My dream was always to play professional basketball in Europe.” When asked if this was still the dream, she was defiant. “Yep! Yep. When I think of when I was a kid, I just always wanted to play professional basketball in Europe. It was always overseas, it was always in Europe.”

She continued, “I don't know what got in my head as a kid that Europe is the place to be but I've always loved traveling and I've always loved learning about different cultures and meeting new people.”

Simmons’ curiosity for the world is palpable. She’s a great basketballer who has nurtured a boundless lifestyle of which she is firmly in the driver's seat. She doesn’t live with any constraints and marches by the beat of her own drum. She isn’t defined by how well she can put a ball in a basket, even though she’s really good at putting a ball in a basket.

She has made the most of her work, appreciating everything within the margins. Starting with fan interactions, she shared, “Slovenia and Germany are just die hard. They would jump in a car for eight hours to come cheer us on.”

In Germany, Halle Lions Fan Clube was effectively a home court advantage on wheels. “There’s one group that always travelled together in a little minivan. They were sometimes louder than the opposition's home crowd. That was pretty special.

“I love to connect with the supporters because that's their weekends. They dedicate so much to supporting and watching us. Same in Slovenia. We had so many people coming to support us at our final series in Montenegro. A 12 hour drive and they’re making it, without a question.”

Simmons has built quite the resume as a tourist as well, enthusing that she could “just jump in the car or train and go to Austria in an hour, or Croatia in an hour, or Italy in an hour. I love the day trips, but you’d only have one day off a week. So, it was like, are you tired? Are you dead tired or do you want to go see another country for a sunset?”

Through the calendar of a basketball player, it’s hard to find a moment to breathe, but Simmons’ experience in Europe has grounded her. “Having a week of holiday in between seasons is non-negotiable. So I got a little week holiday in Spain at the end of April.”

She also made the most of this with where she was living, especially in Slovenia. Celje is surrounded by natural beauty, another hobby of Simmons. “I love nature, and the country is just so beautiful.” With a population of just two million, they outperform their weight on the global scale and boast more than their sporting ability and their natural beauty.

The country also has a unique diet and Simmons was assured on what she missed the most from the culinary experience in Europe. In Slovenia, it was ćevapčići. In Germany, it was a drink that’s widely accessible in Australia.

Ćevapčići are tiny skinless sausages made with minced meat and, unlike revenge, are best served with ajvar, onion and warm pita bread. You can order five or ten at a time, but strictly no other amount.

When posited with the idea of ordering a custom amount of ćevapčići, namely eight, Simmons asked, “why would you want eight?” When asked if she has played a basketball game after ordering ten, she was more understanding of the idea.

Her self-belief and positivity are refreshing. Finding comfort in this space didn’t come without its own hurdles, however. “It’s definitely been a journey because I didn't always have ultimate self-belief and confidence. You go to so many different teams, you have so many different coaches and teammates. You can't rely on anyone else to give you confidence or belief because that's too many variables.”

As resilient as Simmons is, she has been faced with adversity as recently as this past season in Germany. She shared that things got difficult at the end of season through the bitter cold of East Germany, facing a language barrier and dealing with a knee injury.

“This last German season was really difficult for me. Even though everyone told me, oh it looks like you did well, your stats, you look like you played well. It was very hard for me mentally and I was not playing the basketball that I knew that I was capable of in that rigid, very structured, lifestyle.

“So as hard as it was, I pushed through, I persevered and now I've just learned even more about myself and I've probably learned what I value and what I need in a team or a club or a country where I'm playing. So, I learned the hard way.”

Her introspection is more indicative of what defines her. She’s intuitive, self-possessed and doesn’t need to question her place in the world. Even through a good basketball season, she was in tune with her own needs, solidifying her character.

Although she is no longer managing the first two, the knee injury is ongoing, which she is dealing with while playing for the Southern District Spartans in the NBL1 North. They’re sitting atop the ladder with four wins, zero losses and a championship in sight. Simmons spoke on the group, noting “there’s just respect for everyone on the team, you can just feel it.”

Her message was clear. “I’m up in Brisbane to win a championship.”

She’s been rehabbing her knee through the NBL1 season, which has been beneficial to its recovery. “It's actually good due to the knee injury that I have. I gave it some rest, but I need to slowly, steadily increase the load back up to where I was. In Europe, you’re doing two or three sessions a day.”

Simmons is enjoying the warm weather while she can as the European seasons usually see her jumping from winter to winter, but she’s eager to get back into it. She isn’t afraid of risk and she likes learning about herself in discomfort. “You have to take risks and you have to bank on yourself because no one else is going to do it for you.

“If you want it that bad, if you make a bad decision, you're learning from it. You're going to learn more from a failure or a bad move than if it was just so easy breezy. So I think I've had some situations where I've had to just take into another gear and figure out for myself, like, how do I do this?”

Simmons makes the most of what comes her way. She might not have followed the yellow brick road, but she’s forged her own path which has been enhanced by its blemishes. It feels like her view of the world and her positivity were inevitable, and whatever career she chose would have led her to seeing the world through this lens. Simmons is defiant in being who she is and her career still has so much basketball left in it.

When you watch Taylah Simmons play basketball, you get to watch a great hooper and someone who clearly owns her identity.