"So you was a** at first": Former North Carolina star Theo Pinson on Portland Trail Blazers' Anfernee Simons talking about high school basketball

Portland Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simons was a star in high school and was a five-star prospect before immediately going to the NBA after graduating. He sat down with G-League swingman Theo Pinson on his "Run Your Race" podcast on Sunday and opened up about his basketball career and how high school basketball is different these days.

Pinson asked Simons when he knew that he was a great player and the former No. 7 prospect from the Class of 2018 admitted that he only became good "late."

"So you was a** at first?" Pinton asked (0:42).

Both of them laughed, then Simons answered that he would not call it that and explained that he felt that he was not as physically gifted as other players.

"I just wasn't I wasn't, physically like equal to nobody yet," Simons said (0:54). "Always small, you know. I mean like I was talking about this one of my homeboys later, like, I feel like I don't know, maybe it's 'cause 'I'm older I sound like an old head now but like I feel like yeah I feel like the high school kids just not as big as they were when I was in high school."

Pinson agreed with Simons' sentiment, adding that kids don't seem as dominant as they were back in the day. However, the former North Carolina star said that five-star prospects AJ Dybantsa and Tyran Stokes are exceptions.

Anfernee Simons went to the NBA immediately after graduating high school

Anfernee Simons is considered a rarity among NBA players as he went professional immediately after graduating high school and was one of the first ones to do so since the NBA implemented age restriction rules in 2005.

He was supposed to graduate from Edgewater High School in Orlando, Florida in 2017. However, he reclassified to the Class of 2018, which made him ineligible for college consideration. This led him to attend IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

With IMG, Anfernee Simons was ranked the No. 7 player in his class by 247Sports. He initially committed to Louisville but eventually decided to bypass college and go directly to the NBA where he was drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers as the 24th overall pick in 2018.