Trae The Truth might not be a household name outside of Houston but the rapper is a legend in H-Town. He's so well respected there for his work in the community, in 2008, the Mayor proclaimed July 22nd as "Trae Day."

During Hurricane Harvey, he and his friends did their best to help as many fellow Houstonians as possible by getting on a boat and rescuing people from flooded homes, one of those people turned out to be Houston native and NBA player Jonathon Simmons.

Via NBA.com

``Trae the Truth, the rapper, is from Houston and we know a mutual friend from San Antonio. They brought a boat to Houston because (Trae) had to evacuate as well,’’ Simmons said of the rapper, who has gained additional notoriety recently in Houston for helping dozens of others evacuate flooded areas. ``They came and got (Trae) and then he came and got us right away. Luckily, I had a friend in the area who could help us out.’’

``We still had to ride a boat, walk through muddy water and ride on the back of a dumpster truck for like five miles. It was crazy,’’ Simmons recalled. ``I had to hold up my people and I had some kids with me. Most of the kids were old enough to walk, but one of them I had to carry with me.’’

Simmons, who is most known for his rags-to-riches journey from paying $150 to participate in a D-League tryout to becoming a playoff hero with the Spurs to recently signing a $20 million deal with the Magic, said all he had to eat for a day-and-a-half was a pack of ramen noodles.

"We were good for three days, but my other friend’s house had started getting flooded early, so he came there to the house, too. So that gave us another 11 extra people and most of them were kids. We had to let the kids eat first, so most of the last two days it was kind of rough (without food).

"There was at least 20 people in the house and probably eight of them were kids,’’ Simmons added. ``When I was little, my mom always kept the fridge full of stuff (during hurricanes). This time, I ate a pack of ramen noodles and that’s all for like a day-and-a-half.’’

Simmons said he plans on donating time and money to helping his hometown recover.

In the past 24 hours, I've heard from a couple of organizations that are trying to put together a basketball charity relief game, as well as Houston-natives and Kings rookies De'Aaron Fox and Justin Jackson say they both would like to play in one. Since I also live in Houston, I'll do my best in bringing together some sponsors, these organizations and ballers like Simmons, Fox, Jackson so we can put on a great event for the city.

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I've been a basketball fan for 30 years. I moved to Houston, Texas 17 years ago and have been living in Sugar Land for the last five and I have never heard of the Sugar Land Legends basketball team of the American Basketball League. NBA success story Jonathon Simmons not only knows about the team, he was drafted (they have a draft?!) by them in 2013 and dropped 62 points in his first game. You would have thought this would have at least made the neighborhood news.

After financial issues with the team, Simmons almost gave up on his NBA dream and quit basketball to become a barber or work any job to feed his four kids. He didn’t quit and in September of 2013, he paid $150 to participate in a D-League tryout with the Austin Toros (later to be named Spurs).

Two years later, he was holding a MVP trophy for the champion Spurs summer league team in Vegas.

A few months later, he’s in the NBA as a 26-year old rookie. And as a rookie, Simmons showed he could put up numbers when given the minutes; He was good for 10 points if he played 20 minutes and near 20 points if he got 30 minutes. In his final regular season game, Simmons had 19 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals vs the Mavs but barely got any minutes in the playoffs.

In the summer of 2016, at a Mountain Dew NBA3x event I helped organize, Simmons casually walked in and I was shocked to see how few people recognized the born and raised H-Town resident who made SportsCenter a few times in the past year for his high-flying dunks. I told a few kids, "He's a walking success story, remember the name."

On Thursday, May 11th of 2017, Jonathon Simmons started in place of injured MVP candidate Kawhi Leonard, outplayed MVP candidate James Harden and scored a playoff career-high of 18 points on 8 of 12 shooting against the Houston Rockets. I'm sure those kids know his name now and so does the rest of the basketball world.

UPDATE (7.14.17): Simmons agrees to a 3-year, $20 million deal with the Orlando Magic. That's a nice raise from the $525,000 and $874,000 he made over the past two years.

Birthday shouts to @ThaRealJsimms

@thijsenterprise - Intro (Try To Get High) pic.twitter.com/2Ruh9s6Z52

— Dunk Comp (@DUNKC0MP) September 14, 2022

THE RISE OF SIMMONS

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Normally when a team is up by 25 in the final minute and a reserve throws down a nasty dunk for his only points of the night, you will see an eruption on the bench.  That's not the case with the San Antonio Spurs.  Watch high-flying Jonathan Simmons score his only bucket of the game with a dunk and watch the bench, or should I say Manu, respond with some hand clapping.

Tony Parker looked like he was dozing off and Kawhi Leonard was just....

These professional could use some tips from the Monmouth Hawks.

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