Athletic greatness comes in all shapes and all sizes.

It doesn't come naturally, but is achieved from hard work, diligence and adversity along the journey.

There's opportunity and there's always struggle.

There is triumph and there is defeat, and there is always a story behind the glory.

It's not a stretch to say that one of the greatest basketball players ever from the state of Louisiana is Baton Rouge.

His own Simon Augustus.

He has proven it on the high school, college and professional levels.

She was always hard work and she was always eager to learn and a good teammate.

Fuente made a competitor come home.

Hands down was the single greatest 101 basketball player our league has ever seen.

As a high school standout at Baton Rouge Capital High.

She was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine and was highly recruited by every major college basketball program in the country.

I remember recruiting her when I was at Louisiana Tech.

When you watched her play, I don't know that there was anything she couldn't do.

Shyamalan's strength of character is what makes her a standout.

A trait that was installed in her at a very young age.

You know, the very first time I ever saw someone in person was on a basketball court.

It was Thanksgiving, and it was down at the Riverside Centreplex.

And she was there serving food, to the less fortunate.

I just remember sitting there and looking up.

There's a number one high school player in the United States of America, and she's spending Thanksgiving, trying to make others feel better.

Simon was the tip of the spear for your unparalleled career.

A conversation you had with your dad after losing an elementary school game.

It was.

It was.

I, had just started playing.

I remember playing in elementary school gym.

I lost, actually, my neighbor at the time, she had assembled her team.

I had my teammates school, and I lost.

My dad came to pick me up, and I was on fire.

I'm like, God, I cheated.

And he was like, you lost.

And that's the end of it.

And so we get in the car and it was a short car ride to our house, and, you got to learn how to be a good loser before you could be a good winner.

Ever.

And I was like, I'm proud.

And.

And he was like, well, what do you want to do with this?

Do you want to be good?

You want to be great?

And I just sat in the car and kind of pouted.

And by the time we got home, I got out the car and I said, I want to be great.

Slammed the door and stormed into the house.

And then he came in and he was like, we don't want to do that.

And, that was it.

It wasn't a day that went by that I didn't work on my craft.

I had to get my schoolwork first because my parents wasn't playing that.

But, any time after that, it was like on a court at the time, we only had a gravel court outside, so playing basketball on a gravel court can be challenging.

Anything we had in the yard that I could use as a, defender or something to kind of just help me with my shot or whatever it was.

I was using it.

I had great friends at the time.

I always say, I understand now, like when your parents say pick friends that align with what you want to do.

Because all of my childhood friends played basketball, they were in the yard.

And even though they didn't go on to be you know basketball players, just those moments helped me hone in on my skills and really focus on my commitment to the game and having people at my side like, Shimon, is it an urgent, is it an urban legend, or is it true that all over Baton Rouge, no matter what the court, the court that might have been parked, the under the lights, dim lights, that that you would play street ball wherever you could against males, against females, anywhere you would think of.

The strangest place I've ever played was inside a funeral home.

Where they used to house the casket.

It was a basketball court.

And so it was dying to get there.

Yeah, it was dying to be in a gym.

Right.

But they had removed the caskets and everything, and we actually.

That's weird.

Yeah, we actually had games in there, and, you know, people were like, you not afraid to go in there?

I'm like, why is a basketball court is a goal?

They got a ball ready to play.

So I think those moments and playing against different type of people from different, you know, all across town, I was the only female most time.

So I figured out how to use my smarts against someone that was a lot stronger than me.

I used to, you know, use my emotional maturity.

If someone's trying to trash talk me and get me out of my game.

It was so many different facets of the game that I learned just playing streetball that I think really helped me hone in on my skills as a pro.

Eventually, as a pro, was there any time that, there was another sport that was competing with you, or with basketball in your mind?

Not necessarily competing, but I tried a little bit of everything.

Tried tennis.

I went out there, whack the ball like it was a baseball.

My dad was like, I'm not.

I'm going running.

After we're done on there, we done on that?

I tried volleyball.

I was pretty good at volleyball.

Golf was really something that I enjoyed in high school.

But other than that, nothing really competed with basketball.

It was just like that.

Next, soon as I picked up the ball, I knew what to do with it.

I felt comfortable, I was confident, and I think mostly when you think about sports, you got to feel confident in what you're doing.

And that was the one sport that I felt most confident in.

Her announcement that she was going to play her college basketball at LSU brought instant recognition to the basketball program, and would help start a five year run of NCAA Final Fours, 114 victories and twice a sweep of national player of the year awards.

We challenged her a lot when she first got on campus.

She was a phenomenal talent, and she wanted to make sure that she not only played the game well, but she played well in front of the home crowd.

Now, when you see all these great things that are happening now because of Angel Risen and Kaitlyn Carr, it started with some old Augustus was the number one pick in the 2006 draft, earning rookie of the year honors and eventually leading the Minnesota Lynx to four championships.

She also would earn international titles in the Euro Cup and earned Olympic gold medals three times with team USA.

And, you know, one of the most moving moments of Simone's career was when she was on, stage at a press conference in Rio de Janeiro at the Olympics, as the flooding was happening in Baton Rouge.

It's know that everyone back home is going through something.

Everyone has lost something.

Me and coach was just talking about 40,000, people lost their homes and and Baton Rouge.

This is for you.

I know this is going to be a difficult answer, but I want to, question to answer.

But I want to ask it any way.

And what gold medal, what championship meant the very most to you.

And I'm sure you've been asked that a bunch, but.

But I'm curious as to what was the most saddest find here a few years after the fact.

Probably the first gold medal in Beijing.

Because if you think back like there was no WNBA when I first like I started, it wasn't until I was well into high school that the WNBA came into effect.

So the first poster that was on my wall was of the U.S. Women's National team, where Rebecca Lobo, Lisa Leslie and all those, like those were heroes to, you know, those who that's the team that I wanted to be on.

Okay.

Those were like, all right, I'm going to be there with them.

And so that's what I worked.

Gravel driveway.

All the work ethic was going to get on that poster.

So when I made that team, I was the youngest of one of the players on that team.

And I just remember my dad like, we did it because that was one of the goals that I don't ever really write stuff out or verbally say in my life.

I just kind of set my intentions and start working at it.

And that was one of the ones I verbalized to him, like, I'm going to be on that team.

He was like, all right, we're going to be on the team.

I want to ask you about the influence of Louisiana and the South, Louisiana culture and the community in which you grew up.

Did you take a piece of that when when you went all over the world winning gold medals and competing literally against international competition from all corners of the earth?

Everywhere I went, people asked where I was from and I assumed, you know, Texas or Georgia.

Some of the bigger, you know, name states.

And I'm like from Louisiana and like Louisiana.

And so for me, it was like an opportunity to show people who I was and who where I was from.

Since they most of them had never heard or seen people from Louisiana before.

So, you know, I left it all out there on the court, kind of what I was telling you earlier, I was determined to show people this.

So first time seeing someone from Louisiana or your last time I was going to make it a memorable moment.

And for the most part, have I have rave reviews about the things that I was able to do and how people now view.

Louisiana is based on how I performed on the court.

Her uniform number 33 was retired by LSU in 2010, making her the first female athlete in school history to receive that honor.

The Minnesota Lynx would follow, retiring her jersey in 2022.

The next year, she would become the first female athlete in LSU history to have a statue erected in her honor.

Is it still just hasn't sunk in?

I pass by it every day now to go to work and I'm just like, I can't even process like the emotions and don't, buy the stock, right?

No.

It feels good though.

And I think back on that day and it was like the city of Baton Rouge came out, it was a celebration of like all the commitment that everyone had put into me investing into me, that that statue means really Baton Rouge.

You know, honors abound for this basketball superstar.

She was inducted in the National High School Hall of Fame in 2019, and is a member of the Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame.

2024 was a banner year for Simmons post-career honors.

Entering the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Her parents are her biggest supporters, and they're so proud of her.

And when I came back to coach at LSU, they were some of the first people to come to practice.

I don't think someone is done to see, how much she's grown as a person.

And to the woman as she is now, like a caterpillar turned into a butterfly, she's blossom.

She has done all of it with an amazing amount of humility.

That's why she's not just a Hall of Fame player, but a Hall of Fame person.

She has given basketball fans memories that they will never forget and will now continue to enjoy as she enters the next chapter of her career, joining coach Kim Mulkey staff at her alma mater, LSU.

Now you have an opportunity to help LSU do what it didn't do when you were playing.

Although coming so close in the national championship Final Fours, five times.

But but you've got a chance now to be a part of a team that's looking for its second national championship.

On Kim Mulkey staff.

I know, you know, to see it is to be it.

And I never did.

That was the one thing in my whole career that I'm like, I didn't get it done.

You know?

I got it on the other side.

I got four championships on the other side, but it's still not like what would have happened if I won a national championship during my time.

But to see Coach Mulkey and her staff and that team come together and win a national championship now, like, internally, I'm internally motivated as a coach should be like, all right, we can get back there.

And this year is going to be different.

Every year is different.

We lost players.

We're gaining new players.

Players are going to have to step up and I'm just looking forward to the ride and just the opportunity to learn, pass on my knowledge to the young ladies and hopefully get us to that Final Four and win one.

If you enjoyed this conversation, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Museum as exhibits and stories about Louisiana sports, Great Natchitoches is where history and fun blend with our state's rich sports culture.

Find travel planning tips@natchitoches.com.