Sixers: Will Smith encourages fans to vote Ben Simmons for All-Star Game on Australia talk show

During an interview on an Australian talk show, Will Smith encouraged fans to vote Ben Simmons of the Sixers into the 2018 NBA All-Star Game.

Despite sitting one game below .500 at the moment following last week’s loss to the Boston Celtics in London, the Sixers for the most part are having a pretty solid season when considering how long it’s been since this team was actually contenders in the Eastern Conference. Without question, one of the main reasons behind this team finally moving in the right direction has been the emergence of Ben Simmons, as the rookie is enjoying his first year of action after being forced to miss all of last year with a foot injury.

Like most rookies, there are some areas Simmons could certainly improve on (mainly free throw shooting), but the fact that the former LSU star is currently averaging 16.9 points per game to go along with 8.2 rebounds, and 7.3 assists shows how valuable he’s been for Philadelphia this season. And if all goes well, Simmons will hopefully end up making history next month by becoming the first player from Australia to earn a trip to the 2018 NBA All-Star Game.

This year’s All-Star Game will be held the weekend of Feb. 16-18 in Los Angeles, and while social media has played a big role in helping certain players earn votes, Philadelphia’s own Will Smith is getting in on the action as well. With Smith recently joining the popular Australian talk show “Sunrise” to help promote one of his recent movies, the popular actor encouraged basketball fans to help get the Sixers superstar into the All-Star Game before it’s too late.

Keep in mind that Smith is also a minority owner of the Sixers, which is awesome for someone who has been a fan of the team since childhood after growing up in West Philadelphia, so seeing Simmons earn a trip to Los Angeles would be even more meaningful. After all of the years spent tanking and rebuilding, it’s amazing to see Philadelphia finally have some players worth consideration like Simmons and Joel Embiid in consideration for a game like this.

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Believe it or not, the voting ends right before midnight on Jan. 15, meaning Sixers fans and basketball fans in general are running out of time to help make this happen for Simmons. And if Simmons does end up earning a spot, not only will Philadelphia fans have something to cheer about, but also Australia will have a reason to be proud as well.