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Gabe Simpson Warren Harding | Boys Basketball
For Warren Harding point guard Gabe Simpson, nothing is better than setting up his teammates for big plays. More fun than scoring?
“More special to me is I like to throw alley-oops [passes] to Shakem Johnson,” Simpson said. “It’s a little more special when you get the crowd into the game.”
The Vindicator’s male basketball player has been dishing off big plays to the Raiders’ big men for three seasons. “I played on the freshman team the whole year,” Simpson said. “When they tried to move me up, I didn’t play a lot and I didn’t like that.
“So I just told them to keep me on the freshman team. When I was a sophomore, I started varsity. It felt good.”
Simpson comes from an athletic family. His dad played linebacker at the University of Pittsburgh. His older brother JJ played varsity basketball at Girard and his sister Alexis was a four-year athlete in basketball and track for Harding.
“I played football for one year just because I wanted to try it,” Simpson said. “I didn’t like it so I quit playing.”
Basketball has been his love.
“I think I was about 2 years old when I first picked up a basketball, playing with my brothers and sister in the backyard,” he said. “I was always good at it. It was just non-stop movement. I’ve always liked to dribble and I like to score. Once I started scoring, I started liking it more.”
Simpson said his role is “to get the big men into the game so it’s like you’re the motor of the team. So if I get going, everyone else gets going. And I have to get them going early.”
He was referring to Derek Culver and Johnson.
“He makes me look good when I give him the ball, the way he scores and how he blocks shots and plays defense,” Simpson said of Culver. “Shakem Johnson is another motor of the team. He likes to score, he has a big body.”
Simpson said he has some college decisions to make.
“I’m planning on playing basketball, I just don’t know where yet,” said Simpson, who added that he’s considering English or business for his major.