TUALATIN -- Shortly after NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced that the Portland Trail Blazers had selected him with the No. 24 pick of the NBA draft, Anfernee Simons strolled through a banquet hall in a fancy Florida hotel with tears streaming down his face.

His mother, Tameka, was guiding him through a sea of cheering family and friends, when the duo froze in the middle of the mayhem and hugged. Overcome with emotion, Simons couldn't stop wiping away the tears.

"I put a lot of crying in," he said Monday, recalling the moment. "So just thinking back at that, I got a little emotional."

They were hardly the only tears Simons shed as he blossomed from a late-blooming prep prospect into a first-round NBA draft pick. Simons is the first American-born player to go directly from high school to the NBA since the league changed its draft rules in 2005, and the foundation for his remarkable journey started a long time ago, with a little good, old-fashioned tough love and a lot of hard work.

Simons, who turned 19 on June 8, will be tested like never before in the NBA, when he will face older, stronger and more battled-tested players daily. But it will not be the first time he's been pushed to the brink.

It was early in Simons' life, at age 5, when his father, Charles, recognized he had special talent. So the former high school player decided he would mold his son the right way, preaching fundamentals and setting a foundation of excellence from the beginning. Swishing jumpers and finishing layups wasn't enough. Charles would scrutinize Simons' footwork on his jump shot. He would make his right-handed son dribble and convert layups with his left hand, so he didn't lean on his dominant hand.

Portland Trail Blazers draft pick Anfernee Simons will wear No. 24.

Scoring? Winning?

Having fun?

That wasn't enough.

"I was trying to influence him on creating good habits," Charles said. "Sometimes, when you're young, you go right every single time. It may look good. It may put points on the board. But, realistically, that's not basketball. You've got to go right and left and understand how to shoot and do those things. So I was just real tough on him to try to create good habits with what he does."

For Charles, success rested in the details. It was about repetition. It was about playing fundamentally sound. It was about playing the right way no matter how old you are.

And it was all lost on a kid who just wanted to hoop.

"He would constantly make him do stuff over again, was really nitpicky," Simons' mother, Tameka, said. "When you're a basketball player, you see the details. But Anfernee was like, 'Why do I have to shoot it again? I made the shot? My husband was like, 'No, your footwork wasn't right. You have to make sure you do it this way, the defender is going to take the ball from you if you do it that way.' There were lots of little things like that. As he got older, he understood the little pickiness and why his dad was like that. But, of course, you're not going to get that when you're 5, 6 years old."

So Tameka evolved into a mediator, measuring her son's mood and mental stability with his father's instruction, providing a needed "balance." Along the way, there were plenty of battles -- and tears.

"The tough love, telling me what I'm doing wrong all that time and kind of critiquing me all the time, it kind of made me be tougher mentally," Simons said. "When I was 5 years old, I couldn't take that. So I was crying a lot."

In hindsight, the Simonses say, perhaps they should have done things a little differently. Maybe they shouldn't have pushed their son so hard, so soon. Charles, in particular, carries a few regrets. But at the same time, it's hard to argue with the result. On Monday morning, at the Blazers' practice facility in Tualatin, Simons lifted up a white No. 24 Blazers uniform and smiled for the cameras, his NBA dreams realized.

"I'm just excited that he actually listened to me," Charles said, chuckling. "I was very, very tough on him. But sometimes you just need tough love. I'm glad that he accepted it and became the player that he is today and he's at the moment he's at today."

Simons' next basketball moment will be playing on the Blazers' summer league team. Practices start next week, and the 6-foot-4 guard will compete alongside fellow draft pick Gary Trent Jr. and other, more seasoned Blazers like Zach Collins, Jake Layman, Wade Baldwin and Caleb Swanigan.

The talent will be tougher. The games more intense.

And Simons, who did not play college basketball and remains a bit of a mystery, is expected to endure a steep learning curve.

But it won't be the first time

"Honestly, we're still pinching ourselves," Charles said. "Me and my wife, we usually go to bed early. We haven't been going to bed early since the draft because we don't want to wake up and realize this is just a dream. It's definitely a great feeling. We're just so happy for him and happy that the hard work did pay off."

Joe Freeman | jfreeman@oregonian.com | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman