“Obviously it would be amazing. It’d be a cherry on top,” he said in Las Vegas ahead of the Paris Games. “I feel like my legacy is kind of set in stone. I am who I am. I played the way that I played and a lot of people know me from college and how I used to shoot long-range shots. I think that’s what I’ll be known for, whatever happens in this Olympics. But to be able to win a gold medal? It would elevate it even more.”
Before Jimmer was Jimmer, he was a highly productive yet under-appreciated high school player. He averaged 28.8 points per game for Glen Falls High School in upstate New York and finished with one of the highest career scoring totals in state history, yet he was lightly recruited by Division I programs. Ultimately his decision came down to BYU and local Siena College, and he chose the Cougars partially because his older sister Lindsay went there.
Despite a freshman season at BYU that saw him start zero games and earn minimal minutes on the floor, he broke through as a sophomore. That year he averaged 16.2 points per game while starting all but one matchup. That increased to 22.1 as a junior and a nation-leading 28.9 as a senior.
It wasn’t just his stats that captivated basketball fans, it was how he was doing it. At 6-foot-2 and 195 pounds, it was inconceivable someone his size could score from literally everywhere on the court. And he did it often while double-teamed (and sometimes triple-teamed).
Fredette led the Cougars to a 32–5 record his senior season and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16, the furthest they had gone since 1981. Memorable games include 47 points against rival Utah on the road, 43 points against previously unbeaten San Diego State (featuring future NBA star Kawhi Leonard) and a career-high 52 points against New Mexico in the semifinals of the Mountain West Conference Tournament. Over three NCAA Tournament games he averaged 32.6 points per game.
The frenzy he caused on the court paled in comparison to life off it.
“I couldn’t go anywhere in Utah without getting asked for pictures and autographs, so I stopped going places with my girlfriend,” Fredette said. “We just hung out in our apartments and didn’t do much because every time I got out, I’d literally get mobbed.”
Fredette would later earn national player of the year honors and be selected No. 10 overall by the Kings. His legendary college career created expectations like few others before him, and that overwhelming pressure was seen in his rookie year. He averaged 7.6 points a contest over 18.6 minutes, respectable numbers but not for someone with his accolades.
They only went down from there.
Fredette’s lack of elite size and athleticism was enough to get by in college but not the pros. He struggled with shot creation against longer and faster opponents. Those same traits also hurt him in major ways on the defensive end.
For the remainder of his time in the NBA, he struggled to find consistency on the court. One night he’d perform at a high level and the next he wasn’t able to find minutes.
“The hardest part is trying to keep your confidence level high,” he said. “You’re like, ‘Man, I just played really well in one game, and then the next game or two, I don’t play at all. What can I do better? What did I do wrong?’ And then you get into the game and you’re just hoping not to make a mistake. And that’s a hard way to play when you’re a professional athlete against the best players in the world.”
Sacramento bought out his contract in 2014 and he bounced around the league in hopes of a rhythm that never came. Fredette signed a 10-day contract with the New York Knicks in 2016, but it wasn’t renewed and he finished the season in the NBA’s Development League.
Looking back, Fredette calls his NBA career “very up and down” but says he has no regrets about how it unfolded.
“I did all I could with what I had at that point,” he said. “Maybe I wish that I was a little bit more confident going into some of those games. But it was understandable of me just trying to figure it out. I was just proud that I kept pushing and kept doing what I could in order to keep playing the game at a high level and knowing that at some point, situations can change and then all of a sudden you can be successful. It made me the person that I am today, and that’s way bigger than the basketball aspect.”
Fredette decided a change was needed and headed to Shanghai. The Sharks gave him consistent minutes and a more defined role in the offense, allowing him to “find myself and be me again.” It was particularly shown in a 2018 game against Beikong, where he dropped 75 points — 40 in the fourth quarter alone.
Though his time in China was successful on the court, he felt homesick. Due to the pandemic, he spent nearly seven months in a bubble away from his wife, Whitney, and their three young children. Living halfway around the world to dribble a ball wasn’t worth it to him personally. In 2021, he all but determined it was time to hang up the sneakers and head back to Utah.
Then he got a call.
Fraschilla was tasked with finding talent to make up the U.S. Olympic roster. Simply adding an NBA guy wasn’t a possibility: players needed to log a certain amount of time with the program and truly commit to a yearlong, worldwide experience. When he heard Fredette was contemplating retirement, Fraschilla set up a lunch in Denver.
They sat together for two hours in June 2022 discussing what he could bring to the sport.
“’If you want to do this, you can cement your legacy forever in basketball because you’ll help us qualify for the Olympics for the first time in 3×3,” Fraschilla told Fredette.
“I’m in,” he responded.
