Who is Jimmer Fredette? Get reacquainted with USA’s 3×3 star

Thirteen years after “JimmerMania” dominated the attention of American basketball for one captivating March Madness run, Jimmer Fredette is in the Summer Olympics as a starring member of Team USA’s 3×3 men’s team.

The BYU legend arrived in Paris via a winding international road that spanned the NBA, the D League, the Chinese Basketball Association, the Greek Basket League and The Basketball Tournament.

Despite playing all over the world, it was restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic that most prominently put Fredette on Team USA organizers’ radars. With Fredette unable to return to China to continue playing for the Shanghai Sharks, he took a call from U.S. coach Fran Fraschilla in 2022, who asked Fredette if he wanted to play 3×3.

Fredette later debuted with the national team in November 2022 and helped the team qualify for Paris.

In getting here, Fredette established himself as the team’s star and leader. He earned gold with the 3×3 team at the 2022 FIBA AmeriCup, then silver at the 2023 FIBA World Cup and another gold at the 2023 Pan American Games.

Team USA’s only loss in the FIBA World Cup last year was to Serbia in the gold medal match. The teams will face each other Tuesday in the opening Olympic game.

How Fredette got here

The legend of Jimmer Fredette began in earnest in 2009-10, his junior year at BYU when he averaged 22.1 points per game while shooting an NCAA-best 44 percent from 3. He returned for his senior year and ignited “JimmerMania,” scoring 40-plus points regularly throughout the regular season and hitting 52 points in the Mountain West Conference Championship Tournament.

In the 2011 NCAA Tournament, he strung together 30-point performances to power BYU to its first Sweet 16 since 1981. After finishing the season averaging 28.9 points per game, he was unanimously named the 2011 national player of the year.

After being drafted No. 10 by the Sacramento Kings in 2011, he ignited the fanbase as his jersey became a bestseller, but he struggled to carve out a consistent role in the rotation.

His contract was bought out after two and a half seasons. Fredette bounced around the league with short stints in Chicago, New Orleans and New York before heading overseas to China with Shanghai from 2016 to 2019.

There, he led the league in scoring every season and tallied a career-high 75 points in a single game in 2017. He finished that season averaging 37.4 points per game on 42.4 percent shooting from 3.

Fredette returned for a stint in the NBA with the Phoenix Suns in 2019, then finished the season in Greece with Panathinaikos. He returned to Shanghai for another run before the pandemic stunted the season.

Quick 3×3 primer

Along with the smaller teams and the halfcourt setup of 3×3 play, here are a few other differences compared to fullcourt five-on-five game:

• Smaller ball: The 3×3 ball is slightly smaller than the fullcourt ball. They play with a size six ball, which is the same size as the WNBA ball, but it weighs as much as the NBA’s size seven ball.
• Fouls: Players can’t foul out in 3×3, but to disincentivize fouls, the bonus starts at seven team fouls and you get two free throws at each foul. At 10 fouls, a foul gives the other team two free throws and the ball back.
• Scoring: The biggest difference may be in point values. Shots inside the arc are worth one point, while shots behind the arc are worth two points. The increased value for longer shots sometimes leads to teams passing up easy layups to hunt for two-pointers.

Required reading

(Photo: Dustin Satloff / Getty Images for the USOPC)