Professional basketball player Jimmer Fredette will compete for the United States in the 3v3 basketball division in the next Olympics in Paris in 2023. After becoming a great scorer at Brigham Young University (BYU), he played six seasons in the NBA. He saw a revival in his career in 2022 after changing to 3×3 basketball. During the 2023 Pan American Games, Fredette was a star on the American team that took home a gold medal.
Fredette, Barry, Maddox, and Travis make the first U.S. Olympic men’s 3×3 basketball team
Jimmer Fredette, the 2011 best college basketball player, along with Canyon Barry whose dad Rick Barry is in the Hall of Fame, Kareem Maddox, and Dylan Travis make up the first United States team for 3×3 basketball at the Olympics.
A committee from USA Basketball picked this group for the Paris Olympics. They kept the same four players who won the second-place silver medal at the 2023 World Cup, losing only to Serbia in the final game.
Fredette’s USA team won the gold medal at the 2023 Pan American Games, which allowed the United States to qualify automatically for the Paris Olympics.
” An extreme honour , Time to get to work ”
Jimmer tweeted
Jimmer Fredette was an athlete from an early age
Jimmer Fredette was born in Glens Falls, New York to parents Al and Kay Fredette. He was the youngest of three children. His mother gave him the unique nickname “Jimmer”.
From a very young age, Fredette showed an unusual commitment to sports. His older brother TJ said Fredette was the most determined and competitive 4-year-old he had ever seen. TJ helped train Fredette for basketball even before kindergarten. Fredette regularly played with TJ, who was 7 years older, and TJ’s friends on their backyard court.
Fredette could make 3-point shots at age 5 and learned moves to get past bigger opponents. TJ remembered that his brother found ways to win even when physically outmatched. From age 10, TJ told everyone Fredette would make the NBA.
Other family members also helped Fredette develop. His father, who worked in finance, had Fredette compete against adults in schoolyards at age 8. As Fredette improved, his father took him on trips to Hartford and New York City for tougher competition and coached his AAU teams.
His mother let him dribble basketballs all over the house and built a dribbling studio in their basement. Her brother Lee Taft, a personal trainer in Indianapolis, started Fredette on running drills at 5 years old and still works with him.
Fredette also has an older sister Lindsay, who was Miss Teen New York in 1998. Fredette’s father became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 18 after meeting a missionary who was the father of Fredette’s future BYU teammate.
Fredette’s mother is Catholic. Fredette and his two siblings chose to become Latter-day Saints after their parents let them pick their religion.
Jimmer Fredette is a successful family man
Jimmer is currently married to Whitney Fredette. The couple started dating each other in 2010.
The couple got married in 2012.
In 2017, the couple had their first baby girl named Wesley Fredette. In 2019, Whitney gave birth to another baby child. The couple had their third child in 2022.
After more than 14 years together, the couple’s bond is still very strong. Whitney has been with Jimmer through the ups and downs of his career.
Jimmer’s Great Start to a Great Career
Fredette started playing basketball after watching his older siblings. As a young kid, Fredette worked hard to catch up to his family members, insisting on joining when his older brother and friends played.
As he continued improving his basketball skills, Fredette often played three-on-three basketball on streets and in parks, as well as in organized half-court tournaments.
By the end of high school, Fredette received offers from 12 schools and chose to attend Brigham Young University (BYU).
At BYU, he showed his great scoring ability, especially in his senior year.
In high school, Fredette was ranked among the top 75 shooting guards in the nation by ESPN.com. He was the all-time leading scorer at Glens Falls High School, ranking 16th on New York’s all-time scoring list with 2,404 points.
Also See: Kareem Maddox Age, Wiki, Family, Parents and Siblings
Averaging 29 points per game, Fredette became a national star, known for scoring three-pointers no matter the defense trying to stop him. After beating future NBA star Kawhi Leonard’s San Diego State team and scoring 43 points, Fredette’s popularity exploded into “JimmerMania.”
Fredette’s incredible scoring ability dominated the internet. A social media star. The runaway college player of the year, Fredette averaged 29 points per game in his senior season at BYU while every team schemed to try to stop him. The phenomenon went viral and trending, like after scoring 43 on the future NBA star Leonard.
Crowds came out in droves to support him, with professors asking him to stop attending class due to the demand for his autograph. He was all over social media while teams he scored many points against were considered “Jimmered.”
It was a college career that would be recognized as one of the greatest of all time.
Jimmer Fredette’s prosperous career ahead
Fredette was the best college basketball player in the nation and a lottery pick in the 2011 NBA draft. He was selected 10th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks and traded to the Sacramento Kings, doing incredible things on the court. Freddete scored at will against any defense. He took the “Logo 3” long-range shot to a new level in college.
The NBA career he worked so hard for never materialized. He played for the Sacramento Kings, New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls, and Phoenix Suns over five NBA seasons.
Playing seasons in China for the Shanghai Sharks, and then in Greece, helped Fredette regain stability and confidence. But being away from family for months became unsustainable.
In 2019, he briefly returned to the Phoenix Suns. In 2022, there were talks about joining the Utah Jazz, but nothing came of it.
Just as Fredette weighed if he could keep playing abroad with his young family of three children at home, he received an offer he could not turn down.
Jimmer Fredette’s Road to the Paris Olympics
Fran Fraschilla from USA Basketball reached out, offering Fredette a path to the 2024 Paris Olympics via 3×3 basketball.
The American men failed to qualify for 3×3’s Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, and the Paris 2024 qualifying process is complicated. The event started at Tokyo, but the American men missed out despite winning the 2019 world title.
This year at the 2023 3×3 FIBA World Cup in Vienna, Fredette was brilliant, guiding USA to silver, falling just short against six-time champion Serbia in the final.
His 59-point tournament earned him a spot on the Team of the Tournament.
Most recently as part of the Miami 3×3 World Tour team, Fredette, Maddox, Barry and Travis secured America’s first 3×3 World Tour Masters title since 2019 by winning in Cebu.
The foursome came from behind against Vienna to clinch the final victory, showing the team and country’s progress in the men’s event.
In 2023, the USA team went undefeated to capture gold at the Pan American Games.
Now the 3×3 USA team is training hard, eyeing the gold medal at the 2024 Olympics starting July 26.
The foursome came from behind against Vienna to clinch the win in the final with their victory showing just how far the team, and the country, has come in the men’s event.
