Jimmer Fredette faded into NBA obscurity but resurrected his career in China - now he's going to the Olympics in Paris with USA's 3x3 basketball team

After all the accolades, the lofty expectations, the national fanfare - Jimmer Fredette's time in the limelight was seemingly up.

It was eight years ago that the ex-BYU star quietly played out a 10-day contract with the Knicks. And aside from a brief return to the NBA in 2019, 'Jimmermania' as we knew it was over for the former National College Player of the Year, who was drafted in 2011.

'I've done a lot of great things in my career,' he looks back now.

Fredette's next stop after the Big Apple (where he briefly played in the G-League too) was out of sight and out of mind for most Americans, as he dominated Chinese basketball thousands of miles away from his home country.

Was that expedition - the lonely nights, the empty stands during COVID and one 'extremely draining' year overseas - worth it?

'If I would've just quit after the NBA, none of this could have been possible,' the former lottery pick exclusively told Mail Sport, as he finds himself center stage once again with Team USA's 3x3 team.

'I wouldn't be in the Olympics right now if I didn't go crush it in China, and actually decide that I was gonna go all in and be there... people would have just forgotten about me.' 

With his former NBA dreams now well in the rearview mirror, there's acceptance - no, pride - from Fredette on the alternate route that his career has taken.

And its perhaps fitting that a gunslinging shooter who was 'ahead of my time' and wasn't given a 'green light' on the Kings, as he said during a Team USA media day, is now experiencing this second act an alpha dog.

'My [3x3] teammates and coaches expect me to be that player, they want me to be a guy that's aggressive and shoots the ball and scores,' he said.

If that didn't quite happen in Sacramento, where he began his NBA career and often came off of the bench on a dysfunctional squad - before bouncing around several other franchises - it certainly did in China.

Spending the 2016-19 (and 20-21) seasons with the Shanghai Sharks, Fredette managed to recreate the outrageous levels he reached at BYU, where he re-defined college shooting range and briefly made BYU known as a basketball school nationwide.

There were three All-Star selections in China, two ridiculous seasons averaging over 37 points and even one career-high performance with 75 in a single game.

But it still wasn't how a 10th overall pick envisioned his career going.

'As a young player, you dream big,' he said. 'You think you're gonna be an NBA -All Star, you think you're gonna win Rookie of the Year and do all these things. And the reality of the situation is very few players that get to that point.

'There's so many players that have left the NBA that have had had it not work out, And that's not just unique to me.'

Perhaps Fredette is right.

But a college player of his abilities will always maintain at least a flicker of attention on them, and not everyone is willing to leave the comforts of their home country to keep their career going, as he did in Asia and Europe.

Eventually, his travels left him burnt out. 

His USA 3x3 career began in its infancy after he'd spent four years in China and one in Greece with Panathinaikos, when former 3x3 head coach (and ESPN draft analyst) Fran Fraschilla approached the guard in 2022.

Fredette had returned home to CoIorado as a star in the Chinese Basketball Association. But there were downsides to that voyage too.

The guard spent long stretches away from his family and played out a bleak, isolated season during the peak of COVID. The grind had worn on him.

'It was falling out of love with the monotonousness of going to a gym, getting warmed up, playing in front of no fans, and then coming home just sitting there by yourself,' he said. 'And not doing anything. That for seven months.

'It's just one of those years that was just physically, mentally, extremely draining.'

It's no surprise then that Fraschilla's 3x3 overtures were viewed as a much-needed change of pace.

'Because [3X3] looked fun I wanted to try it because, you know, after 11 years of 5-on-5, COVID season in China, it just wasn't as fun as I had wanted it to be at that point.'  

Since making his 3x3 debut for the USA in the 2022 Men's AmeriCup team - and spending the last 18 months working with his Olympic squad teammates - Fredette is no longer a newcomer to this new format, which sees games played to 21.

And he's reenergized as Team USA seeks gold this summer, after losing to Serbia in the finals of last year's World Cup.

'I'm as motivated, I feel like as, as I've ever been, since I was playing basketball at BYU - to be honest with you - in college,' he said. 'It's just like I said, it's been fun. And it's a new new thing that I can get better at still.'

Of course, there will be another, more prominent men's basketball team representing the USA this summer, with LeBron James, Steph Curry and Joel Embiid expected to suit up for the traditional 5-on-5 squad.

The group will also include Kawhi Leonard (dependent on his health), who went four spots after Fredette in the 2011 NBA Draft and frequently sparred with his BYU on San Diego State in college.

But as Fredette - who now works as an investment firm partner - prepares to compete in Paris parallel the future Hall of Famer Leonard, there's no bitterness as he approaches what's likely to be his first and last Olympics.

'Only the 10 or 12 Best NBA players that are American in the world get to play in the Olympics [for 5-on-5]. That's what you see growing up. So that's a tall task in order to do that for most people.

'I always wanted to be a part of it, but didn't know if I would be for basketball,' he continued. 'And then, as soon as this opportunity came, that was a dream come true.'

Fredette, 35, has done and seen a lot in his career to this point.

He's won a Greek League championship, an International MVP in the CBA and of course collected a slew of college awards as he became genuine appointment viewing. He was even named the USA 3x3 male athlete of the year for 2023, showing how well and how quickly he's adapted to his new craft.

Still, for Fredette the Olympics represent something different than his previous travails.

'I know that the first time that I step on the floor as an Olympian, it's gonna be the most nervous I've ever been as a basketball player.

'It's a different stage. It's a different place...And you're wearing USA basketball on your chest, you're expected to win.'

After this winding journey from the end of his NBA days, that pressure, though, is viewed by Fredette as a privilege to carry - as he relishes this moment in the spotlight for perhaps the last time. 

'I think that I've always been someone that will just keep working,' he said. 'Knowing that there's other things on the other side, that could be great, you just don't know it yet.'