It finally happened. After nearly three years of languishing away in possibly the worst team for him, The Jimmer has been freed at last. Although I do find it odd that the same franchise that was able to trade for Rudy Gay this season was unable to trade Jimmer. But a buyout works out fine here, and I actually am very excited to see if he'll get to play alongside Derrick Rose next year. Yeah, it's the Bulls, who should never be forgiven for their sins committed against the Jazz, but I actually kind of like this version with Tom Thibodeau and Rose when he's healthy. They play defense hard and always compete, and are generally a fun team to watch — even with Carlos Boozer.
I covered the BYU men's basketball team during the first half of Jimmer's junior year. He was a star on the team, but not the star. He was a very solid point guard, and we were happy to have him. But senior Jonathan Tavernari felt like he should be the star, and he certainly acted like it. I was astounded by his complete arrogance during interviews and games. He was such a tremendous ball hog, and not even that good of a shooter. In BYU's first loss that year, Tavernari went 1-for-11 from the field at Utah State. Finally Dave Rose benched Tavernari, which ignited a 15-game winning streak and really helped Jimmer take control of the team.
At that time, he was still known as Jimmer Fredette, and he was able to walk around in public in obscurity. I also worked at the BYU Creamery on Ninth East, and often served ice cream to the basketball players when they came in for practice. I was amazed, though, that none of my coworkers knew who Jimmer was. Of course, most of them were girls who had no interest in sports, but still. This was our starting point guard, and he was actually pretty good. As an ice cream scooper, I always tried to treat the customers professionally, i.e., like normal people — even the handful of apostles who visited while I was there. But with Jimmer, I had to let him know that I knew who he was and respected what he did. I didn't ask for an autograph or anything (I was covering the team for The Daily Universe then); I just empathized with him about losing to Utah State (which was the team's only loss that semester). Jimmer took my playful comments in good humor and was very nice and respectful. In fact, in my limited exposure with Jimmer, I never saw him act anyway but respectful.
Anyway, with Tavernari on the bench, Jimmer continued to improve and progress. He put together a couple of 20-point games and a 33-point game against Nevada. And then it happened. The semester ended and I was unable to continue covering the basketball team. So I kind of missed Jimmer's big game at Arizona over Christmas break. Jimmer hit nine 3-pointers, scored 49 points and added nine assists and seven rebounds for good measure. Suddenly he was a somebody among BYU fans. And I noticed that people at the Creamery began asking him for autographs. But I don't think anybody considered him a superstar at that point — just a good player who could occasionally get hot.
Well that season wrapped up with a loss to Kansas State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. But us BYU fans were thrilled with that. BYU rarely makes it to the Tournament and hadn't even won a game there for a long, long time. On an interesting note, Kansas State guard Jacob Pullen single-handedly destroyed BYU with 34 points in that game, and I thought for sure he'd be in the NBA. But he never got drafted and has spent all his time overseas. Speaking of the Draft, there was some talk that Jimmer would try to go to the NBA after his junior season. I thought he'd be a second-rounder at best, and apparently so did he, as he pulled out from the Draft and rejoined BYU for his senior year. Now that we knew what he could do, expectations were very high.
It soon became commonplace for Jimmer to score 30 his senior year, and he became, without question, the most popular athlete on campus (it really helped that the football team was rather lackluster then). Jimmer stopped coming to the Creamery, and I began to hear stories about how it became difficult for him to go anywhere in Provo. Things really didn't start to get crazy until the Utah game. True, the Utes were in a down year, but beating the rivals on their home floor is still pretty fun. And scoring 47 points while you're doing it is even better. One of Jimmer's most memorable moments came right before halftime of that game, when he beat the buzzer to make a half court shot like it was nothing.
Jimmermania had officially begun. And it only grew exponentially with each game. Scoring anything less than 40 was an off night for The Jimmer. Here are some highlights: 42 at Colorado State, 43 the next game against No. 4 San Diego State, and a career-high 52 against New Mexico in the Mountain West Conference Tournament. That last one was particularly impressive for me because New Mexico had beaten BYU twice that season, and in that game Jimmer only shot one free throw. Everybody remembers his deep 3-pointers, but he made quite a living at the line, making 16 free throws in several games.
Unfortunately, I was unable to attend any of these games in person because I was working as a copy editor for The Daily Universe. But the benefit of that meant I was able to write a lot of fun Jimmer headlines and design amazing Jimmer packages. It was a cruel tradeoff, but I was always filled with a bit of pride to see the newspaper racks empty when Jimmer was on the cover. One of our great covers simply had Jimmer's head fill up the whole page with the words "We Love Jimmer!" below. We put a dotted line with a pair of scissors around his head, and to my surprise, a lot of fans actually did cut out Jimmer's head and use that to make their own signs. During this time, I was also serving an internship with the Deseret News, and got to work on the sports desk every Friday and Saturday night. That meant that I was working seven nights a week for a whole semester, and it nearly killed me, but the excitement of Jimmermania kept me going. I almost felt a little guilty sometimes for giving a good Jimmer headline to the Deseret News and not The Daily Universe, or vice versa, but it all worked out in the end. But it all worked out in the end. It was at the DesNews where I helped decided that Jimmermania should be one word. My biggest headline regret was shooting down "Fredette about it" at the Universe. But then ESPN used that same headline, so I was glad nobody could accuse us of copying.
Sadly, all the excitement and fun and high hopes of the greatest team in BYU history was crushed when leading rebounder Brandon Davies was suspended for an Honor Code violation. I can't blame Davies or BYU for the situation — everybody did what needed to be done — but the timing couldn't have been any worse. The Cougars did manage to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time since Danny Ainge, but they sadly fell to Florida in overtime. The loss of Davies really hurt me in this game, because it seemed like BYU could have won in regulation if they would have made one last defensive rebound. But Davies was able to rejoin BYU the next year, had a pretty decent career, and is currently on the bench of the tanking 76ers.
Well, Jimmermania ended sadly, but he did gain national recognition and won every major college basketball award there is. Unfortunately, there is no reward in college basketball that commands as much respect as the Heisman. The Wooden or the AP Player of the Year just don't sound as impressive. Anyway, building up to the NBA Draft was especially exciting since the Jazz had the 3rd and 12th picks, which were perfectly in Jimmer range. I got to cover Jimmer working out for the Jazz, which was pretty much a disastrous media circus nightmare for me. I guess the TV people got their way and insisted we interview Jimmer on the court. There were a million people there and we all had to shove and fight our way toward him, hoping that our recorders could catch his words. It was an unpleasant experience, and not one I'd like to repeat too soon. But Jimmer was very impressive during that chaotic interview. He stood tall, spoke loudly and clearly, and even joked a little bit. By contrast, Kemba Walker was also there for the workout, and he sat slunched over, seemed disinterested, and sounded (as one reporter put it) like a dog with peanut butter stuck on the roof of its mouth.
Well, the Draft soon approached, and I got the sense that Kevin O'Connor wanted nothing to do with Jimmer. But in a fun little piece for the Universe, I still optimistically predicted the Jazz would take him at No. 12. The first three picks went just like everybody thought they would, with Kyrie Irving going to the Cavs, Derrick Williams to the T-Wolves, and Enes Kanter to the Jazz. Things got shaken up a little bit after that, and then Jimmer was taken at No. 10 by the Milwaukee Bucks. But it was immediately announced that he was drafted for the Sacramento Kings. It took all night for the Kings, Bucks and Bobcats to finalize their complicated trade, but it ended up with the Kings surprisingly trading up in the Draft to grab Jimmer by paying the price of Bismack Biyombo and Beno Udrih. Meanwhile, Kevin O'Connor likely breathed a sigh of relief and happily drafted Alec Burks. It's not that Jimmer would have been a bad fit in Utah, but most likely the fans' adoration of him would have put a lot of pressure on the coach who didn't play him or the general manager who didn't draft him. But nobody expected O'Connor to waste the third pick on Jimmer, so he was able to avoid some criticism on that front.
The Kings, meanwhile, seemed to make a pretty stupid trade at the time. Udrih was coming off a career year and Biyombo had a ton of potential. Plus, Sacramento had to take on John Salmons' unfavorable contract. But at the end of the day, it all became a wash. Udrih only played with the Bucks for a season and a half before being traded to Orlando. He then signed with New York before getting cut and recently signed with the Grizzlies (Memphis was rumored to be interested in Jimmer, but they chose Udrih instead). Biyombo has not had a particularly stellar career in Charlotte, and Salmons actually didn't hurt Sacramento that much because he was included in the Rudy Gay trade. So, almost three years later, I can't call that trade for Jimmer bad or good. I will call it unnecessary, though. Sacramento already had a ton of shoot-first, pass-never guards on their roster, leaving little to no room for Jimmer.
I was devastated for Jimmer. Not only did Sacramento have a terrible roster, but the whole organization was/is a complete mess. Their owners were bankrupt and almost moved the team to Seattle. Luckily they found some new owners and a little bit of stability, but how stable are you really when Shaquille O'Neal is one of your owners? Jimmer's first coach, Paul Westphal, seemed to like him and played him big minutes in the preseason. But Westphal got into a fight with notorious head case DeMarcus Cousins, and was fired only seven games into the season. After all, decent to mediocre coaches are easy to find, but players as big and strong as Cousins are not. So even though he acts like a complete jerk and idiot at times, the Kings are hanging on to him tooth and nail. Unfortunately, all this meant bad news for Jimmer. The new coach, Keith Smart, just never played him for whatever reason. Yeah, he's not as athletic as the other guys, and his defense is pretty terrible, but is he that much worse than the other players on the Kings roster? Here are Jimmer's stats through his first three years:
Season Games MPG FG% 3FG% FT% PPG
2011-12 61 18.6 .386 .361 .833 7.6
2012-13 69 14.0 .421 .417 .859 7.2
2013-14 41 11.3 .475 .493 .895 5.9
So his minutes per game have steadily declined while his shooting percentages have steadily risen. Jimmer actually leads the NBA in 3-point percentage right now. I do want to put a disclaimer on those stats, though. The improved shooting is most likely due to the decreased competition Jimmer regularly faces. He usually only plays in the garbage minutes, when the game is already decided and both teams have the scrubs in. Nobody in those minutes are particularly good, and they're usually not trying very hard, not wanting to get hurt or too sweaty in a 20-point contest. So the defenders Jimmer has been facing more recently have likely been rather lackluster. I don't mean to discount anything Jimmer's done, I think it is still very impressive, but I want to help encourage some critical analysis of statistics. Most people work under the assumption that every minute of every NBA game is identical and an accurate indicator of a player's abilities. But anybody who watches the NBA has to admit that certain games and parts of games don't matter as much and are not played at the same intensity as the highest level of NBA games are. This is why I hate the per-36-minute stat. It is a little better than the completely nonsensical per-48-minute stat, but it still artificially increases most bench players' production. Sometimes they're just not able to play with as much energy for a longer period of time, and sometimes they do worse when they play against starters instead of bench players.
Anyway, what I'm trying to say (if I'm saying anything at all) is that I love Jimmer and I think he's a great player who has never really had a chance to prove himself. He doesn't have a lot of games with Chicago this year, but they will make the playoffs, giving Jimmer some good experience at that level. Hopefully Derrick Rose will be back next year and Jimmer will be there with him and turn into a major contributor on a contender. I would have loved to see him on San Antonio or Oklahoma City, but Chicago has a lot of potential, as well. Hopefully Jimmer will be able to resurrect Jimmermania and not become the next Adam Morrison.
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