The Baseball Crank: Jimmer Fredette Goes West

I know it’s been about four days since the 2011 NBA draft, and I’m a little late with this post about what happened that night, but I have to admit I was extremely curious to know when, and which team would draft Brigham Young’s Jimmer Fredette?

King for a day, and maybe a lot longer than many think?

I was tired of hearing about how Fredette was this over rated kid who couldn’t play defense, and was destined to become some kind of after thought in what was (by consensus) perhaps the worst ‘crop’ of basketball talent in the history of the draft.

I don’t know how anyone could know whether or not Jimmer can play defense or not, as he was never really asked to do that at BYU. Somehow, being about 75% of Cougar offense every game was considered a big enough load to carry, ya think? Playing defense is a quick way to tire any player out, but somehow Jimmer led his team to a top 5 ranking before an inevitable loss in a crazy NCAA tournament.

My son Matt and I talked quite a bit about the draft and Jimmer, over this past weekend. Matt also thinks the pundits may be selling Fredette short. Matt has no love for Jimmer, having seen him drop huge numbers on his school (Arizona), but he put that aside and talked about the fact that some kids are just winners. Some kids have to work really hard every day to get to the point where they are talented enough to play hoops at a major college or university, so the pressure has always been on them. Some succeed, and many don’t, but nothing breeds success like being successful in any vocation. Working really hard to achieve it would seem to be something any organization would desire?

I've read about Jimmer being compared to the Denver Bronco’s Tim Tebow.

It's not Florida anymore.

Is this profiling?

And if it is profiling, will someone explain to me what these two young men have in common aside from being uncommonly earnest, hard working, and white?

I know that Tebow wears his Christianity proudly, and that’s fine for him and millions of fans. He is one of the most popular players in the NFL. Perhaps there are some who think because Jimmer is Mormon, every other word out his mouth will be about God?

I don’t get it. I mean, Tim Tebow appears to be a genuinely nice young man, but I don’t want him to be the quarterback on my NFL team. He’s got talent, and a can do attitude backed up by all the hard work in the world, I just don’t see him being successful as a NFL QB – any number of other things, "YES! Just not TIM TEBOW -- NFL QB.

On the other hand, Jimmer Fredette has enormous talent as a ball handler and shooter, and is a quick 6’2" guard who will be able to always create a shot for himself. In the NBA, that is really a pretty rare commodity. It’s also my guess that with the kind of quickness Fredette has, teaching someone who works as hard as he does how to play defense won’t be tough at all.

So on Thursday evening, I tuned into ESPN, at about pick #6. A short while later Sacramento Kings worked a deal with Milwaukee, and took Jimmer with the #10 overall pick. I immediately thought it was a good pick for them, as their style is to run and gun, and who better than Jimmer to feed the ball to Tyreke Evans – and vice-versa?

TJ...er, Ben...

I was also impressed with Jimmer’s brother TJ, who I am still convinced is really Ben Affleck. I have had suspicions that Jimmer is really Matt Damon with heavy make up, but I am letting that go.

Ben...er, TJ...

Anyway, TJ mentioned the written vow his younger brother made and signed a number of years ago, in which he promised he’d work really hard as often as he could to someday make the NBA. The fact that it was (seemingly) written in crayon, with lousy printing was a bit disconcerting, but Jimmer did write it out, signed it, and made it happen.

I was a bit disappointed in not seeing the Jimmer and TJ's sister, the lovely Lindsay, but sometimes we all just have to muddle through.

In my opinion, I think Danny Ainge is the best basketball player to have ever played at BYU, and then gone on to a very successful career in the NBA as a player. I think one can compare Ainge and Fredette easily, both were the nexus of over-achieving teams on which they controlled the offense. (If I recall correctly, few thought Ainge would be able to play defense either. Turned out they were correct, but it was more his shoddy play as a third baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays)

I think it’s fascinating to think of Jimmer going to the Kings, and teaming with Hassan, DeMarcus, Donte’, Darnell, Tyreke, and Pooh, among others, and not only being the only white guy on the team, but also the smallest, by far. He’ll be tested every day, in many ways, not the least of which will be culturally.

The coda on all of this is really simple. It’s been shown year after year in all professional drafts of amateur talent that a lot of this stuff is a complete crapshoot.

In an extremely lousy year for talent, Sacramento may have found a gem, or perhaps they have a bit of fool’s gold? We will see, and remember that the media will be on this young man all the time, and he’ll be besieged by autograph seekers at every turn.