Jimmer Fredette, a university basketball star in Byu who became a NBA lottery team and then played for the United States in 3×3 basketball at the Paris Olympic Games last year, announced his retirement on Wednesday.
“Basketball has taken me everyone: from Glens Falls Ny, Byu, NBA, China, Greece and even the US team. In the Olympic Games!” Fredette wrote in a publication on social networks. “This game and my love for it have shaped the person I am today and that's why I am always grateful. So many memories and incredible moments. It was not always easy, but it was always worth it! The next trip begins now.”
In Byu, Fredette led the country with 28.9 points per game in 2010-11 and won the honors of national player of the year of consensus while leaving the Couchars to his first Sweet 16 appearance in 30 years.
Fredette, 36, was the number 10 of the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2011 Draft before being changed to the Sacramento Kings. Parts of six seasons passed in the NBA with Sacramento, Chicago, New Orleans, New York and Phoenix.
He also played professionally in China and Greece, winning the MVP award at the Chinese basketball association in 2017. Fredette had 70 and 75 points games in China, including one in which he scored 60 points after part time.
The best years of his career as a player may have been the last, when he directed his attention to 3×3. Fredette was a star in that fast game of half court for the United States, helping Americans win gold medals at the Pan American Games of FIBA 3×3 and 2023 of 2022 along with a silver in the 2023 FIBA World Cup. He was the 3×3 male athlete of the 3X3 year of the USA in 2023.
He entered the Paris Olympic Games as the 3×3 male player best classified in the world, with the Americans occupied the number 2 worldwide. But Fredette suffered an early adductor muscle injury in the tournament, and the United States could not replace him in his list of four men for Paris Games, so the Americans had to play the rest of the Olympic Games with three players and without substitutes.
“I owe him a lot who I am in this game today and it is not easy to say goodbye as a player,” Fredette wrote. “But the time has come.”
Associated Press contributed to this report.
