Jimmer Fredette eyes exclamation point with Colorado-infused USA Basketball 3×3 team at Paris Olympics

Admin July 18, 2024

For Jimmer Fredette, the Paris Olympics are his exclamation point.

A college basketball superstar at BYU, Fredette is best remembered in the United States as the BYU sharpshooter rising to the rafters on the cover of Sports Illustrated, then falling back to Earth with a disappointing NBA career.

Yet overseas in Greece and China, he’s a champion and MVP.

Now the longtime Littleton resident has the opportunity to add another title to his resume as a member of USA Basketball’s three-on-three men’s team, one that will resonate worldwide: Olympic gold medalist.

“Obviously the NBA career was very up-and-down, but that doesn’t just happen to just me,” Fredette said ahead of the Summer Games in Paris. “It’s about trying to find the right fit at the right time in the right situation, and that didn’t quite happen the way it could have for me. But as one door closes, another door opens, and I always tried to take full advantage of that by working hard and being prepared and believing in myself.

“I’ve been fortunate to be able to do that and bring it all the way to 3×3, where it’s been an incredible ride. I think I’ve been able to leave an imprint on the game of basketball, and my legacy’s been solidified.”

Jimmer Fredette leaves the court after BYU’s win over Gonzaga in the Third Round of the NCAA Tournament on March 19, 2011, at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. (Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post)

As the country’s leading scorer and national player of the year in 2011, Fredette transformed into a college basketball icon at BYU. He was selected 10th overall in the NBA draft but was never able to find his footing across five franchises and six seasons in the league. That led him to search for professional stardom overseas, where he won a Greek Basket League championship and was named the Chinese Basketball Association MVP as part of a prolific four-year run with the Shanghai Sharks.

Fredette then transitioned to 3×3 in 2022 and is now the most recognizable face of a U.S. team with a decidedly Centennial State flavor.

Fellow guard Canyon Barry grew up in Colorado Springs and attended Cheyenne Mountain High School, while forward Kareem Maddox worked as a producer for Colorado Public Radio and a host at KUNC. (Colorado also has a representative on the men’s five-on-five team in Parker native Derrick White.)

“Colorado isn’t really known as a basketball state, so it’s cool to represent that aspect of Colorado that flies under the radar,” Barry said. “And with these local ties, Paris is an unbelievable chance to show the world, and especially the U.S., what 3×3 is about because it still hasn’t caught on here like it has overseas.”

FILE - United States' Canyon Barry celebrates winning the men's 3x3 basketball gold medal match against Chile at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. USA Basketball announced its men's 3x3 roster for the Paris Games on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, going with the same foursome that won a silver medal at the World Cup and gold at the Pan American Games last year.(AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa, File) — United States’ Canyon Barry celebrates winning the men’s 3×3 basketball gold medal match against Chile at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa, File)

The U.S. team, rounded out by Nebraska native Dylan Travis, honed its chemistry together for almost two years heading into the Olympics.

The foursome played on the FIBA 3×3 World Tour together as Team Miami, earning an automatic qualification for Paris because of their ranking within the top three on that circuit. Last fall, they won gold at the Pan-American Games. Before that, the team took gold at the 2022 FIBA 3×3 Men’s AmeriCup in Fredette’s debut.

For Fredette, shifting from traditional hoops to 3×3 allowed him to spend more time at his Littleton home with his wife and three young kids while also chasing an Olympic dream. The 35-year-old’s been working out at the Elite Performance Center in Centennial, and his trainer Eric Garcia says Fredette “hasn’t lost a step” from the long-distance sharpshooter who captivated the nation while in college.

“He’s still the best shooter I’ve ever been around,” said Garcia, a former Grandview star. “In our workouts, say we take 25 shots, and he may miss two or three max. And when he does, he’s mad at himself.”

Fredette’s training at Elite has been tailored to 3×3, a more physical brand of basketball that often features fewer foul calls. Numerous former Colorado high school basketball stars trained in the gym with Fredette, including Dominique Collier of Denver East, Colbey Ross of Eaglecrest and Josh Perkins of Regis Jesuit.

“What I’ve really noticed watching 3×3 is (opponents) really want to run him off the 3-point line, so he’s been able to learn how to create even more space with his jumper and in getting to the rim,” Garcia said. “They’re trying to do everything they can to not let him shoot threes, so he’s put in a lot of work shooting in traffic, working off screens and reading what the defense gives him.”

Fredette describes his teammate Barry as “probably the best downhill, straight-line driver on the FIBA World Tour.”

It’s high praise for a player who didn’t even make the Cheyenne Mountain varsity until his junior year and then toiled in the G League before making the U.S. 3×3 team in a tryout in 2019. That year, Barry and Maddox helped USA Basketball win its first 3×3 gold at the FIBA 3×3 World Cup in Amsterdam.

For Barry, the son of NBA Hall of Famer Rick Barry and former USA women’s basketball executive Lynn Barry, Paris presents a chance to make his own mark in his family’s storied hoops legacy. Like his dad, Canyon has a unique underhand free throw style, one he used to set a University of Florida record with 42 straight free throws made.

“It’s really hard to do something new basketball-wise in the Barry family that hasn’t been accomplished before,” he said. “Between my mom and dad and brothers, we’ve had academic All-Americans, NCAA championships, NBA championships, All-Star Game appearances, a dunk contest victory, Finals MVP, Hall of Fame players, a top-50 greatest player of all time. So to be able to add my own twist to that Barry family basketball legacy is definitely really meaningful.”

In Paris, the U.S. will be challenged in the tournament by Serbia (currently ranked No. 2 in the FIBA rankings behind the Americans) and Latvia (the defending gold medalist). But the rest of the field — China, Netherlands, France, Lithuania and Poland — is also capable of a run in a sport where fast-paced games to 21 points often result in upsets.

In what may be Fredette’s last basketball hurrah — “I could go either way” on retiring after the Games, he says — the U.S. believes it has the experience and talent to win the tournament.

“I know we’ve put in the work to win a gold medal,” Barry said. “As long as we’ll go in and give our best effort, we can live with that. That being said, obviously we’re going to try our hardest to win gold, and that’s the ultimate goal.”