A high-profile spectator found a spot along the baseline Sunday afternoon to watch Jimmer Fredette play his final game (for now, at least) with the Westchester Knicks of the NBA Development League.
The spectator, Felipe Lopez, could relate, perhaps better than anyone else at Westchester County Center, to Fredette’s public travails in recent seasons.
“Your road to success doesn’t always go straight,” said Lopez, 41, a former prodigy who struggled to meet outsize expectations as a pro. “Sometimes you have to hit a couple of bumps to reset yourself and refocus your priorities. So I give him a lot of credit. He devoted himself to this organization, and now he’s trying to use it as a spring.”
Fredette, 26, signed a 10-day contract with the NBA’s New York Knicks on Monday and scored three points in a loss to the Toronto Raptors. Not many D-League transactions make much of a splash. But even as he plied his trade at the NBA margins, most recently in White Plains, Fredette somehow managed to remain in the spotlight.
“You’ve got 10 days to show what you can do,” Fredette said after the Westchester Knicks fell to the Iowa Energy, 84-80. “They’ll decide from there if they want to keep me or if they don’t. So you’ve just got to go in there and try your best, whether it’s a game or a practice, or you’re in the weight room — whatever it is. Show them you’re professional and that you’re there to work.”
Even the most casual fans are familiar with Fredette’s history by now. How he led the NCAA’s Division I in scoring as a senior at Brigham Young. How he was the 10th overall pick in the NBA draft in 2011. How he labored to find a role with the Sacramento Kings, whose dysfunction — three head coaches in Fredette’s 2 1/2 seasons with the team — hardly aided his growth.
At the same time, Fredette was — and remains — a 6-foot-2 shooting guard, which is perceived as a problem. He is as popular as he is polarizing. The Knicks could use some offense, though, and Fredette used the last two-plus months to prove (again) that he was a solid scorer, albeit against D-League competition.
“He’s capable of changing a game,” Westchester coach Mike Miller said.
When Fredette joined the team in late November, after he was waived by the New Orleans Pelicans, he arrived mostly in search of consistent minutes. In 30 games, he averaged 21.8 points and 4.8 assists while shooting 46.4 percent from the field, including 40.5 percent from 3-point range. He also handled the ancillary responsibilities that came with being Jimmer Fredette.
“He doesn’t get too rattled,” Miller said. “Everywhere we go, he has a lot of attention, and he meets and greets and talks to everybody.”
Fredette is known for his relentlessly sunny outlook. One of his favorite adjectives is “excited.” In an interview this season, Tony Hammel, his former coach at Glens Falls High School, said he had no doubt that Fredette would make the most of his opportunity in Westchester. Fredette turned down more lucrative offers from overseas clubs for another crack at the NBA.
“I would bet all my money that he does it,” Hammel said at the time, “because he usually does what he puts his mind to.”
Hammel shared an anecdote about the early years, back when Fredette was in grade school. His older brother, T.J., was playing for Hammel on the high school team, and young Jimmer would descend to the court at halftime to launch shots from long range. It became something of a spectacle.
“He would throw up 3-pointers and shots from basically halfcourt, and the crowd would cheer for him,” Hammel recalled. “I remember my wife used to be in the stands, and she’d say, ‘Who’s this chubby little kid who keeps coming out on the court?’ I said, ‘That’s Jimmer.’”
When Fredette was eviscerating college defenders, these were the types of stories that trailed him like confetti. Finding sustained work in the NBA quickly became another challenge altogether. In bits and pieces of five seasons, he has averaged 13.5 minutes and 6 points a game.
In February 2014, Fredette scored 24 points for the Kings in a victory against the Knicks at the Garden — one of his finest efforts as a pro. It was widely known, though, that the Kings were dangling him as trade bait, and he played just four minutes in the Kings’ next game. Eight days later, they waived him. He spent last season collecting dust at the end of the Pelicans’ bench.
“This whole time, I just tried to work on all aspects of my game,” Fredette said. “But I definitely want to continue to fight on the defensive end of the floor, and then show them that I can be efficient offensively. That’s been my focus throughout this whole thing.”
Last week, Kurt Rambis, the Knicks’ interim coach, indicated that Fredette’s 10-day contract would essentially serve as a tryout — nothing more, nothing less. No one expects him to be a savior.
“He can obviously shoot the ball,” Rambis said. “That’s what he’s known for. But we’ve got to see if he can actually handle the basketball and create shots for himself and create shots for others and work within the team concept. So it’ll be an adjustment for him. It’s not going to be an easy transition.”
Rambis was asked why he thought Fredette had struggled in the NBA. Rambis started by citing what he described as a seismic difference in the level of athleticism. Players in the NBA, Rambis said, are “bigger, stronger, longer, quicker, faster.” It was an extensive list.
“Sometimes it takes players a few years to figure out how to adjust to the game at the NBA level,” Rambis said, “and we’ll see if he’s made those adjustments.”
Lopez, the former St. John’s standout whose four-year NBA career was hindered by injuries, has been a familiar figure at Westchester Knicks games this season. Lopez, who lives in the Bronx, does a lot of charitable work with the NBA — a way to stay involved with the league. He said he had a lot of respect for Fredette and wished him well.
“I think he has what it takes,” Lopez said. “He was humble enough to play here.”
