Jimmer Fredette Q&A: Former BYU Star Talks Final Four, 3x3 Hoops, Pro Career

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Jimmer Fredette Q&A: Former BYU Star Talks Final Four, 3x3 Hoops, Pro Career

DJ Siddiqi · Athlon Sports

Fri, Apr 3, 2026 ·

15 min read

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Jimmer Fredette will forever be known as having enjoyed one of the greatest college basketball peaks of all time.

The 2011 National Player of the Year was the leading scorer in all of NCAA Division I as a senior, averaging 28.9 points per game for the BYU Cougars. In the process, he led BYU to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 30 years.

Fredette would eventually be selected with the 10th overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, spending three seasons with the Sacramento Kings before becoming a journeyman of sorts, playing for four more NBA teams before playing his final season in 2018-19.

The March Madness sensation would eventually find success playing overseas and excelling in 3x3 basketball, representing the first Team USA 3x3 team at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Fredette is now retired from basketball and serves as the managing director of the national team for USA Basketball 3x3. The former National Player of the Year took the time to talk to Athlon Sports on Thursday about a range of topics, including this year's Final Four, his own basketball career, his thoughts on who is the best scorer in the NBA today and his partnership with Coca-Cola.

The 37-year-old is partnering with Coca-Cola to debut the Coca-Cola glass sipper. It's a custom size 11 basketball sneaker-shaped cup, and he'll be meeting with fans in Indianapolis this Saturday during Final Four weekend to show it off.

Q: We're getting ready for the Final Four. I want to actually get your thoughts on this year's Final Four matchups, and what are your predictions?

Fredette: I'm excited about it. It's not the ones that I had on my bracket, but they're going to be, they're going to be great matchups. Michigan-Arizona is the one I'm really looking at. I feel like that game is almost the national championship right now, those two teams are playing such good basketball. Michigan is just huge, right? They're absolutely huge. They're awesome, and they have a good coach, and I think they're playing the best basketball right now. Arizona is probably close behind them, so I think that that's going to be a great matchup. They're both big. Both have really good guard play. Both have a lot of length. Yaxel Lendeborg is playing great basketball. Brayden Burries is playing great basketball. It'll be a really interesting matchup.

The Illinois-UConn one is crazy. Illinois, who's partially all players from the Balkans, right? They're playing their style of European basketball, and Brad Underwood has done a great job putting that team together. They're peaking at the right time, obviously. We can't deny UConn and what Dan Hurley has done there. It's just unbelievable. They just continue to survive and advance in the biggest sense of the words. He's gonna have his guys ready to play, obviously. You never can count them out. I think Illinois is playing a little bit better at this point. I would say Illinois-Michigan final. That's kind of what I'm looking at. I have Michigan win it all from those four.

BYU Cougars guard Jimmer Fredette dribbles as San Diego State Aztecs forward Kawhi Leonard defends at Viejas Arena on Feb. 26, 2011.Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images

Q: Any reason why you're picking Michigan over the other three teams?

Fredette: I think that their size is really beneficial in the tournament. They have length, and they're playing good, good basketball. They just seem to be playing the best and peaking at the right time. Their coach is great, but I think Lendeborg and his size is a real x-factor for a lot of these teams because he can kind of play multiple positions on that wing. He kind of shoots like a guard. He's like 6-foot-9 or 6-foot-10, he's playing three for them. That's a hard matchup for most teams. I just think that they're playing the best right now. This is all conjecture, right? We have no idea what's going to happen, but I just think they're playing the best basketball.

Q: It also helps that their head coach is Dusty May. He was the coach over at FAU when they made their Final Four run. Maybe it's time for May to complete the job, right?

Fredette: I think so. Like I said, he's a great coach. He's been there before. He understands the tournament and how it works. Him being to a Final Four I think really helps when you've been there before. You know what goes outside of just playing the game. There's so much that goes outside of it with appearances, with the media, with all the stuff that goes outside of the game.

He's been there and done that before, so he's gonna be able to guide his players to making sure that they're focusing in on what they need to focus on, and that's the game and understanding that they need to do some of these other things. But let's lock back in. I think that'll be helpful to him. Obviously, Dan Hurley has been there a lot before, too, so he's going to be preaching that saying on the other side. Having that experience is going to be helpful to Michigan.

Q: I want to transition real quick into your own career. Obviously, you have some March Madness memories from playing in this tournament 15 years ago. You won the National Player of the Year in 2011. Talk about that a little bit, the meaning behind that award. And then what's your favorite March Madness memory.

Fredette: Absolutely incredible. It's something that people can never take away, which is unbelievable to be etched in. Some of these trophies with some of the main names that are there with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and with Michael Jordan and Larry Bird and then there's my name up there. I don't know if I belong with a lot of these names, but I'm there, and I was fortunate to have a great senior season.

My favorite memory was obviously making the Sweet 16 and that 2011 year, we beat Gonzaga in Denver , and we were able to make it to the Sweet 16, something that BYU hadn't done 30 years since Danny Ainge was there, and so that was really special to us. Obviously, we wish that we were able to make it further, lost in overtime in that Sweet 16 game to a Florida team that was really good.

Obviously some of the moments that you remember also are disappointments, right? Those are things that happen, and those are they'll stick with you, but just an incredible experience. I love the NCAA Tournament, and to have to be a National Player of the Year, and have that etched and be able to have these trophies that are that are behind me for the rest of my life, and I can show my kids that is pretty, pretty humbling and a really cool experience.

Phoenix Suns guard Jimmer Fredette defends against Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki at American Airlines Center on April 9, 2019.Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Q: I know that your whole thing now is the 3x3 basketball. It's an Olympic sport, and you represented Team USA. I want to talk a little bit about your transition, because you played in the NBA. Things didn't exactly work out over there, but in 3x3 basketball, you became a king of sorts. Talk about that transition from the NBA to 3x3 basketball.

Fredette: It was interesting. Played in the NBA for six years, and then eventually was able to go overseas and play in China and a year in Europe, and then at that point was like, "All right, I want to come home more." I heard of an opportunity to play with the 3x3 Team USA, and they told me if you play there, you have an opportunity to possibly play in the Olympics. Once I heard that, that was the key thing for me. I have been a massive Olympics fan my whole life. I was one of those kids that just watched every event when I was younger. Because of that, I was like, "Man, if I could be a part of the Olympics in any shape or form, that would be a dream come true."

I knew I wasn't going to be a part of the Olympics in basketball for the 5-on-5 side. When you think about Olympics basketball, you think about the 10 to 12 best players in the USA representing their country and playing in the Olympics. Not many guys are able to do that. When this opportunity came to play basketball in the Olympics in a different way, I jumped all over it, and was fortunate enough to be able to go all over the world to represent the USA and so many different countries, and be able to see so many different cultures, and have an incredible experience with these three other guys that were able to kind of become brothers throughout that process, and then be able to represent Team USA and the Olympics was amazing.

Now I'm transitioning to be able to help pick the teams. I'm the managing director of 3x3 basketball program. I'll be picking the teams that represent us for the 3x3 program in the Olympics in 2028 so I've transitioned to that side, which I'm really excited about.

Q: Jimmer, over the years, obviously you excelled in 3x3 basketball. You played overseas, I think the last time you played in the NBA was maybe 2019 over those years. Did you ever get offers to come back to play in the NBA?

Fredette: My last good offer to play in the NBA was in 2019 after my China season. That was my third China season. I got an offer to come back and play, and I was able to come back and play with the Phoenix Suns , which was great, and finished the season there. But at that point, I was about 29 years old or so, and you know how it works, once you get into your late 20s or early 30s, you usually don't get an opportunity to come back into the NBA once you leave.

To have that happen was really thrilling for me, and a sign of the hard work that I put in overseas. It worked, and I was able to come back and play for half of the season at the end of the year, and then at that point, got some really good offers overseas. I felt like that was the right spot for me, and didn't really have the NBA on my radar at that point. I never got any offers after that.

You're kind of just at a certain point, there's a bunch of younger guys that are coming in that we want to invest in and that type of thing. That's kind of how it works in the NBA. I'm totally fine with that. That's understandable, and it was just a great experience for me to be able to play in the NBA and reach my childhood dream and play against some of the best competition in the world, which was a real honor.

Q: Obviously, everything worked out for you in the end excelling in 3x3 basketball. Now you're the managing director there. I'm just curious, in your NBA career, why do you think it didn't pan out quite how you expected it to?

Fredette: For me, there's always things that you think about like, "Oh man, I wish this would have done better," or whatever it is. I think ultimately the situation for me just didn't end up happening. There's probably about 10% of the league where you can kind of take those guys and put them on any team, and they're going to work out no matter what; the rest of the league, it has to do with just the right timing and the right fit. I never found that for myself.

I think if I were to really excel in the NBA, it would have been in a role where I was kind of like a sixth or seventh man, where I came in and they're like, "Hey, we want you to just score the ball for 15 to 20 minutes, and all we want you to do is kind of run the team when that comes out, and just score." I don't think I ever really found that opportunity in the NBA, which happens to a lot of guys. It's not just me. The NBA is difficult to stick in and play. [There are only] 450 players, and they're the best players in the world.

Sometimes you just don't find that opportunity and then once you don't, at a certain point they're going to kind of move off of you, that's just how it works. For me, there's no regrets. I went out and played the best I possibly could and did everything I could to excel. As far as when I got an opportunity, sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn't, and then at that point, I was fortunate enough to be able to make a great career overseas, and obviously do it making a name for myself in a different way. I'm proud that I was able to stick with it and be able to put my name and imprint of basketball in professional basketball, whether it was overseas, Olympics or NBA.

Shanghai Sharks guard Jimmer Fredette drives with the ball as Houston Rockets forward PJ Tucker defends during an exhibition game at Toyota Center on Oct. 9, 2018.Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

Q: And for sure, you're done playing basketball?

Fredette: I retired about a year, a little over a year ago at this point. People are always like, "Man, you ever think about coming back or playing?" You have days of course where you would love to play, but I don't love the grind anymore, having to practice and everything every day. I knew once that happened, it was time for me to go, and I feel really good about it.

Q: Who is the best scorer in the NBA, who is the best guard in the NBA and who is the MVP this season?

Fredette: OK, best scorer in the NBA right now, I think, is Luka Dončić . I think he can score anywhere at any time, and it's just so easy for him. Obviously, Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander] is up there as well. I think those guys are one and two. But Luka, he's the leading scorer in the NBA right now, and he does it so effortlessly that I wouldn't be surprised if he had an 80-point game at some point in his career. That guy is unbelievable with how he can score the basketball. I would say he's the best scorer.

I'd say the best guard is Shai-Gilgeous Alexander. He's not just a plus on offense, he's also a plus on defense. He can defend, he steals the ball very well, and he is clutch. The guy scores in clutch moments better than anybody at this point. I also think he is the MVP as well, with just the season that he's had. I think Victor Wembanyama is a close second. I think that would be the guy that I would pick outside of Shai for MVP because of his impact on both sides of the floor as well. But you can't deny what Shai's been doing, coming back after an amazing season and being able to follow it up with an even better season is really hard to do. Those would be my three quick hitter answers for those.

A Coca-Cola-branded glass slipper is seen as part of the brand's college basketball sponsorship.Courtesy of Coca-Cola

Q: Talk about what you're doing with Coca-Cola this weekend.

Fredette: Yeah, super excited to be partnering with Coca-Cola's fan work is thirsty work campaign and excited about this Coca-Cola glass slipper. It's literally a shoe that's glass that you're able to sip out of. It's really cool. It's a size 11 shoe. It's going to be at the fan fest. I'm going to be there on Saturday from 1 to 2 p.m. taking pictures, hanging out, seeing some people.

I think that the biggest thing is Coca-Cola is is huge on the Cinderella stories, and also the fan excitement. To be a part of that, people thought that I was a part of a little bit of a Cinderella story when I was at BYU. To be a part of that, and to see what's going on this year and the years past in the NCAA Tournament, it's just such a great campaign to be a part of. Obviously, I'm a big Coke guy myself. I like Coca-Cola Zero Sugar. That's my favorite. My wife leans a little bit more toward the Diet Coke, but it's incredible to be partnering with them. They're obviously super excited about the tournament and about the fans, and that's what it's all about for them.

Q: Is this the first time you've been partnered with Coca Cola?

Fredette: It is, it's my first time. I'm kind of honored, right. This is an iconic brand to be partnering with. For me, and obviously to do it around the tournament that's so near and dear to my heart is awesome. I hope that there's more partnerships to come. But this one is really special.

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Apr 3, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Basketball section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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