Among the mass of cuts that have taken place in the NBA over the last couple of days, Jimmer Fredette is by far the biggest name. The former college basketball sensation at BYU was released by the San Antonio Spurs earlier in the week and has once again failed to prove he belongs in the NBA. While there are a lot of reasons for why he may not be making it in the NBA, one possible explanation surfaced this week that might silence the Jimmer Fredette believers.
That explanation is that Jimmer is arrogant and thinks his lack of NBA success has to do with the rest of the NBA being too stupid to recognize his amazing basketball abilities.
Via Yahoo! Sports:
"Jimmer thinks everybody is stupid," said an NBA assistant who worked with Fredette. "He thinks everybody needs to come and just turn over their offense and let him shoot it anytime he wants. That's not how the league works."
There are one of two ways to interpret this quote. You can either say the assistant coach isn't telling the truth or you can say that this is the missing piece to the Jimmer Fredette NBA bust puzzle. I tend to think it's the latter. The only reason an NBA assistant coach would say this is if he was frustrated with Jimmer for the very reasons that he is saying. In addition, a poor attitude would certainly indicate why Jimmer Fredette hasn't been able to stay in one city for very long.
If Jimmer Fredette is indeed an arrogant, cocky dude, then it's no surprise he keeps getting cut given the fact that he isn't a great defender and is really more of a shooting guard trapped in a point guard's body. While I wouldn't identify as a Jimmer Fredette fan in the same way that BYU fans are, I would identify as one who has believed that if he finds the right system he can succeed in the NBA. But with this report surfacing from one of his former assistant coaches, I've not only given up on Jimmer; I finally feel like I understand why no team has given him a chance.
If Jimmer Fredette had a humble attitude and was willing to do whatever his coach asked of him, even if the role was small, he would have stuck in Sacramento, Chicago, or New Orleans. There's always a place in the NBA for guys who can stretch the floor and knock down threes. Even if that is all they do. Those guys are called "specialty players" because they only play when their specific skill set is needed.
Taking this report at face value, it sounds like Jimmer could have carved out a nice NBA career for himself as a specialty player if he had the right attitude. However, he has instead insulted his coaches and carried himself like he's a superstar when in reality, he's just another guy fighting for a roster spot.
The most important quality a player can have is being coachable. If a player is coachable, he can maximize his potential and contribute to a team in a positive way. If a player isn't coachable and instead believes his coaches are "stupid", then he won't last for very long. Especially in a league as ruthless and cutthroat as the NBA. In the NBA, if there are two players of equal skill and one player is coachable and the other player is arrogant, then it'll be the coachable guy who makes the team every time.
I don't blame Jimmer Fredette for having confidence coming out of college. He had one of the most sensational college basketball careers we've ever seen. However, he failed to recognize that when you get to the NBA, you have to hit the reset button. Nobody cares what you did in college. Nobody cares how many points you scored or how many highlight reels you were on.
In the NBA, the only thing teams care about is what you can do right now. Instead of putting his nose to the grindstone and having the humility to recognize this, Jimmer instead decided to behave like a prima donna and alienate himself from anybody who told him he wasn't an NBA superstar. It's sad that he had to have this approach to his NBA career, but at the end of the day, he's the only one to blame.
Ben I'm guessing you haven't heard but many are calling out Michael lee for that hatchet job of an article. He used anonymous sources and either he or that assistant were straight up lying about jimmers character. His whole career he was praised by all his coaches for his attitude and work ethic. Mike Malone was even quoted he wishes he could put jimmers attitude and work ethic into some of his players. Monty said he was always the first to practice at 5 am and wanted mentoring from Monty to improve his defense. Everyone of his interviews he was always humble and never once complained about his playing time. If Michael or that supposed anonymous assistant coach was telling the truth then everything jimmers coaches said was a lie and jimmers humility in his interviews and the way he carried himself his whole career was fake. I think we know which one is more logical.
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading my article and taking the time to reply! I hope you are right!
DeleteThere is not one shred of proof that jimmer ever behaved arrogantly or was a prima Donna. In fact it's the exact opposite.
ReplyDelete