Does Jimmer Fredette Even Matter?

After signing Jimmer Fredette to a 10-day contract last week, the New York Knicks have failed to give the former BYU standout a legitimate chance to play, but why should we care?

Jimmer Fredette is, in a lot of ways, the NBA’s answer to Tim Tebow.

Tebow, a devout Christian, grabbed the nation’s attention just a few short years ago when he led the NFL’s Denver Broncos to a playoff victory in incredibly dramatic fashion. But a lot of the love for Tebow didn’t stem from his skills because quite frankly, he isn’t a particularly talented football player.

No, much of the love for Tebow came from the idea of Tebow. In a league filled with supposedly evil African-Americans that only make headlines for domestic abuse and drug possessions, Tebow was white. Tebow was religious. Tebow was pretty.

Virtually none of the attention that surrounded the former Florida Gator was based off of his on-field play, it was because of the myth that Tebow-himself created around himself.

For Jimmer, it’s a similar story.

Fredette launched himself into the national spotlight during his senior season at BYU in 2010-11. That year, he dropped 28.9 points per game and won the Wooden Award, but even more importantly, he managed to capture the imagination of the national audience. Playgrounds everywhere suddenly became familiar with the term “Jimmer Range.”

Jimmer was undoubtedly a great college player. His ability to hit deep, contested shots launched Fredette into a superstardom that few NCAA players have reached over the past decade or so. But, unsurprisingly, there were other factors behind his rise to stardom.

Again, Jimmer was a legitimately great college player. But great enough to go 10th overall in the 2011 NBA Draft? Great enough to become the biggest player in the NCAA? Great enough to still be a national story nearly five years later?

Now let me ask you another question–what if he was anybody else?

A major part of Fredette’s rise to prominence, much like Tebow, has to do with anything but his on-court accolades.

The basic fact that Jimmer played his ball at BYU, a school hardly known for its basketball prominence, sent shockwaves throughout the NCAA world. Seeing a guy play the way Fredette was at the notoriously tight-run Mormon run university, as well as carry them to an NCAA tournament, was borderline bizarre. Even more bizarre — Jimmer himself was a devout Mormon.

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Of course, athletes being religious is hardly new. We hear from guys like Stephen Curry, LeBron James, and more about how important their faith is to them on a near-nightly basis. But again, Jimmer draws a parallel to Tim Tebow here in the simple fact that his faith was so prevalent.

This is a guy that probably could have gone to a bigger basketball school with more attention and glamour, but chose to stay home and go to a school based off his faith, which is fine! In fact, it’s a genuine culture shock that strays from the path most hoops stars take.

Just merely being a star at a mid-major that leads his team to the NCAA tournament, all while having his faith play a major role, would have certainly been enough juice to make Jimmer a superstar. But that isn’t even including the biggest part of the Fredette story — his skin.

Let’s not kid ourselves, the NBA is a league largely dominated by minorities. It is is nearly 75 percent black, with only 23 percent of the league’s players being white. Even more important though is the basic, almost systematic belief that basketball is a black man’s sport.

Maybe it’s because of the games prevalence in urban communities, maybe it’s because basketball’s legends are almost all black. After all, the last white MVP was Dirk Nowitzki in 2006-07, before that Steve Nash in back-to-back seasons from 2004-05 and 2005-06.

But Nowitzki is from Germany and Nash is Canadian. You have to go all the way back to Larry Bird in the 1985-86 season to find the last white American NBA MVP. But for whatever reason, there remains a correlation between black and basketball.

Yes, Jimmer was great. But you are only kidding yourself if you don’t think his rise was based solely on his basketball ability. Underdog small school? Check. Faith? Check. White?

Check. In all reality, the reason the Jimmer Fredette story became an actual story isn’t because of “Jimmer Range,” it’s because he was easy to root for, seemed like a good guy, and looked like most of the members in the media. And guess what? That’s completely fine.

We see this in sports all the time. Someone looks or plays different and it automatically a story. We saw it with Tebow in football, Yasiel Puig’s antics in baseball, and even Jeremy Lin in basketball. If someone breaks the mold of what we think they’re supposed to be, it’s almost definitely going to become a national story.

I’ve posed a lot of questions here, but I have one more for you.

Does Jimmer Fredette even matter?

Jan 16, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; New Orleans Pelicans guard Jimmer Fredette (32) in a game against the Philadelphia 76ers at Wells Fargo Center. The 76ers defeated the Pelicans 96-81. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Five years since he graduated from BYU, Jimmer has still yet to find a foothold in the NBA. He was drafted 10th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks and immediately traded to the Sacramento Kings, likely because of his star power and ability to sell tickets, but never really did much with the team.

He was a nice presence off the bench and even shot 42 percent from deep his second season as a King, but it was a long way away from the big shot making BYU superstar fans had grown accustomed to.

After two uneventful seasons in Sacramento, Fredette was traded to the Chicago Bulls during the 2013-14 season, where he played in only eight games before getting the axe. Jimmer was given yet another chance last season, this time with the New Orleans Pelicans. In 50 games, he shot a dreadful 19 percent from behind the arc and 38 percent from the field.

It has been five long years for Jimmer since he left college and it’s now become clear that he’ll never be the NBA star so many wanted him to be. He’ll never get the green light to haul up shots the way he did in college, he’ll never be the focus of an offense, and he’ll never be the guy.

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For now, Jimmer sits on the New York Knicks’ bench. After lighting up the Knicks D-League affiliate for the majority of the season, Fredette was signed to a 10-day contract a week ago to much fanfare. In his first game at the Garden, “We Want Jimmer” chants reigned down, half a decade after when Fredette would have had the chance to answer them.

With only one game left on his 10-day contract, it’s beginning to look like Jimmer’s time as a Knick will be coming to a close this week. His statistics — 1 minute played, 1-for-1 from deep, three points.

After all the news coverage and chants from fans, Fredette has played in one minute of NBA action for the Knicks. With what will likely be his final game coming up on Tuesday against the Portland Trail Blazers, eyes will once again focus on Jimmer and his playing time and once again, fans will likely only see their hero for a few minutes, if at all.

It’s OK that Fredette hasn’t worked out in the NBA, a lot of college stars don’t. But five years removed from the hype around Jimmer, how have we not learned that the kid out of BYU doesn’t matter in an NBA context?

Despite moving to four different teams and never finding a home, despite shooting less than 20 percent last season from the spot that he is supposed to own, despite not being able to play any defense whatsoever, we still force ourselves to get excited about Jimmer Fredette.

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It’s been five years and for the Knicks, it’s been 10 days. Now, it’s time we all move on from Jimmer Range.