By: Bryce Fields

If you just google “Jimmer Fredette” on most days, basically the only thing that comes up is his Wikipedia page (per usual), highlight tapes from his time as a college basketball megastar, or the occasional random article pointing out his recent success as a member of the Shanghai Sharks in the Chinese Basketball Association. All of these should not come as a surprise to basketball fans if they have kept up to date with the former first-round draft pick.

Photo credit to New York Post

However, for the next week or so, there will read another headline when you google Jimmer. That’s because Fredette’s Shanghai Sharks took on NBA team the Houston Rockets in a preseason matchup. This has become a regular thing for NBA teams, playing against teams in leagues in China, Australia, and other countries.

The headline will change because of Jimmer’s performance against reigning NBA MVP James Harden and the latest Western Conference regular season champions in the Rockets. 29-year old Jimmer Fredette posted a game-high 41 points and grabbed 9 rebounds despite the Sharks huge loss of 128-86.

At first glance, that is a really impressive stat line from Fredette, one that would look very good at any level of basketball. 41 points is a lot of damn points, especially when you factor in that Jimmer’s team was ungodly worse than the Houston squad, obviously. Even though it was a NBA preseason game, something that usually gets little to no real coverage, analysts and fans could not hold back on shouting at the top of their lungs, “Jimmer deserves a chance in the NBA! He would be a top-10 scorer in the league! Jimmermani this, Jimmer-range that!”

Alrighty everybody, let’s just pump the breaks on this Jimmer-talk real fast so we can take a look at some facts you all seem to be leaving out. First off, let’s not forget that Fredette was a drafted 10th overall in 2011 and went on to be a bust, basically making him the cover boy for how college success does not always translate to the NBA. He didn’t even shoot that badly in the league (career 38% 3-point shooter in the NBA) but he had huge holes in his game. Fredette was below-average in essentially everything else, and when he’s having an off night, he is way off. His lack of traditional stats and horrible advanced numbers don’t lie – Jimmer Fredette was not a good NBA player.

Photo credit to JMoneySports

So now that he has had one (1, as in singular) decent game (his 41 points were on 40 freaking shot), people are up in arms about Jimmer not being on an NBA roster. First off – shut up.

Glad I got that off my chest, because now I am on to my message to Jimmer Fredette. Listen up Jimmer, the absolute best thing for you to do is to stay the king of Chinese basketball. For goodness sake, they have deemed you Jimmer “Lonely God” Fredette, as in lonely like no one is even near your level of play in China. After averaging back-to-back 37 points per game seasons, I think you have found your niche – as the king of Chinese basketball, so just sit tight and enjoy it, and don’t worry about an NBA comeback.