With EuroLeague Season Canceled, How Does That Impact Jimmer Fredette?
May 26, 2020, 3:10 PM | Updated: Jun 3, 2020, 11:19 am
Jimmer Fredette, #32 of Panathinaikos seen in action during the 2019/2020 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season Round 26 game between Real Madrid and Panathinaikos OPAP at WiZink center in Madrid. (Final score; Real Madrid 96:78 Panathinaikos). (Photo by Jorge Sanz/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(Photo by Jorge Sanz/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Former BYU star Jimmer Fredette and his first season in the EuroLeague with Panathinaikos (Greece) has been cut short. The EuroLeague announced this week that the 2019-20 season has been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read the letter in full here 👇#EUROLEAGUEUNITED pic.twitter.com/M6dgvdAjyv
— Turkish Airlines EuroLeague (🏠) (@EuroLeague) May 26, 2020
In his first season in Athens with Panathinaikos, Fredette averaged 12.9 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game in EuroLeague action. A far cry from the 37 points he was averaging in the Chinese Basketball Association. But Fredette’s 12.9 points per game were still good for 13th in the EuroLeague in points.
Behind the NBA, EuroLeague is viewed as the second-best basketball league in the world.
Along with a higher level of competition, Fredette played through a nagging shoulder and calf injuries that limited some of his availability during the season.
Nearly a decade removed from his career at BYU, what’s next for Jimmer?
What’s next for Jimmer Fredette?
Pretty simple, really. Fredette has one year remaining on his two-year contract with Panathinaikos that he signed last summer. His two-year contract is worth $3.5 million before taxes with the Greek franchise.
Fredette does have the flexibility to explore potential NBA opportunities if they arise in the near future. Last year, Fredette played in six games with the Phoenix Suns. After the brief stop in Phoenix, Fredette played a pair of games in the NBA Summer League with the Golden State Warriors before signing with Panathinaikos.
Panathinaikos finished the 2019-20 season with a 14-14 record under head coach Rick Pitino who has since left to take the head coaching position at Iona College.
“He’s as good of a shooter as there at any level,” said Pitino during an interview in January. “Steph Curry is probably the greatest shooter in the world and Jimmer would be the next one I’d look at.”
Fredette had five games where he scored over 20 points in EuroLeague action and shot 41.7 percent from beyond the arc. Towards the end of the season, before the pandemic brought everything to a halt, Fredette was coming off the bench for the Greens.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12-3 pm) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.
