An Open Letter to Jimmer Fredette

Jimmer, you are faced with a huge decision that will impact the rest of your life… should you go or should you stay? Let me offer you some sage (tic) advise. A tiny fraction of people ever have the opportunity to sniff the NBA, but rarer indeed is the opportunity to put your jersey in the rafters and become a living legend in the process.

Your shot at the NBA will be there next year. In fact you might even be a first round pick where the guaranteed money resides. This year, if you are drafted, it will be in the second round where monetarily there are no promises. Take out an insurance policy in case of a career-ending injury and return to BYU for your senior season.

By so doing your name will end up being mentioned in the same breath as Danny Ainge and Kresimir Cosic. Jimmer, as a beloved BYU legend you can write your own ticket regardless of what happens with basketball. You want to coach? Run a business? Enter broadcasting? Run for public office? Head up charities? The sky is the limit. Once you leave BYU, it will be all about business and you can never go back and recapture your senior season.

Next year you and the Cougars will likely start the season nationally ranked. You will be a household name. You’ll be on SportsCenter every game night. You and your team will be followed nationally from day one of the basketball season. Your mere presence on the court will raise the profile of an entire program. The type of attention you received during a single weekend in Oklahoma City this March will follow you and the Cougars throughout an entire season in 2010-11.

The final reason to return is the fact that as a competitor you have unfinished business. This past season resulted in no conference championship, no tournament championship and the MWC Player of the Year award slipped from your grasp due to sickness. Next year’s version of the Cougars will have more athleticism. It should be a better rebounding team. It will be more tournament hardened. You’ll  have a schedule that may help you get a better seed for another shot at the Big Dance.

Jimmer, it’s all laid out in front of you for your taking. Good luck and best wishes.