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Jimmer Fredette Says Men’s 3x3 Basketball Will Be ‘Most Nerve Wracking Experience of Our Lives’ (Exclusive)
Fredette joined the team in 2022 after the U.S. men's 3x3 team failed to qualify for the 2020 Games in Tokyo
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3v3 Basketball athlete Jimmer Fredette poses for a portrait during the 2024 Team USA Media SummitJimmer Fredette and the USA 3x3 men's basketball team are ready to channel their nerves into positive energy when they compete in the upcoming Summer Olympics.
Fredette, 35, tells PEOPLE he and his teammates, Canyon Barry, Kareem Maddox and Dylan Travis, "all agree that this will be the most nerve-wracking experience of our lives in a sports context," as he looks ahead to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, which kick off on July 26.
Fredette, who played in the NBA for five seasons after a stellar college career at BYU, joined the squad in 2022, as the U.S. looked to improve the team that had just missed qualifying for the 2020 Games in Tokyo.
Team USA's absence in Tokyo marked the first time in Olympic history that the U.S. men's or women's teams failed to qualify for a basketball event, according to Bleacher Report.
Looking ahead to Paris, Fredette says he's excited for people to see the different pace of basketball for the three-on-three format compared to traditional five-on-five games.
In five-on-five, "You can kind of ease into the game," he says. "It's two hours. You can go down by 10 and still be like, all right, we can still come back from this."
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Whereas with three-on-three, "You can't do that," says Fredette. "You're done by 10. The game's over, right? It just, it's very, very quick."
Fredette predicts his team "will be nervous, but in an excited and prepared way." He thinks nerves are a good sign ahead of the competition.
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Canyon Barry, Dylan Travis, Jimmer Fredette and Kareem Maddox of Team USA after winning the Gold Medal Game of Men's Basketball 3x3 at Estadio Espanol on Day 3 of Santiago 2023 Pan Am Games on October 23, 2023 in Santiago, Chile. ("I think those nerves show that you care, it's just a matter of channeling those nerves in the right direction to make sure that we're ready to go when we do our game," says the former NBA player, who was selected 10th overall in the 2011 draft.
Team USA failed to qualify for the Tokyo Games after an upset loss to the Netherlands in the qualifying round in Graz, Austria.
Since putting together their new roster, nicknamed "Team Miami" according to NBC, they've been racking up wins, including the 2022 AmeriCup and 2023 Pan American Games. They finished as runners-up in the 2023 World Cup.
The United States currently sits in the No. 2 spot in the men's world rankings.
To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, visit TeamUSA.com. Watch the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, beginning July 26, on NBC and Peacock.
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