Jimmer Fredette decides to resume playing career, leaves USA Basketball 3x3 post

Jimmer Fredette has decided to resume his playing career, a decision that means he is stepping down as the managing director of USA Basketball's men's 3x3 program and will return to the court for the first time in more than two years.

Fredette and USA Basketball made the announcement Tuesday. Fredette, who held the managing director job for about 18 months and intended to guide the program through at least the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, is expected to play this weekend in a FIBA 3x3 tournament in Phoenix.

Fredette said he's all-in on his comeback, which would indicate that playing in those 2028 Olympics is in his plans.

“It was somewhere between three and four months ago when I really started to kind of think about it,” Fredette told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “I had no inclination to come back. I felt great being home. It was awesome. I had the kids, the family, everything’s going great, enjoying my time as a full-time dad and coach and doing my other things, and it was good. And then over the last few months, I just kind of had playing creep into my mind.”

Fredette retired from playing — or so he thought — in April 2025. That was nine months after he entered the Paris Olympics as the top-ranked 3x3 men’s player in the world, leading a U.S. team that figured to be a serious medal contender.

But the native of Glens Falls, New York, suffered an adductor muscle injury early in the tournament and the U.S. by rule could not replace him on its four-man roster for the Paris Games, so the Americans had to play the rest of the Olympics with three players and no substitutes. The U.S. lost five of its seven games in Paris and finished seventh.

“I won’t lie to you and say that there’s not a little bit of a feeling of unfinished business,” Fredette said. “But I think generally it’s more of me thinking I can still play. There’s a lot of time between now and the Olympics. And so, that’s not even something that I’m actually focusing on at this point. It’s more of I just want to go back out into a tournament, one tournament, and just see how I play and see how I feel and then go to the next tournament and see if I can get back to the form to where I was.

“There's a lot of things that can happen before now and the Olympics. I’m not saying that me coming back is going to be a fairytale ending because you absolutely never know — and most of the time in sports, it’s not that way. This is more about me just being able to compete again because I feel like I can, and I feel like if I don’t at least give myself that opportunity then I’ll have some regrets.”

The U.S., as the Olympic host, is already qualified for the 2028 Games.

Fredette was the 2011 AP men’s college basketball player of the year after averaging a nation-leading 28.9 points per game as a senior at BYU, became an NBA lottery pick, spent parts of six seasons in the NBA, played internationally in Europe and Asia and twice scored at least 70 points in games while in China.

He then got talked into trying 3x3, went to the Olympics, and now might be headed there again.

Fredette had the conversation with his wife, Whitney, a few months ago when he thought about playing. She told him that she had been waiting for such a talk — and that she always suspected he would go back.

“Once I got her approval and support, then I felt good about it,” Fredette said. “That's when I felt like I can go all in on this again and try to be able to come back. And now, we'll see what happens.”

He insists it was not an easy decision to leave his job at USA Basketball and didn't want to put the national federation in a tough spot. USA Basketball officials ultimately assured him that if he wanted to play, he should.

“USA Basketball is grateful for the extensive time Jimmer gave to our 3x3 men’s program as Managing Director,” said Jay Demings, USA Basketball 3x3 national team director. “We are excited to have Jimmer return as a player on Team Miami, a team he is a founding member of, at the FIBA 3x3 Phoenix Challenger.”

Fredette's spot in the federation office is not being filled immediately. USA Basketball's board of directors has asked the federation's 3x3 National Team Committee to “fill the role of identifying coaching staffs and players for major international competitions at the senior and junior levels through 2028.”

See AP’s full NBA coverage here