Sacramento Kings fans turn out as Jimmer Fredette arrives

 
The Jimmer jet officially touched down in Sacramento around 5 p.m. Friday afternoon, carrying Kings rookie Jimmer Fredette, and the scene at Sacramento International Airport was fit for a rock star of Bono's ilk, not a smiling 22-year-old from upstate New York.
Welcome to the Jimmer Show.
A few hundred people crowded around baggage claim at Terminal A for a glimpse of the former BYU star, who was acquired by the Kings in the first round of Thursday's NBA draft.
The newest addition to the Kings roster arrived with three handlers at his side and lived up to descriptions of his demeanor, remaining calm and at ease in the face of a media horde.
"I'm excited to be in Sacramento," Fredette said, laughing at a question on whether he was worried about being able to take over the team in his first year.
The hype machine was churning, and the fervor of Kings fans was palpable. Several losing seasons left the Kings with highly touted draft picks Tyreke Evans (No. 4 two years ago), and DeMarcus Cousins (No. 5 last year). But neither generated the hoopla that surrounded Fredette's arrival.
That may be because "Jimmermania" preceded Fredette's selection, as shown by a growing list of "Jimmerisms" touting the talents of the star who is Jimmer Fredette.
"Superman sleeps in a Jimmer Fredette jersey." "Jimmer was in Star Wars – he played 'the Force.' " "Twitter follows Jimmer."
The list goes on. Fredette's place in pop culture was cemented with the YouTube hit "Teach Me How to Jimmer," a remix of the popular song "Teach Me How to Dougie" set to Fredette's BYU highlights. The clip got millions of views in days.
His YouTube channel is hosted by Sports Illustrated and has had 2.2 million views in three weeks. T-shirts sport slogans such as "You got Jimmered!" and "Fredette About It."
As SI reporter Kelli Anderson wrote, Jimmer's name is "as versatile as his game." Jimmer can be a noun (as in to stop someone from "pulling a Jimmer" on you), an adjective ("he's making some Jimmer threes") or, probably most popularly, a verb (as in "you got Jimmered!").
Tracing exactly when Fredette made the leap from talent to household name is hard, but he clearly had no such visions of grandeur as a child in rural Glens Falls, N.Y.
The son of Al and Kay Fredette, Jimmer (his given name is James) was the youngest of three children, and showed a talent for basketball at a young age.
His older brother T.J. pushed him to work hard and took Jimmer to unusual places to work on his game, such as Mount MacGregor Correctional Facility.
In addition to adding to the legend of "the Jimmer," playing against felons paid off in basketball terms. After Jimmer scored from all over the court in hanging 43 points on then-No. 4 San Diego State in January, Oklahoma City Thunder's Kevin Durant tweeted, "Jimmer Fredette is the best scorer in the world!!"
That kind of outburst is what perpetuates Jimmermania, and Sacramento fans look forward to it.
Grant Bollinger of Sacramento, at the airport Friday, lauded Fredette's all-around game. "Jimmer has range, can hit the three, he's just a playmaker," Bollinger said. He called Fredette the new face of the Kings franchise.
And while that's hardly fair for a rookie who just stepped off the plane, Fredette's basketball style – 30-foot jumpers, creative scoop shots around the basket – has so far lived up to the hype.
Six times in his college career Fredette scored more than 40 points. He set BYU scoring records for a single season and with his four-year career. He also swept the major national college basketball awards and silenced many doubters as he carried his upstart Cougars to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.

Jimmer Fredette brings rock-star status to Kings

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The Kings took a detour through Milwaukee to get him, but hey, who wouldn’t go a few extra miles for a rock star? For Jimmer Fredette? He tweets, he shoots, he scores.
He stars in a documentary.
He is a one-man, predraft publicity machine.
So now that he’s here _ or almost here _ does he play bass or lead guitar? Is he part of the opening act or does he come off the bench? And what does he know about funding mechanisms and construction of new arenas? (Seriously, we would have asked these questions had Fredette’s handlers made him available to the Sacramento media in a late-night, post-draft teleconference, as is the NBA norm. Now we’ll just wait for the news conference that is tentatively scheduled for Saturday).
"When (the Kings) made the trade to No. 10, I thought it was a possibility," Fredette was quoted by NBA media types back in New York. " ... They liked me out there, the Maloofs and coach (Paul Westphal) and (Geoff) Petrie. And now it’s a reality."
Fredette’s selection occurred after an unusually active draft day for Petrie. In a three-team deal in which the Kings moved down from the No. 7 to the No. 10 pick, the Kings also sent point guard Beno Udrih to Milwaukee for former Kings small forward John Salmons.
"We got a very high-quality small forward at a position we really struggled last year, and we felt we could get a really good player at 10," said Petrie.
The Kings hoped to address some of their big weaknesses – perimeter shooting, starting small forward and playmaking – but Salmons’ return is curious.
Basketball is still played with five players and one ball. The Kings frightful death-by-dribbling offense might make a comeback given there isn’t a facilitator among a projected starting unit of Salmons, Tyreke Evans, Marcus Thornton, DeMarcus Cousins and Jason Thompson.
Someone? Anyone? OK, Cousins is an excellent passer, though he suffers from bouts of carelessness and sticky fingers.
Asked whether there were enough basketballs to go around, Petrie laughed. "You only can play with one," he joked.
Petrie quickly added that the club has retained its salary cap flexibility and anticipates being very aggressive in free agency. The plan is to re-sign Thornton, who is expected to form a three-guard rotation with Evans and Fredette. The hope, of course, is that Fredette comes to training camp and quickly establishes that he is more similar to Stephen Curry or Mark Price than Steve Kerr, J.J. Redick or (gulp) Adam Morrison.
"I think of him as a point guard," said coach Paul Westphal. " ... I don’t think there’s going to be a real difficult learning curve for him."
In his senior year at BYU, the 6-foot-2 Fredette led the nation in scoring (28.9 points per game) and captured most of the major player of the year awards, including Naismith, Wooden, Associated Press. He set school records in points, three-pointers and games played.
Fredette is regarded as an excellent deep shooter and characterized by some NBA types (among them Jerry West) as more of a shotmaker than shooter, as someone capable of creating for others as well as himself. The biggest concern with Fredette is lack of defense.
But that’s nothing new with rookies. That’s something that can be learned. It’s his "fundamental" skills, as Westphal suggested, that most excites the Kings and their fans, as well as Fredette’s legion of followers.

Post NBA Lottery Edition, in Depth Analysis:2011 NBA Mock Draft

With the NBA Lottery come and gone it is now time to look forward to the NBA draft itself.  With the draft order set here is an in-depth look at the fourteen lottery picks.

I will look at both the strengths and weaknesses of each player followed by how they can help their teams.

The rest of the first round and the second round are coming soon.

Enjoy and don’t forget to comment if you disagree or think I missed someone.