PROVO, Utah (ABC4 Sports) - Jimmer Fredette usually dresses a little more casually when he's at the Marriott Center. On Saturday, the former BYU basketball great was in a suit.
"Usually, I am, but I had to buy a couple more suits recently," Fredette said. "My wife has done a good job of dressing me, but it's been great. It's fun to come back and be at the Marriott Center in a different capacity."
Jimmer used to make buckets here, but now he's making comments. Fredette worked as a color commentator for the first time this past Saturday for the BYU-West Virginia women's basketball game on ESPN plus along with Dave McCann and Kristen Kozlowski. Fredette, who had done some in-studio work before, said he has been thinking about giving broadcasting a try for a while.
"I approached BYU," said Fredette, who was the National Player of the Year in 2011. "I asked them if I could come do some stuff. I knew it was something that I wanted to try after my career is over with. I just wanted to stay close to the game, and I feel like this is a good opportunity for me to do that."
Fredette says there are some similarities to playing and broadcasting, mainly in terms of the preparation and quick-thinking.
"You've got to be quick and you've got to be short with your comments," Fredette said. "You've got to make sure when you're doing a BYU game that you're not saying 'we' too much. You've got to make sure you're being unbiased."
Fredette hopes to do more games in the future, but hasn't decided if he wants to make broadcasting a full-time job yet.
"You try to relate it to back when you played," he said. "Things that you have done and seen on the court, because I think that is good for the fan to be able to see."
At 35, Jimmer's playing days aren't quite done. After playing six years NBA and five in China, Fredette is headed to Paris this summer to play in the Olympics in 3-on-3 basketball.
"Just an opportunity to play in the Olympics when I thought I'd never have a chance to do that," Fredette said. "So once I heard [about 3-on-3 basketball] and had a realistic shot to play on the team, I was like, alright, I'm going to go all in on this. Just to be able to say that you're an Olympian at some point would be incredible."
It's been almost 13 years since Jimmer last played at BYU, where he led the Cougars to the Sweet 16 in 2011. But he's still a rock star whenever he comes back to Provo.
"It feels like I'm old," Jimmer said with a smile. "Other than that, it's great. I love coming back here. People still follow me throughout my career, so I appreciate that very much from these fans."