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NBA DRAFT

June 23, 2011

Jimmer Fredette

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY

JIMMER FREDETTE (No. 10)
Milwaukee Bucks
(Draft rights traded to Sacramento Kings)

Q. If you'll just start with an opening statement.
JIMMER FREDETTE: Obviously Sacramento King, officially. Took a little while waiting back there. But it's a great moment for me and for my family, and for the Sacramento Kings organization. Hopefully their fan base is excited because I'm really excited to get out there and start the season with them and have a great year. So I'm looking forward to it.

Q. Talk about how playing with a big guard like Tyreke Evans can really bring out your skill set, especially as a perimeter shooter?
JIMMER FREDETTE: Definitely, he's a slashing guard and able to get into the lane, very physical guy who can guard the point and the two, because he is so big. So that's an advantage. Hopefully I think we'll be able to play really, really well together.
Like I said, it's a young team, young nucleus of guys they have out there. But we are an exciting team that likes to get up-and-down and score the basketball, so it's a great fit.

Q. The crowd was going crazy for you, and the type of reaction you've been getting with the media attention, does it almost feel like that you feel like the No. 1 pick with everything that's surrounding you?
JIMMER FREDETTE: No, not necessarily. I'm still the No. 10 pick, but Top-10 pick is a great thing still. I think a lot of it just has to do with this last year in college, how things exploded and the media just really took a hold of our season and myself, and it's continuing. Everyone was really anxious and didn't know where I was going to go. I was all over the draft boards, and people were just excited to see about it, as was I. So I think that was a big part of it.

Q. What was this wait like? That was like two and a half hours from Draft to here. How hard was that?
JIMMER FREDETTE: It took a long time, but it's something you've got to do. They just wouldn't let you out of the room until the trade was official, and I wish it could have been a little bit earlier. I have friends and family that I'm going to go see and hang out with after this, so that's what happens sometimes.

Q. Can you talk about what your brand in the "Follow Jimmer" and all of the YouTube stuff and media stuff, how will you continue to that as you hopefully make it to a successful NBA career?
JIMMER FREDETTE: Well, now it's over today. This is the last day of the "Follow Jimmer" YouTube thing. We'll sell the rights to people and we'll be in the works with that. But today was the last day of the documentary. It was a good thing. This last month they just hit some key points of what I was doing, and it shows what a college basketball player has to go through to get into the NBA.
So it's a cool thing. I think people really enjoyed it, but it's over today.

Q. I saw you took a peek up at the "Jimmer Jam" celebration. What did it feel for you to be able to see that your hometown was excited for you and cheering for you back home?
JIMMER FREDETTE: It's great. It's great to have that support back home. It's obviously where I grew up and was raised my whole entire life, and I'll never forget the people that helped me get to this position where I am today. So it's very, very exciting for myself and everybody back in Glen Falls, and I'm glad that they are still supporting me.

Q. What's going to be the next step for you in terms of preparing yourself for the season? Obviously there could be a lockout. How do you plan to spend any time off?
JIMMER FREDETTE: I'm just going to continue to do it just as if there it was going to be a season starting right on time. You've just got to continue to work hard, and work on the things that I need to get better at. So I don't think anything is going to change for me as far as my workouts. I'm still going to do the best that I possibly can to get prepared to play for the Kings, and have the season start -- if the season starts on time, that would be great and hopefully it does. That's what I'm looking forward to.

Q. Does it make you smile when you see that makeshift contract that you drew up with your brother and everybody is posting now?
JIMMER FREDETTE: Yeah, definitely. It's a little thing that just helped to keep my mind straight, and every night before I went to bed, I saw it and dreamed about being an NBA basketball player. First thing you have to do if you have a goal is to write it down, and that's what we did. And T.J. was a big influence on my life, and that was just one of the many things that he did for me to help me get to this position. It's just a cool thing and people really like it.

Q. A lot of people kept saying "Utah" for you in the mock drafts; where did you see yourself going before this day, and also, when did Sacramento come into it where you thought that that was a possibility?
JIMMER FREDETTE: When they made the trade to No. 10, I thought that was a possibility for sure. We worked out with five teams and I thought I would land with one of those five teams and I worked out with Sacramento, so I knew I had a shot. They liked me out there, the Maloofs and Coach and Petrie, they liked me. So I had a pretty good workout and I knew it was a possibility, and now it's a reality.

Q. Could you talk more about the Maloofs, and just what you envision in Sacramento moving forward?
JIMMER FREDETTE: Yeah, definitely. Like I said, the style of play that I like, up-tempo system, ball screens, I like to score the basketball. So it plays right into my style of play. That's how I've played my whole entire life at college and in high school.
So this is no different. So hopefully we can get out there and have a great team. Be able to excite the fans and get more wins this year.

Q. Tongue-in-cheek question: Do you have any plans to run for President of the United States or will you stay with basketball for now?
JIMMER FREDETTE: No, I'm definitely going to stick with basketball for now. The popularity is not quite there yet. But I'll stay with the basketball for a while.

Q. As you're going through your workouts, you talked about wanting to prove that you have the athletic ability to play at the NBA level; was it frustrating for you that those questions persisted? Seemed like you were running into a stereotype, quite frankly, that was working against you.
JIMMER FREDETTE: Yeah, that was definitely something I wanted to focus on in these workouts. I had a perception and it's something that I had to go out and prove. People had to see that in order to believe it, and you know, I thought I did a pretty good job of it in the workouts and that's why I think I was able to be picked in the Top-10. I thought the workouts were great for me and my family to be in this position right now.

Q. Sacramento was able to keep the Kings for one more year; so do you think your addition could be able to really keep the Kings there for awhile with bringing fans to the arena to see you?
JIMMER FREDETTE: Maybe. I haven't heard too much about it. I know they are going to be there were one more year and see how it goes. I hope the fans come out and support us. I hope they like our team. I think we will have a very exciting team and like I said, I hope we can get more wins. Winning translates to getting more fans out there, and hopefully we'll be able to keep the organization there.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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