Why Jeremy Fears Jr. chose Michigan State basketball return over NBA
· Yahoo Sports
HOLT – A year ago, Jeremy Fears Jr. skipped the start of the Moneyball Pro-Am league. And for good reason – he went to the NBA Draft to see his younger brother get taken in the first round.
On Tuesday, June 23, instead of going back to Brooklyn and waiting to hear his own name called, Fears was at Holt High scoring 26 points and helping his Team LAFCU to a thrilling 87-84 opening-night Moneyball victory. The Michigan State basketball All-American point guard lost a shoe and fell to the floor in the waning seconds as he delivered a pinpoint pass to Logan Blackledge, a Great Lakes Christian College player whose 3-pointer splashed through the net around the same time that NBA commissioner Adam Silver strode to the podium to kick off this year’s draft.
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Fears pulled his name out of that same draft after going through workouts with eight NBA teams and getting plenty of positive feedback before deciding to return to East Lansing for his redshirt junior season.
“I really was trying to see what teams really were interested in me,” Fears said of his May 27 decision to return to MSU. “I was able to have eight workouts in like two weeks, which was a crazy stretch. But obviously, just my team here and the coaches here – the guys we have, we've got a good chance to do something special. So that was obviously a factor.
“And at the same time, why not do what you can do here and try to help yourself? And then hopefully, it’s that time again next year, and we can do something special.”
A long journey here
Time is essential for the 21-year-old Fears − in games on the court, but also in life. It wasn't long ago he had his sport taken away from him and his basketball future put in question.
Fears was shot in the upper left thigh in December 2023, which both ended his freshman season and forced the native of Joliet, Illinois, to spend a significant amount of time rebuilding his body and strength to where it was when he was playing for USA Basketball and becoming a McDonald’s All-American in high school. It was uncertain if he even would get back to being that same player who could thrive above and below the rim, but he rehabbed and pushed himself to get back on the court in time for Moneyball at the outset of the summer of 2024.
That winter, Fears played in all but one game in leading MSU to a Big Ten title and the Elite Eight in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Then last season, Fears emerged as a dynamic scorer and passer in earning first-team All-Big Ten and second-team All-American honors. The 6-foot, 196-pound point guard led the nation in assists (9.4) and ranked fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.86) while leading the Spartans with 15.2 points and 32.5 minutes a game. He set MSU single-season records with 328 assists and his 9.4 per-game average.
Still, the 2026 Spartans fell short of repeating the success from the previous year. MSU tied for second during the Big Ten regular season behind eventual national champion Michigan and got knocked out of the NCAAs in the Sweet 16 by Connecticut, which went on to the Final Four.
Like many of Tom Izzo’s point guards before him, the all-consuming mission of getting to the Final Four and winning the Spartans’ third national title and Izzo’s second is Fears’ big motivation in returning.
“Year in, year out, we want to win a national championship. But at the same time, you've gotta work toward that,” Fears said. “You start working now in practice and lifts. We don’t put pressure on no one and nobody. At the end of the day, we’re doing something we love and we’re having fun.
“Our goal is to win games and then keep winning, keep winning, keep winning. And then eventually, when it’s that time, you do something special.”
Testing the waters
That individual growth – coupled with having seen his brother, Jeremiah, go to New Orleans as the No. 7 pick in last year’s draft – led Fears to submit his name for the NBA Draft on April 10 while retaining his collegiate eligibility. He returned to his home state for the NBA combine in early May and impressed scouts with his leadership and tenacity, then said he put together what he felt were six strong workouts in his quest to become a first-round pick.
New MSU center Anton Bonke, who also tested the draft waters before returning to college, worked out with Fears for the Milwaukee Bucks during the predraft process. The transfer big man said playing with Fears was a big reason why he picked MSU.
“I think Jeremy’s an incredible point guard. … I couldn’t wish for a better point guard,” Bonke said Tuesday. “They make the team better, not just big men. I watched Michigan State a lot during my recruiting process. I envisioned myself playing with him, and he was communicating with me, too. So we kind of figured it out together.”
After one final workout with the Dallas Mavericks in the final hours before he could withdraw from the draft, Fears said he felt after talking with his family that the best decision would be to return to MSU for at least one more season and work on solidifying himself as a first-round pick rather than a late-first-/early second-round selection.
“Going [into the draft evaluation process], I was for sure obviously 100% in,” Fears said. “Still to this day, my dream and my goal is to play professional basketball. I was able to play with the best and compete up against the best. And I think I belong, and I think I’m an NBA player. … But I’m glad to be back with the guys.”
Coen Carr, who arrived at MSU with Fears in the 2023 class, said he remained a confidante but let his friend go through the draft process without many basketball questions, and that he learned about his teammate’s decision to return “finding out when everybody else found out.”
“I told him before the combine, ‘Just shoot it with confidence and play your game,’” Carr said Tuesday. “So just keeping his head up, keeping his confidence there. But you know [Fears], he don’t really lose confidence.”
Elevating the game
While continuing to improve his jumper is one area Fears wants to work on, getting back his leaping ability after being shot also is a priority this offseason. On Tuesday at Moneyball, Fears took off running on a fastbreak without the ball. Jayce Branson of Henry Ford Community College led the transition and spotted Fears cutting toward the basket.
Fears elevated high off two feet and caught the lob midflight – much like the ones he’s become accustomed to throwing to fellow returning captain Carr – and threw down a thunderous two-handed alley-oop dunk, hanging and swinging on the rim in a moment of catharsis.
“Year 3 – three years since the [shooting] injury,” Fears said. “Now every year, you’ve been feeling better and better. So hopefully that’s the last step, the aspect of really getting the explosiveness 100% there and being able to have a consistent bounce all year, even when I’m tired. So it’s just exciting to still see that growing and still getting better. …
“Obviously I think it helped me just being able to be creative, to find different ways. Because I think in high school, a lot of my stuff was being explosive and making quick moves. So now, I’ve had a year or two of finding ways to be creative and get good shots and being poised in pace and change of speed. So just being able to have that and to be able to add the bounce, I feel like it’s God’s plan. Everything is coming together at the right time.”
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Why Jeremy Fears Jr. chose Michigan State basketball return over NBA