CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jeremy Fears Jr. sat on a folding chair front of a metal stall inside an NBA arena Wednesday, reliving the moment he was shot and his three-month rehabilitation since.
Tyson Walker returned from his interview at the podium, displacing Fears from his temporary seat inside the crowded and cramped Spectrum Center locker room. It was the senior’s spot, so the Michigan State basketball freshman moved to the side.
It won’t be much longer until Walker’s college career ends and it’s Fears’ turn to take over as the Spartans’ leader. But the road to that point since suffering his December gunshot wound remains complicated, and he does not anticipate getting back to full basketball activities until the summer.
“Life throws challenges at you, and you gotta overcome them,” Fears said Wednesday, speaking for the first time since being shot Dec. 23 in his hometown of Joliet, Illinois. “Everybody has roadblocks. This is just something that I’m gonna get over, and it’s gonna make me a better person and a better player in the long run.”
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Fears went through some of MSU’s workout during its open practice for Thursday’s NCAA tournament opener against Mississippi State (12:15 p.m./CBS). The 6-foot-2 point guard went through layup lines and worked on jump shots, but he did not take part in drills when the Spartans ran full-court.
“Jeremy Fears is maybe the most ready of the freshmen mentally and physically and was playing 15 minutes a game, and then unfortunately the injury,” MSU coach Tom Izzo said Wednesday. “He’s been the most positive guy. He’s been really good for me, because he just works every day. He’s rehabbed every day. He’s going to get to go through layups and everything, which is a miracle for what he’s been through, and I’m excited for him in the future.
“I guess he brings a positive attitude like no other and the will to succeed like my old point guard Mateen Cleaves. He has the same kind of mentality.”
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Whether Fears’ injuries change his style of play he flashed in the first two months of his debut season — lightning quickness, aggressively attacking off the dribble and at times elevating above the rim and others below him matched with his elite court vision and passing skills — remains to be seen. In some ways, too, that parallels how Cleaves had to recover from injuries he suffered in a rollover crash along with five Michigan basketball players while on a February 1996 recruiting trip during his senior year in high school before choosing MSU. Cleaves went on to win two Big Ten player of the year awards and helped the Spartans and Izzo win the 2000 national championship.
That Fears has progressed to jumping again three months removed from having a bullet removed from the bone in his upper left leg — his primary push-off leg as a right-handed shooter — is equally impressive and important in trying to get back to where the former five-star recruit was before the incident.
“It’s rebuilding muscle and cardio and stamina and everything, just making sure it’s back to 100%. … Just really making sure my strength is better,” said Fears, who said he is back to the 190 pounds he weighed before being shot. “So just strengthening and making sure I’m 100% strength-wise. And then everything else kind of comes with time. So I just really got to wait for time to tell.”
Fears, who turns 19 next month, returned to Joliet for Christmas break after the Spartans’ 99-55 home win Dec. 21 over Stony Brook. He had a career-high 10 assists in the victory and was averaging 3.5 points, 3.3 assists and 1.9 rebounds with 10 steals over 15.3 minutes in MSU’s first 12 games.
A little more than 24 hours after returning home, Fears and an unnamed 19-year-old woman were shot. His father, Jeremy Fears Sr., told multiple Chicago media outlets his son and the woman were two of eight people cleaning up after a house party at the home of one of Fears Jr.’s former teammates. Joliet police said a gunman entered through the front door with a handgun and began firing before fleeing the scene. Fears Sr. said the shooter was wearing all black and a ski mask.
“I was really in shock in the moment,” Jeremy Fears Jr. recalled.
Fears’ father and mother, along with his brother Jeremiah, were on a recruiting trip to Providence at the time. Jeremiah has since committed to play at Illinois in 2025. Jeremy said he called his parents in the aftermath of the shooting to let them know details before they quickly returned to Joliet. The next call was to let MSU coaches know the situation.
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He has leaned on them and his teammates since returning to East Lansing after he was released from the hospital.
“Really just talking with people, talking to my family, writing a little bit, just talking. And just not letting it get me down,” Fears said of the mental recovery. “This is a challenge in life that you have to overcome. I’ll be OK, and it is what it is. Just be ready and keep getting better every day.”
Jeremy Fears Sr. said his son underwent a 3-hour surgery to remove the bullet.
“(Doctors) told me it would be some months, obviously, but (that) my body should recover and heal properly,” Fears said. “So that was really the best part. And I kind of knew there was gonna be a process, so don’t really rush the process and slowly get back. I can’t really ask for much more.”
That process began first with shedding the crutches he used the first few weeks after the shooting and surgery. It progressed to walking on his own, then doing exercises on an underwater treadmill. Slowly, he started getting on the court before games working on dribbling and flat-footed shooting. And in recent weeks, he has advanced to being able to adding jumping to his rehab, including 3-pointers.
Fears said he no longer feels any pain in his left leg while working out.
“No time soon,” he said of getting back to playing, “but more than likely, probably sometime around the summer, I should be fully 100%. But not right now. I’m just slowly getting better, still rehabbing, still making sure that my body is 100% ready and not rushing anything. …
“It’s been a process. There’s been a lot of long months already. It’s been week by week. It gets better and better every day. So I can’t really complain. I feel great.”
Izzo in late February said MSU plans to seek a redshirt season for Fears, which likely will require an NCAA petition after he played in the Spartans’ first 12 games this season. Paperwork for a potential medical redshirt cannot be submitted until after a season is complete.
According to the NCAA, a basketball player must meet three conditions to be granted hardship waiver for “an incapacity resulting from an injury or illness.” They cannot have participated in more than 30% of their team’s games, the injury/illness must be season-ending and verified, and the injury/illness must have occurred “prior to the completion of the first half of the playing season.”
In the meantime, Fears has enjoyed a front-row seat to the Spartans’ run to Izzo’s 26th straight NCAA tournament appearance. And he’s also been able to enhance his connection with his Hall of Fame coach, whose penchant for premium point guard play goes back even before his first high-end recruit Cleaves.
Fears called it a chance for “strengthening my basketball knowledge.”
“I think now, I’m seeing the coaches’ point of view instead of a player’s point of view (and) just always playing, playing and focused and worried about in the moment,” Fears said. “Now, I can kind of see from the bench and see everything from the coach’s point of view. And now, I think that will help me next year, just being able to see everything and know why, the little things and certain things of why it’s going the way that it’s going.”
That also has meant digesting what was supposed to be his opportunity to break out and be one of the players guiding the Spartans into the NCAAs and chasing a second national title for his coach.
Fears pointed to having his teammates’ encouragement and simply watching him do his rehab during practices as something that has meant a lot to him over the past three months.
And even as he sits out this NCAA run, he’s already looking forward to next year. While still being a beacon of positivity on the bench for however long MSU sticks around the tournament this month.
“I just know next year that I gotta return the same, because some of those guys are leaving,” he said. “So I just gotta make sure I can give everything I can for them. … I’m happy for them. It’s hard, losing a player and going through something like that but them being able to still maintain and still do what we needed to do.
“Obviously, it hasn’t been the best year (and) we had some ups and downs. But in March, I believe in my team. And we’ll make a run and do something big.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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