NBA Draft 2011: Jimmer Fredette makes good on his deal as the 10th pick

Jimmer Fredette had this moment drawn up in a contract, a black Sharpie marker document written on a piece of white paper and co-signed by his brother, T.J.

On Jan. 27, 2007, the date it was created, he promised and that he would make the sacrifices necessary to reach the NBA.

Tonight, it came true as the Milwaukee Bucks drafted him with the No. 10 overall pick. The selection was a formality, though, a part of a three-team deal between Milwaukee, Charlotte and Sacramento. Fredette emerged a few hours after his selection as a member of the Kings.

“(The contract) was a little thing that helped keep my mind straight,” Fredette said. “And every night before I went to bed I saw it and dreamed about being an NBA basketball player.”

At BYU, Fredette averaged 28.9 points, scoring 30 or more on 16 occasions. His name became verbiage, the only way to explain how a 6-2 guard out of Glens Falls, N.Y., who was passed on by major nearby programs like Syracuse and offered scholarships by smaller Northeast schools like Siena and Marshall, could have had such a resounding effect on last year’s season.

This name did not come without questions, though. Scouts scrambled to fit him into one specific category. At his height, the shooting guard position in the NBA was thought to be out of the question. Though, he wasn’t necessarily thought of as a point guard, either.

“It was something I wanted to focus on in these workouts, I had a perception and it’s something I had to go out and prove,” he said. “People had to see it in order to believe it.”

No matter for the Kings, who shipped away Beno Udrih and the No. 7 pick in the draft to lock him up.

The Bucks received Stephen Jackson, Charlotte’s Shaun Livingston, Udrih and the rights to former Tennessee forward Tobias Harris, who was Charlotte’s No. 19 pick. The Bobcats locked up the No. 7 overall pick, Bismack Biyombo, and Corey Maggette from Milwaukee.

The Kings acquired guard John Salmons from Milwaukee and the rights to Fredette.

Throughout the course of the night he was spotlighted by ESPN cameras, a thin smile across his face as the audience erupted every time he was shown.

The contract had been honored.

“The first thing you have to do when you have a goal is write it down,” Fredette said. “And that’s what we did.”

Tristan Thompson, a power forward from Texas with a spotted past in New Jersey, will relive the better days of his short time at St. Benedict’s after being selected No. 4 overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Thompson, who played at St. Benedict’s in Newark during his sophomore and part of his junior year will join former teammate Samardo Samuels and St. Patrick guard Kyrie Irving in Cleveland.

Thompson was dismissed from St. Benedict’s for what his coach referred to as “insubordination.”

“I’m excited. Obviously my former teammate Samuels, and I will be reunited and with Kyrie, a St. Pat’s guy, it’s like a little Jersey rivalry.”

UConn’s Kemba Walker wiped the tears away from his eyes and walked across the stage in his baby blue and pink suit tonight. He was, just a few months ago, a player who soared to this stage throughout a white-hot Big East and NCAA Tournament.