Anticipation is high heading into tonight's matchup between the winless New Orleans Pelicans and the winless Boston Celtics. With both teams looking to secure their first win of the season tonight, the matchup should be intense and highly competitive. No one is more desperate for a win coming into tonight's game than Pelicans rookie guard Jeremiah Fears.
"I want to pick it up bad...We're gonna have a chip on our shoulder tonight. We're gonna come out there, we're gonna play together. We're gonna play hard. Most importantly we're gonna get the dub tonight," said Fears.
While guaranteeing a win is a bold call from a rookie who's played only two professional games, I absolutely love the confidence the 19-year-old is showing with this statement.
Everything Fears said in this quote is exactly what any front office wants to hear from a rookie. Being able to speak for an entire team at his age takes a ton of confidence and shows that Fears is already taking on a leadership role within the team.
You can tell in this quote that all this young man cares about is winning basketball games, and he wants to do that by any means necessary. This fits exactly into the type of culture Joe Dumars is trying to build in New Orleans, the us-versus-everyone mentality.
This quote speaks volumes about Fears mentality
There's a reason that Fears has got the nickname "Zero Fears", because he doesn't care about anyone's opinions of him and plays with a swagger you can't teach. For me, during the pre-draft process, I was never high on his talent, but I saw the potential and how his confidence rubbed off on his teammates.
During his time at Oklahoma, Fears led a lackluster Sooners team to the NCAA tournament, where they almost beat the then-back-to-back champion UConn Huskies in the round of 64. A huge reason he was able to lead that core was that, despite being a freshman, he played with a contagious confidence that his teammates thrived on.
You can teach someone how to shoot, you can teach someone how to defend, you can teach someone how to pass, but what you can't teach is swag, athleticism, and confidence. Thankfully for the Pelicans, Fears has all three of those unteachable traits, along with the potential to develop into a great shooter, passer, and defender.
We've already seen Fears have a big first two games for the Pelicans, but something about his pregame statements suggests he may be due for a ridiculous performance tonight against the Celtics.