High school basketball players love using the phrase “business trip” to demonstrate that Tuesday night’s 15-minute drive to the neighboring town is a somber, no-fun outing.
The point is clear. It isn’t just a ball game. It means more, dreams and futures are wrapped up in that short trip.
Joliet West’s Jeremy Fears Jr. spent some of the first few years of his life on an actual, grown-up basketball business trip. His father, Jeremy Fears Sr. played professionally in Europe after college. All three of his boys, Jeremy Sr., Jeremiah and Jamarri, were along on the adventure.
Basketball is a serious business with the Fears, it absorbed the young family’s early life together. Jeremiah, now the state’s top sophomore, took to it immediately.
That wasn’t the case for Fears Jr., the Sun-Times Player of the Year.
“Jeremy didn’t take basketball seriously,” Fears Sr. said. “In seventh grade I almost made him stop playing travel basketball. He just didn’t want to work. We were clashing. Jeremiah really wanted it, and Jeremy took it as a joke.”
There was a specific moment when everything changed. Fears Jr. was in eighth grade and the family went to watch Bloom vs. Morgan Park at the Team Rose Classic in 2018.
The gym was packed, it was an established city power against a young suburban team hungry for recognition. The game was fast and physical and like nothing the young eighth grader had ever seen. Fears Jr. turned to his father, said “oh my god” and everything changed.
“He locked in and we started going after it,” Fears Sr. said.
The work shows. Fears Jr., a McDonald’s All-American, plays with the ballhandling skill, grit and defensive determination reminiscent of Jalen Brunson and Patrick Beverley.
He can grab a basketball game by the neck and will his team to victory.
“When I was younger basketball was just something I was doing,” Fears Jr. said. “But it is at another level now. It’s something that I love. I love working out, watching film. Basketball just makes my day, it brightens it up.”
Fears started as a freshman point guard at Joliet West, spearheading a win against Simeon at the Pontiac Holiday Tournament. Then COVID hit before his sophomore season and he transferred to La Lumiere, a prep school in Indiana, when Illinois’ high school season was delayed.
Fears won a pair of gold medals with USA Basketball over the next two years and earned a top 20 ranking while building a national profile and committing to Michigan State.
In August he came home, transferring back to Joliet West. Fears wanted the chance to play with his brother and win a state title for his hometown. In a way, the two years in Indiana served as another basketball business trip. This time Fears Jr. did it on his own, without his father.
“The transition was smooth,” Tigers coach Jeremy Kreiger said. “It was like he never left. We still texted all the time and he had access to [our game film account] and he’d watch our film and tell me what he saw from the players. He was connected to the program without being here.”
The Tigers have lived up to the lofty expectations, beating Young, St. Rita, Metamora and residing in the top five of the rankings all season.
Fears hit a game-winner to beat Rolling Meadows and Player of the Year contender Cameron Christie in early January. He scored 28 points and completely dominated the fourth quarter in the win against Young.
“He understands basketball at a cerebral level so his impact goes beyond scoring,” Kreiger said. “He knows that to play early in college it takes everything but scoring to get yourself on the floor.”
Fears was a unanimous selection for Player of the Year. His athleticism this season has been a surprise, even to his family. Fears was always a solid athlete, but he took things to another level recently.
“I didn’t think he would get to this point,” said Fears Sr. “I was hoping he would grow a couple inches, but now 6-2 is enough with the way he’s leaping.”
Fears is the second McDonald’s All-American from Joliet, following Providence’s Michael Thompson in 2002. He’s the first Sun-Times Player of the Year from Joliet.
The award started in 1960, so Joliet native George Mikan missed out. Walter Downing, who played at Providence and was born in Crest Hill, won the Sun-Times POY in 1981. Local greats Roger Powell Jr. and Gary Bell didn’t win the award.
Fears’ next goal is a state championship, something no Joliet team has accomplished since 1927.
There are no home games left for the Tigers, it is all road games—trips to Bolingbrook and then possibly Bloomington and Champaign. Business trips. Fears’ first major business trip, to Europe, was for his family. His second, to Indiana, was for himself. The trip to central Illinois next weekend would be for his school and his city.
“We aren’t looking too far ahead,” Fears Jr. said. “There is Oswego East [on Friday]. But of course I’ve thought about what state would be like and what it would mean to everyone.”
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES PLAYERS OF THE YEAR
2022—Braden Huff, Glenbard West
2021—Max Christie, Rolling Meadows
2020—DJ Steward, Young
2019—DaJuan Gordon, Curie
2018—Talen Horton-Tucker, Simeon
2016—Charlie Moore, Morgan Park
2014—Cliff Alexander, Curie
2013—Jahlil Okafor, Young
2012—Jabari Parker, Simeon
2011—Wayne Blackshear, Morgan Park
2010—Jereme Richmond, Waukegan
2009—Jereme Richmond, Waukegan
2008—Kevin Dillard, Homewood-Flossmoor
2007—Derrick Rose, Simeon
2006—Jon Scheyer, Glenbrook North
2005—DeAndre Thomas, Westinghouse
2004–Calvin Brock, Simeon
2003—Shannon Brown, Proviso East
2002—Sean Dockery, Julian
2001—Eddy Curry, Thornwood
2000—Cedrick Banks, Westinghouse
1999—Leon Smith, King
1998—Quentin Richardson, Young
1997—Melvin Ely, Thornton
1996—Ronnie Fields, Farragut
1995—Kevin Garnett, Farragut
1994—Jerry Gee, St. Martin de Porres
1993—Rashard Griffith, King
1992—Chris Collins, Glenbrook North
1991—Sherell Ford, Proviso East
1990—Jamie Brandon, King
1989—Deon Thomas, Simeon
1988—Eric Anderson, de Sales
1987—Marcus Liberty, King
1986—Nick Anderson, Simeon
1985—Michael Ingram, Proviso West
1984—Hersey Hawkins, Westinghouse
1983—Len Bertolini, St. Patrick
1982—Bernard Jackson, Phillips
1981—Walter Downing, Providence
1980—Glenn Rivers, Proviso East
1979—Isiah Thomas, St. Joseph
1978—Mark Aguirre, Westinghouse
1977—Eddie Johnson, Westinghouse
1976—Glen Grunwald, East Leyden
1975—Pete Boesen, Maine South
1974—Audie Matthews, Bloom
1973—Mark Vitali, St. Charles
1972—Quinn Buckner, Thornridge
1971—Quinn Buckner, Thornridge
1970—Lloyd Batts, Thornton
1969—Jim Brewer, Proviso East
1968—Jeff Hickman, Lockport
1967—Rick Howat, Downers Grove
1966—Rich Bradshaw, Marshall
1965—Terry Hurley, Steinmetz
1964—Eugene Ford, Crane
1963—Joe Allen, Carver
1962—Cazzie Russell, Carver
1961—Bob Caress, Thornton
1960—George Wilson, Marshall
