Jeremiah Fears walked into basketball camp at Joliet West High School in 2021 standing just a bit over 5' 6" and weighing 126 pounds, with an Odell Beckham Jr.–style golden mohawk that made even the smallest player in the gym stand out in the crowd. Fears was well-known by Joliet West coach Jeremy Kreiger, who had played with Fears’s father, Jeremy, in high school. However, he came in as something of an unknown commodity to the older players on the team, who were naturally skeptical of the tiny rising freshman who hadn’t played in eighth grade due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
That first day of camp, Kreiger gathered the team and asked a simple question: Who’s the best player in the gym? Most picked one of the team’s senior stars, the obvious choice. Fears picked himself.
