Spencer Freedman (born June 24, 1998) is an American

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

player for the

Harvard Crimson The Harvard Crimson are the intercollegiate athletic teams of Harvard College. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2013, there were 42 Division I intercollegiate varsity sports teams for women and men at Harvard, more than ...

of the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...

. He attended Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California, where he was ranked among the top players in California. Freedman first competed with

Santa Monica High School Santa Monica High School, officially abbreviated to SaMoHi, is located in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1891, it changed location several times in its early years before settling into its present campus at 601 Pico Boulevard. It is a part o ...

in his native

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing t ...

High school career

Freedman played his freshman season at

. He joined the team as one of the top incoming freshman point guards, having drawn local attention at basketball camps and competitions in eighth grade. In his high school debut on June 12, 2014, Freedman scored 31 points, missing only two shots, in a win over Notre Dame High School. He notched 25 points in the following game. On January 24, 2015, he scored 17 points as his team was defeated by

Las Vegas High School Las Vegas High School is a public high school in Sunrise Manor, Nevada, part of the Clark County School District. It is the oldest high school in Las Vegas and originally opened in 1905 on what was then the outskirts of town. The school's first c ...

. In June 2015, Freedman left Santa Monica to transfer to Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California. According to his father, he made the move for academic reasons. By the beginning of his Mater Dei career, he held college offers from the

Cal State Northridge Matadors The Cal State Northridge Matadors (branded as the CSUN Matadors) are the athletic teams that represent California State University, Northridge in Northridge, Los Angeles, California. The Matadors field 17 teams in nineteen sports. The Matadors ...

Rice Owls Rice University athletic teams are known as the Rice Owls. The name comes from the owls in Rice's crest. Rice participates in NCAA Division I athletics. A member of Conference USA, Rice sponsors teams in seven men's and seven women's NCAA sanct ...

UC Santa Barbara Gauchos The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos are the intercollegiate athletic teams who represent the University of California, Santa Barbara. Referred to in athletic competition as ''UC Santa Barbara'' or ''UCSB'', the Gauchos participate in 19 NCAA Division I ...

, and

USC Trojans The USC Trojans are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC), located in Los Angeles, California. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ''Trojans'', the women's athletic teams are referred ...

. On February 26, 2016, in a 54–102 loss to

Chino Hills High School Chino Hills High School, abbreviated CHHS, is located in Chino Hills, California, United States and is a public comprehensive high school serving a student body from three cities in the Chino Valley Unified School District. The school was establ ...

, Freedman scored 10 points. By the end of the season, he earned first-team All-County honors from the '' Orange County Register''. His team was ranked among the top 25 in the nation by ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...

High School Sports''. In January 2017, in a win over

Santa Margarita Catholic High School Santa Margarita Catholic High School (SMCHS) is a coeducational college preparatory Roman Catholic high school located in Rancho Santa Margarita, California, United States. SMCHS is owned and operated by the Diocese of Orange, and was opened in ...

, Freedman posted 18 points and five assists for Mater Dei. He led his team to a Trinity League title and an appearance at the

CIF Southern Section The California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section (CIF-SS) is the governing body for high school athletics in most of Southern California and is the largest of the ten sections that comprise the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF ...

Open Division Finals. At the end of the season, he was named most valuable player of the Trinity League.

Recruiting

On June 9, Freedman committed to play college basketball for the

. He said, "No matter what, eventually the ball is going to stop bouncing and basketball will be over for everyone so I know college is not a four decision but a lifetime decision. By choosing Harvard, I'm getting an education that will set me up for a future past basketball."

College career

Freedman made his debut for Harvard on November 6, 2018, scoring 6 points in a 78–66 win over

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;", Harvard , 16 , , 2 , , 12.1 , , .310 , , .333 , , 1.000 , , .5 , , 1.2 , , .1 , , .0 , , 2.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;", Harvard , 1 , , 0 , , 2.0 , , – , , – , , – , , .0 , , .0 , , .0 , , .0 , , .0 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 17 , , 2 , , 11.5 , , .310 , , .333 , , 1.000 , , .5 , , 1.1 , , .1 , , .0 , , 2.6

Personal life

Freedman was born in

Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles Pacific Palisades is a neighborhood in the Westside region of Los Angeles, California, situated about west of Downtown Los Angeles. Pacific Palisades was formally founded in 1921 by a Methodist organization, and in the years that followed bec ...

to father Bryan Freedman, a lawyer who had studied at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, and is Jewish. He first played basketball at age 7 and started training regularly one year later. In his junior year at Mater Dei, Freedman had a 4.3 grade point average (GPA) and drew attention from several

schools for his academic success. While in high school, he had plans to major in business,

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

, or

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

References

External links

Spencer Freedman
at

Eurobasket.com Eurobasket.com also commonly referred to as "Eurobasket News", is a basketball-centered website that provide coverages of every professional and semi-professional leagues around the world. Although primarily focusing on European basketball, th ...

Spencer Freedman
at

RealGM RealGM.com is a sports website created in 2000. The site was originally a basketball site, but has since expanded its scope to provide information about American football, baseball, ice hockey and soccer. According to Alexa, the site ranked in th ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Freedman, Spencer 1998 births Living people Basketball players from Los Angeles American men's basketball players Jewish American sportspeople Jewish men's basketball players Point guards Shooting guards Harvard Crimson men's basketball players 21st-century American Jews