Jeremiah Fears Just Broke Anthony Davis's Rookie Record. On a Team Nobody's Watching.

Here's a number for you: 25.

That's how many games the New Orleans Pelicans have won this season. Out of 79. They fired their head coach 12 games in. Their best player, Zion Williamson, has missed more games than he's played. Again. Their second-best player, Dejounte Murray, wasn't in the building Tuesday night. Neither was Trey Murphy III. Or Herb Jones. Or Saddiq Bey.

The Pelicans had lost eight straight. The Jazz had lost ten straight. This was the NBA equivalent of two ships sinking next to each other.

And in the middle of all that nothing, Jeremiah Fears scored 40 points.

Forty.

On 17-of-29 shooting. With 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals. In 38 minutes. With two turnovers. On a Tuesday night in April that nobody outside of New Orleans was watching.

He broke Anthony Davis's franchise rookie scoring record. AD dropped 38 in his rookie year — back in 2013, when the Pelicans were still figuring out what to do with a generational big man. Fears looked at that number and said cool, I'll take it.

He's 19 years old. Born October 14, 2006. Let that sink in for a second — this kid was born the same year Twitter launched.

The Youngest Guard to Ever Do It

When Fears hit 40, he didn't just break a franchise record. He became the youngest guard in NBA history to score 40 points in a game. Not the youngest player — Cooper Flagg owns that distinction after his 42-point eruption back in December. But the youngest guard. The distinction matters.

Guards don't get 40 the way bigs do. There are no putbacks. No alley-oops. No easy ones at the rim off missed shots. Guards have to create every single bucket. They have to beat their man off the dribble, navigate help defense, finish through contact, or pull up from mid-range with a hand in their face.

Fears did all of it. Seventeen made field goals. Only one was a three-pointer — he went 1-for-7 from deep, which means 16 of his 17 makes came inside the arc. He was attacking the rim, getting to his spots in the mid-range, drawing fouls. This wasn't a fluke shooting night. This was a masterclass in shot creation from a teenager.

He's now the eighth teenager in NBA history to drop 40 in a game. The other seven? Cooper Flagg (multiple times), LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Luka Doncic, Brandon Jennings, and Cliff Robinson. That's not bad company for a kid from Joliet, Illinois.

The Bloodline

Basketball runs in Fears's DNA like an inherited instinct. His father, Jeremy Fears Sr., played Division I basketball at Ohio and Bradley, then went overseas and played professionally in Europe for six seasons. His older brother, Jeremy Fears Jr., is the starting point guard at Michigan State.

Jeremiah was the youngest. The one watching film of his dad's European highlights before he could dribble with his left hand. He transferred from Joliet West to AZ Compass Prep for his junior year — the factory that has produced NBA talent at an alarming rate — then went to Oklahoma, where he averaged 17.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 4.1 assists as a freshman.

The Pelicans took him seventh overall. He's their fourth top-seven pick from Oklahoma in the last 16 years, joining Blake Griffin (No. 1, 2009), Buddy Hield (No. 6, 2016), and Trae Young (No. 5, 2018). Oklahoma to New Orleans is becoming a pipeline.

The Third Quarter Was Violence

If you didn't watch — and statistically, you didn't — the third quarter of this game was absurd. The Pelicans outscored the Jazz 50-27 in the period. Fifty points in a quarter. They shot 72% from the field as a team.

Jordan Poole poured in 22 of his 34 points in that quarter alone. Jordan Hawkins hit a season-high 25. Rookie Derik Queen — the 13th pick who New Orleans grabbed alongside Fears — had 17 points and 12 rebounds. Fellow rookie Micah Peavy added a career-high 20.

The final score was 156-137. The Pelicans set a franchise record for points in a game. On a night when their five best players were in street clothes.

Read that again. The Pelicans' biggest offensive explosion in franchise history came from a lineup of rookies, reclamation projects, and Jordan Poole having the time of his life.

Why This Matters More Than You Think

The Pelicans are 25-54. They're not making the playoffs. They're not making the play-in. This season has been a disaster by every traditional metric.

But here's the thing about 25-win seasons: they're only truly wasted if nothing grows in the wreckage.

Fears is averaging 13.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game as a 19-year-old rookie point guard. He was named to the Rising Stars showcase during All-Star Weekend. He's played 79 games — seventy-nine — in a season where the franchise could have easily shut him down, tanked harder, and protected his body.

Instead, they let him play. They let him fail. They let him learn. And on a Tuesday night in April, with the season already over and nobody watching, they let him explode.

Derik Queen is 19 with 17 and 12 in this game. Fears is 19 with 40-6-5. The Pelicans have two lottery picks from the same draft class who look like they belong. When was the last time New Orleans could say that?

The Forgotten Rookie Class

Cooper Flagg has dominated every rookie conversation this season — and rightfully so. Fifty-one points. The youngest player to score 40. A legitimate Rookie of the Year lock since February. The Flagg show has been appointment television.

But Fears has been quietly building something in New Orleans. Not the flashy, SportsCenter-top-10 kind of building. The grind-it-out, play-79-games-on-a-25-win-team, learn-how-to-run-an-NBA-offense kind of building. The kind that doesn't show up in highlight reels until one random Tuesday when it all clicks and you drop 40.

The 2025 draft class might be deeper than anyone realized. Flagg is the headliner. But Fears just served notice: the undercard has teeth.

What Comes Next

The Pelicans have three games left. They'll finish with one of the worst records in the league. They'll get a high lottery pick. And next season, they'll presumably have Zion back, a healthy Murray, and a sophomore Jeremiah Fears who already knows what 40 feels like.

That's the blueprint. That's why you play these games out. That's why you don't shut down your 19-year-old point guard in March when the season is already toast.

Because sometimes, on a meaningless Tuesday night in April, against a team that's lost ten straight, with nobody watching and nothing on the line — a kid from Joliet, Illinois breaks Anthony Davis's rookie record and announces himself to the league.

Forty points. Nineteen years old. And this is just the beginning.