Jeremiah Fears just proved Pelicans future is already here at 19

Jeremiah Fears should actually just now be finished with his first college basketball season with the Oklahoma Sooners, but instead, he's already setting NBA and franchise records for the New Orleans Pelicans at 19 years old.

Fears on Tuesday night dropped a career-high 40 points in the Pelicans' 156-137 win against the Utah Jazz as his rookie season winds down. Fears' 40-point total is the most ever by a rookie in Pelicans history and also made Fears the youngest guard in NBA history to reach 40 points in a game. He was just the eighth teenager to ever score that much. The only players younger than Fears to ever score 40 were Cooper Flagg earlier this season and LeBron James.

Jeremiah Fears already making NBA history a year after standout Oklahoma season

Fears also added six assists, five rebounds and three steals while turning the ball over just twice in 38 minutes while running the point in his 47th career start. That 40-point total also helped set another franchise record for most team points scored in a game as Fears led a depleted roster that was without Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy III, Dejounte Murray, Herb Jones and Saddiq Bey.

If anything, Tuesday night showed Pelicans fans that Fears can't just be the future of their franchise, but even the now.

Read more: Sooners show love to Jeremiah Fears in his return to Oklahoma

This time last year, Fears was preparing for his NBA career after leading the Sooners with 17.1 points and 4.1 assists a game as a freshman in his lone season in Norman. He got to OU early after reclassifying from the 2025 class to 2024, meaning he skipped his senior year of high school to prompt his college basketball career a year early. He was still SEC All-Freshman and emerged as an NBA Draft lottery pick as one of the youngest players in the class.

The Pelicans selected Fears with the seventh overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, and it's obviously paid off. Fears is averaging 13.7 points, 3.4 assists and 3.6 rebounds with only two games left in his rookie season.

While Fears shouldn't even be in the NBA yet, he's already taking over, which is exactly what OU fans also witnessed last year.