Brothers and sisters, aloha!
First of all, I just wanted to say that was [an] incredible musical number. My little ones, Wesley and Taft are starting piano and it doesn’t sound like that yet. They’re not here to defend themselves, I can say that, but hopefully one day, it will turn into that. They’re doing awesome. I live in Colorado now, but I was able to go to the ocean this morning and jump in and I FaceTimed my wife, and I showed her around. She’s in Colorado right now, and very very jealous. I was like, “Whitney, we’re coming back here someday with the kids” And she’s like “Yes, absolutely we are.” It’s absolutely gorgeous. I love the campus and everything out here.
I’m so grateful to be here on BYU–Hawaii’s campus to give this devotional. This is actually my first time on this campus, believe it or not, and like I said, it is absolutely beautiful! I just wanted to thank everyone so far for all the incredible hospitality. It’s been absolutely amazing, above and beyond. Thank you so much. Also, there are some really great jump shots here according to our shoot out that we had last night on campus. We got some people in the stands that can really shoot it, and I just love to see that! This is also my first devotional I have ever given, and I’m very grateful to be here.
My wife and I have been frequent visitors to Hawaii but to the island of Kauai mostly with her family. It is a special place to us, and we have so many great memories with my family and my kids. So, we love coming to Hawaii.
Have you ever thought about what your plan A is? Maybe this isn’t something you specifically think about all the time, but I know I certainly did as a kid. I remember as a kid loving snow days which I'm sure you’re not familiar with here very often, right? I understand that. But for me, it was absolutely amazing. I’d get up and immediately want to go to the YMCA to play basketball. I would be there all day if I could. I remember sometimes getting to the Y, ready to play and the gym would be full of another activity like volleyball or indoor soccer. I was like, “What is going on here?” It was the worst! So, I had to go to plan B. That was either dribbling in the hallway and getting in trouble by the workers or going to the racquetball courts and being able to envision there was a fake basketball hoop on the wall so I could shoot against it and that was my practice for the day. Regardless, I was prepared for a plan B back then, even though I didn't like it.
I always had one goal in mind, and that goal, or plan, was to play basketball and make it to the NBA. Ever since, I was a kid, that is all I could remember that I wanted to do! I’d wake up thinking about it. I’d daydream at school about it (yes, I probably wasn’t the best student on the planet because of it). I also went to sleep dreaming about basketball. And I believed that I was going to make it to the NBA.
Every day, I would go to my dirt backyard with my brother, my dad, the neighborhood kids, or just myself to practice. I’d dribble; I’d shoot; I’d pass; but I definitely wouldn’t practice defense. That’s something that I made everyone else do that throughout my career. Shoutout to Jackson Emery, my teammate at BYU, for playing all the defense for me while I was there so I could just shoot. As I got older, I started to see that I was pretty good at the sport. We’d gone to tournaments in Albany, Boston, New York City, Hartford and other close cities to play and test our team’s skills and see how they were against better competition. We started to win some of those tournaments and sometimes, I would be named Most Valuable Player, or MVP. I could see baby milestones being hit. I could just feel that things were going my way at that point.
As I moved into high school at Glens Falls High, in the small town of Glens Falls, New York, I made the varsity basketball team as a freshman. Although it wasn’t that difficult to make the team that year. There were only had nine players on the roster and three of us were freshmen. Glens Falls High was a small high school but always competed well at the New York State level competition for our division.
As I played in high school, I started to excel, and colleges started to notice. Now, I wasn’t getting noticed by the colleges I wanted to be noticed by—like University of Connecticut (or UConn), North Carolina because of the baby blue [color] that they had. I love their baby blue. And, Syracuse, etc. They were much more smaller schools that were starting to take action like Siena, Fairfield, and Umass (most of you have probably never heard of these schools before).
One day my dad asked me if I had ever thought about playing basketball at BYU? My sister had attended and graduated from BYU, so it was definitely on my radar, but it wasn't at the top of my list to be honest. He mentioned a great new head coach, Dave Rose, and thought BYU could be a good fit for me. I told him I would consider it, as long as it could support me in pursuing my “Plan A” of making the NBA. That was my goal.
We decided to take matters into our own hands and get in front of the BYU coaches by attending their general youth basketball camp after my freshman year of high school. This was before social media, if you can imagine that! So not to age myself but there weren’t many ways for coaches to see me play unless they could watch in person. Coming from a small town in upstate New York, who knew whether they would have ever noticed me or be able to see me play if I didn’t go out there.
When we got there, my game stood out. So much so, that a few of the coaches started to take notice. They were starting to ask my name, where I was from, and who my dad was. Throughout the rest of the week, I saw all the coaches stopped by my group to watch me play. They asked my dad all the questions and info. After we left that camp, my parents would hear from the BYU coaches often, and I’d see the coaches at all of my AAU travel basketball games. Obviously, they were interested, which I was very happy about.
Going into my senior year of high school, I had it narrowed down to two different schools that really wanted me and offered me a scholarship to play basketball. The two schools were BYU and Siena. This was the first really big decision that I ever had to make in my life. Siena was a great basketball school back then. They had a great coach named Fran McCaffery. I really liked him. They made the NCAA tournament every year. And it was 45 minutes from where I grew up. So, it was very close. I was getting a lot of pressure from the community to go there and play because they all wanted me to stay. But I wasn’t getting that same pressure from my family. BYU was across the country, I didn’t know anybody else in my area that was going there, but I knew it would be full of members of the Church. Because of that, it definitely appealed to me because I was the only member of the Church in my high school growing up.
I really had a decision to make, so I decided the best thing to do was to turn to the Lord. After praying and thinking about it for weeks, I had a very distinct feeling that I needed to choose BYU. I knew that it would provide me the best chance to accomplish my plan A. I focused my prayers on the exact question of what school would give me the best chance to reach my goal. And that was the impression I received.
So, I was off to BYU! It was a complete culture shock, but it was one of the most incredible places I had ever experienced. I found people there who were just like me—they loved the gospel… and sports! It was such a great change of pace from where I grew up. BYU has a unique energy and spirit that I felt almost immediately and I’m sure many of you have felt that here at BYU–Hawaii when you come on campus.
At BYU things couldn't have gone better for me. I was able to work my way to be a starter for three years and win some championships. The 2011 season, many of you may have seen it, was extremely special for me and for our team. We made it to the sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament, the first time BYU had done that in almost 40 years; I was the nation’s leading scorer and won every national player of the year that you could think of; I was getting interviewed by every show; was on TV almost every night; and ESPN even had a “Jimmer Tracker” showing how many points I’d score that night if we were playing.
My life completely changed. I was a mini celebrity—and my “Plan A” was right on track. I was on top of the world, felt untouchable, and I thought I had nowhere to go but up.
That summer I was drafted into the NBA as the 10th overall pick for the Sacramento Kings! My dream had come true. I was in the NBA. It was an incredible feeling. And I was ready for the moment.
As the season started, I learned quickly, the NBA is a business. It wasn’t a college atmosphere and within the first two weeks of me being there in my rookie season our coach was fired. I wasn’t playing much, and when I did, I was very inconsistent. Some nights I wouldn’t play at all and other nights I’d play and I’d play poorly. I was losing confidence in myself, wondering if I was even good at basketball anymore or if I could make it in this league. I felt alone and I didn't have many family or friends there to support me. It was a tough time. I wouldn’t hang out with most of the guys on the road either, as they were enjoying the perks of being an NBA player that I decided not to partake of. It was hard. I was really down mentally and physically, and honestly, I didn’t know what to do.
A few short months before, I was on the top of the world, and everyone was praising me. And now the same people that were previously praising me, were now harshly criticizing me. Social media comments were harsh and mean. At the time, nothing positive was coming out of my situation, only negative. I had tried speaking to my family many times and my fiancée at the time, now my wife, Whitney. For some reason, nothing seemed to be helping.
I remember one day in December, I was in practice and had a particularly bad day. It was a tough practice, I just wasn’t feeling good, and I just didn’t feel like I wanted to be in Sacramento anymore. My dream had been crushed because it wasn’t working out how I had imagined as a child. After practice, I got to my locker and I saw that I had a voicemail, but I waited until I was in my car to listen to it. The message started to play, and the voice came in saying, “Hello, Jimmer. This is Elder Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve, and I wanted to reach out to see how things are going. Please give me a call back when you can.” Now to preface this, I had actually met Elder Ballard before, one time. He brought me to his office and I spoke with him, and he said, “Jimmer, if you ever need anything, please reach out.” I was like, “Yeah, of course.” I’m going to reach out for my problems, right? You have enough going on, right? So I never did. It caught me off guard and I thought for sure I hadn't heard it right–but proceeded to call him back immediately.
Elder M. Russell Ballard did not know what he had gotten himself into. I poured my heart out to him for the next 40 minutes. I told him how unfair everything was, how unhappy I had been, how I didn’t know how I could start playing better, and everything you can imagine. He just sat there in silence and listened. After my rambling, he said, “Jimmer, I understand that things are hard. And that’s not fun. But I have one question for you.”
I said: “Ok, what’s that?”
He asked, “Are you reading the Book of Mormon and studying it daily?”
Honestly, at that point, I had to admit that I wasn’t—not as consistently as I should have been.
He continued, “Ok. Well, here is what I want you to do. From now until the end of the season, [which was [from] December until April], I want you to read and study the Book of Mormon daily until it is finished. Put some time into it. If you do this, I promise you, your life will change”.
That was it. We ended the conversation and we hung up.
I went home, dove into the scriptures, and read every day like I had never done before. 2 Nephi 32:3 teaches us: “…feast upon the words of Christ” because they will tell us all things we should do. [1 (opens in a new tab)] I began to understand the power of that scripture in a very personal way. As I did this, my mood shifted. My thoughts were more positive and uplifting, I was smiling again. I was so much happier. The crazy part was that my basketball situation didn’t change at all. I was still not playing much, and pretty inconsistent when I did. But my life completely changed.
President Russell M. Nelson said it best:
"The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives." [2 (opens in a new tab)]
These words have never been more true to me. I love President Nelson for his perspective and understanding of true joy.
At that point, my Plan A changed. I realized not everything is about basketball. It was a very cool thing to do and a way I could make a living, but it wasn’t even close to the most important thing in my life. The focus of our lives should always be Jesus Christ. I realized that my Plan A wasn’t going to work out in the way that I had imagined, but when I made the Savior my Plan A, he showed me an even greater plan.
In the New Testament, Matthew 6:33 teaches us to “…seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness…” [3 (opens in a new tab)] I began to understand what that really meant. Basketball was still important to me, but it no longer came first.
President Dallin H. Oaks shared the same scripture in his general conference address, “Focus and Priorities,” where he said, “’Seek…first to build up the kingdom of God’ means to assign first priority to God and to His work…. As someone has said, if we do not choose the kingdom of God first, it will make little difference in the long run what we have chosen instead of it.” [4 (opens in a new tab)]
With my refocused mind and heart, I was able to enjoy playing basketball again. I've been able to play basketball all around the world. I’ve been able to share my testimony of the Savior in China, Greece, Mongolia, Chile, Switzerland, El Salvador, the Olympics and far beyond that. I shifted my Plan A: With a new goal of trying to be a light of Christ to my teammates and to everyone I came in contact with.
At this very podium, during the Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults two Sundays ago, Elder Quentin L. Cook shared, “It is important to be a light on the hill and be an example of a committed disciple of Jesus Christ. When you do this you will help others to see their potential in a world where they might feel alone, unseen or spiritually disoriented. Light is most powerful when it is consistent and reliable; such as a lighthouse or a candle in a dark room.
We are not the source of light. Our hope is to reflect the light of the Savior, not to shine a light on ourselves.” [5 (opens in a new tab)]
Refocusing my mind and heart has been an incredibly rewarding way to live. It did not make my life easy or without challenges and trials, but it changed my perspective when facing them, knowing that my Savior has always had a better plan in His sights for me.
I encourage you to decide now what your Plan A is. Plan to put the Savior at the forefront of your mind. Allow Him to guide you in all your decisions. Find something you love and pursue it while enjoying this earthly journey. Work hard to establish good habits that help you grow closer to the Savior, such as scripture study, prayer, or uplifting music. As you do this in your life, you will have the right mindset going into your biggest decisions.
With Christ as your Plan A, you will be able to withstand the difficulties that will inevitably come your way, but you will also be able to handle your successes the right way as well. Jesus Christ is always the answer. Make Him your Plan A!
I just wanted to share my testimony quickly that I know that this Church is true. And I’ve been all over the world to be able to see that. Every single time you go into a chapel, wherever it is—in China, we met in a small branch in a car dealership—it feels the same when you go into that building because of Jesus Christ and His gospel. It’s an incredible feeling and I am so grateful for President Ballard for being prompted to do something and then following through on it. I hope we can continue to do that in our lives as well. I know that our prophets and apostles are inspired to do things in this world today.
I love you all and hope you have a great rest of the semester!
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes:
[1] 2 Nephi 32:3 (opens in a new tab)
[2] Russell M. Nelson, “Joy and Spiritual Survival (opens in a new tab),” Ensign or Liahona, November 2016, 82
[3] Matthew 6:33 (opens in a new tab)
[4] Dallin H. Oaks, “Focus and Priorities (opens in a new tab),” Ensign or Liahona, May 2001, 84
[5] Quentin L. Cook, “Be a Light (opens in a new tab),” [worldwide devotional for young adults, November 1, 2026], Gospel Library