Team Tyreke.

No, this is not a basketball rec league you can join or Evans’ fantasy league team either.

It’s the ultimate story of “it takes a village to raise a child.”

It’s a group of mainly family members that put everything they have to offer into helping a young man focus solely on basketball and charity in a world that demands attention at every turn.

Team Tyreke seems to have covered the bases and consists of several important folks. Reggie Evans, 40, who already had a successful career with Communication Test Design Inc., was the first one to bring up the idea of the family taking charge of their little brother’s career. He handles most of the managerial aspects of Tyreke’s life including travel and discussions with his agent, Arn Tellem, and the management of the Sacramento Kings.

“Doc” Julius Evans, 41, who had a great run with Mars Candy, assists his older brother in some of the management details but is also known as Tyreke’s “shot doctor.” Doc was a playground legend in Chester himself. He makes sure Tyreke gets up several thousand shots every other day or so.

“We both had our own financial situations (covered) and were very successful,” Doc said.

They have since started up Blu Print Inc., with Doc running the musical act side of things and Reggie working on the apparel side.

Then there’s Eric “Pooh” Evans, 34, who readied Tyreke by helping him develop his jab step and most of his dribbling skills.

Other members include Malik, Reggie’s cousin who is part of the support network, and LaMont Peterson, who is his trainer from his days at Memphis and works on his strength and agility.

He’s also got a nutritionalist, a barber and two chiropractors, one on each coast.

“We have an adjustment table right here in the house,” Doc said. “He comes to the house before games and adjusts him.”

All the effort the brothers make on Tyreke’s behalf could be mistaken, by some outsiders, as a group of guys just trying to ride the coattails of a brother’s success. What a joke! Tyreke wouldn’t even be in this position if it weren’t for his loving siblings.

“It’s what we do as brothers, not just management, as brothers because we have kids almost his age and we’d do the same thing for our kids,” Doc Evans continued.

When I asked Doc and Reggie if there was any downside to being a brother and the management team at the same time, Reggie scoffed at the idea.

“We’re family,” he said. “We got the right parenting from my mom first and foremost. She was a great mom. She was a rock!”

“I named him. From day one, I became his guardian. He lived with me since he was ten or eleven years old. I put him in a private school with my daughter so it’s deeper than what this looks like. He’s like almost a brother/son to me. And the whole basketball thing, from day one being four years old, believing that I had a brother with talent. I started off and coached him, then my brothers came along, so we don’t need outsiders coming in and doing what we can do ourselves.”

Doc agreed.

“We know that a lot of people would try to take advantage of people like him. They look at him as a cash cow. We don’t need that. Knowing what his skills could do for him and the potential money they could possibly make at the time - before he was an NBA player - people try to sink their teeth into people like him. We saw that from an early standpoint, that’s why Reggie decided to meet with Nike and start our own AAU team, Team Final.”

“I couldn’t believe, first of all, what a job he (Reggie) did with him in getting him national press and all this, so we just sat down and said this was going to be huge. So we need to all get together and do this and that’s when we did Team Tyreke."
 

Look for Part Two tomorrow as the brothers discuss Tyreke's move to small forward and what it means for this season.