Tyreke Evans Is The Antichrist

Can’t you see the red in his eyes?! Quick – somebody find a preacher. We need to do an exorcism. /sarcasm

By now you’ve most likely seen the video of Tyreke Evans putting the peddle to the floor in his Benz, swerving through lanes like a real life game of Burnout. And with the video, I’m sure you’ve seen the amount of backlash not only in the Sacramento media, but in others as well. Hell, Friday evening I was watching the SAN DIEGO news only to be greeted with the headline of “NBA star in high speed chase”. Wait, say what?! A) Chase? and B) San Diego!?

Look, I’d be the first guy to say that the Kings coddle Tyreke too much. I said it last year. I’ll say it again right now. They do. That doesn’t mean other teams wouldn’t and don’t do the same things to their stars. It’s the way of the sports world now. And more importantly, I’ll be the first to say that Tyreke made a horrific choice that night, driving the way he did. It was beyond stupid. No words can describe the stupidity, and trust me – I know stupidity. He or somebody else could have been killed and you just can’t attempt to sweep that under the rug. I got that. I made note of it. It’s in the safety deposit box.

But with all of that said, this incident has nothing to do with Tyreke the basketball player and nothing to do with the person Tyreke is. Villainized Sacramento Bee columnist Aline Voisin added to that legacy this weekend by writing this article, one that pretty much crapped on Evans and anything involved with him, including his brother (who watches over Evans like a hawk). I don’t know Tyreke personally, but I can say this – he’s no monster. He’s not a troublemaker as Voisin wants to make him. He’s not a cancer. He’s not this punk he’s being penciled to be. He made a really, really, stupid decision – one that he’s been paying for, for a few months. I’m pretty sure you can go through the time-line of any person and find some things you’d frown upon. We all have our skeletons, even you, Voisin.

Scroll through any message board, blog, etc and you’ll find baseless comments about Evans, for no good reason:

"this guy is just kind of a jackass…talented, but a jackass all the same."

A jackass? Really?

Oh, how bout this one:

"you know he was a getaway driver during a shooting in philly years ago right?"

Well son of a bitch! Really!?!? How many years in prison did he get for that? 9? 12? 15? Oh, that’s right, he wasn’t arrested. He was never charged. Police never felt he had any knowledge of the events. But hey, who am I to cloud things with facts? For I’m just a simple man…

"police only let Evans off because he was a star high school player"

Oh jeez. Silly me. I should have known…

Hell, here is one prior to the draft from Canis Hoopus:

"Sports teams in my country like to draft on character…It is known as the “No D*ckheads” policy.Evans would not pass this clause."

I’m not going to link to these comments and put these folks on blast for thousands of readers, just cause, I’m not that big of a cockwad. I’m just trying to give a sense of the general anti-Evans militia – one that I don’t really understand.

I know there are a lot of smart, educated fans out there – and I understand there are a lot of dipshits who are clueless, much like those above. But it saddens me when you have national writers spewing these type of sentiments without base. From Voision’s article to Chad Ford’s random “Nobody likes Tyreke, he’s hard to play with” draft chat earlier this year, the art of a sports journalist has fallen into the category of being a gossip columnist. I mean, really – I can just make up some random facts and notes as well, pass them off as legit and then make a bunny come out of a top hat. Ta-da.

Sactown Royalty has went as far as to remove any Aline Voisin articles, comments, or pieces on their blog. A hilarious, yet, totally worthy viewpoint.

I guess what I’m saying, essentially, is that it’s painful to watch “respected” columnists/insiders go this route. I understand frowning upon Evans’ speeding incident. I agree with it. But trying to break down a player, his inner circle, and generally just shitting on the person – I can’t accept that.