ASTON, Pa. — Tyreke Evans has been rehearsing for this moment since he was 6 years old, when his brothers used an old boxing trick and duct-taped his right arm to his body, forcing him to dribble with his left hand. He learned a game of basketball Twister to improve his first step and played in the rain and the snow, even carried his basketball to bed.
Now, at 18, Evans is a 6-foot-6 guard considered by many to be the top high-school senior in the country. On Tuesday, he was named to the McDonald’s all-American team. On Thursday, he and his teammates from American Christian Academy here will play on ESPN2 against St. Anthony High School of Jersey City, ranked No. 1 in the USA Today poll. On Friday, Evans will take his final recruiting visit, to top-ranked Memphis.
Soon, he will choose among Memphis, Louisville, Villanova, Texas and Connecticut. After one year in college, he is widely expected to jump to the N.B.A.
It is all part of a carefully orchestrated attempt by three older brothers to shield him from the troubled streets of his nearby hometown, Chester, Pa., to give him the private high school education they never had, to help him realize his dream of playing professional basketball.
The brothers call themselves Team Tyreke, and they have arranged for their younger sibling his own trainer and chiropractor, even a barber who is on call and will travel at a moment’s notice.
“He carried that ball like Linus carried his blanket on Charlie Brown,” said Reggie Evans, 35, manager of a communications company and Tyreke’s legal guardian.
And yet, despite the brothers’ protective efforts, Evans’s ascendant season has also drawn unwanted attention and concern for his safety. He was present Nov. 25 when a 19-year-old Chester man named Marcus Reason was shot to death in what the police have described as a possible gang-related killing. Evans has not been charged with any crime.
After playing a basketball game that day, he told the police in an affidavit, Evans drove his Ford Expedition with three passengers to watch the ending of an N.F.L. game at his aunt’s house in Chester, a tattered former manufacturing center south of Philadelphia.
Evans told the police that upon receiving a phone call from his mother, who said she had finished baking some pies, he was leaving his aunt’s house when his passengers yelled: “Go! He’s about to shoot!”
He said he heard a gunshot coming from behind, then heard a second shot that seemed louder. While driving away, he said, he looked over at his cousin, 16-year-old Jamar Evans, who was sitting in the front passenger seat and was placing a silver handgun into the pocket of a hooded sweatshirt.
Reason died of a gunshot wound to the chest. Jamar Evans turned himself in to the authorities in December and has been charged with murder. A preliminary hearing has been set for Feb. 28, and he is expected to argue that he was acting in self-defense.
Another passenger in the vehicle, Dwayne Davis, told the police in an affidavit that Reason had begun to run toward the Expedition with a pointed gun and had fired a shot as Evans drove away. Davis said he heard another shot, which sounded louder, and saw Jamar Evans pulling his arm back into the vehicle and placing a handgun into his sweatshirt pocket.
Robert Faline, a Chester Township police officer investigating the case, said in a telephone interview that there was no evidence so far to show that Reason fired a gun.
An unidentified witness told the police in an affidavit that Reason claimed that he had been having problems with some people in Evans’s group. The witness told the police that the front passenger window went down on the Ford Expedition and that Reason was shot as he walked down a set of steps.
Faline said that while Tyreke Evans was considered a witness, there was “no thought” of bringing charges against him.
Said Reggie Evans: “He’s an innocent kid. I wouldn’t say he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was at his aunt’s house.”
There was some initial concern about possible retaliation against Evans because he was a visible figure who had been a witness to a crime and had cooperated with the authorities. The family did not hire bodyguards, as has been reported, Reggie Evans said. Still, precautions were taken to protect him.
Jeremy Treatman, a promoter who has showcased some of American Christian’s games this season, said he hired extra security for a game at Widener University on Dec. 27. The Philadelphia Inquirer described the American Christian team as entering the gym with a police escort and having its locker room guarded by a Widener security officer.
“It was a little tense; no one knew what to expect,” Treatman said.
The police presence at American Christian’s home games, played at the Tri-States Sports Complex in Aston, also increased after the shooting, Faline said. In recent weeks, though, concern about reprisal has seemed to diminish.
No reports of possible threats against Evans have emerged, Faline said.
Still, Reggie Evans said, “I want to be cautious.”
At practice on Tuesday, there was no security presence, and Evans seemed relaxed around his teammates and brothers even though he had come from his grandfather’s funeral.
“People thought this would be the downfall of my game, but I didn’t do nothing,” he said of the shooting. “I feel safe. I’ve got good people around me. I don’t worry about nothing.”
Some have questioned his judgment in placing himself in such a potentially threatening situation. People close to him, though, described this situation as an aberration. “He’s not around that kind of stuff,” Reggie Evans said. “He is what he is, a basketball player.”
Tony Bergeron, the coach at American Christian, said that what he liked most about Evans was not his 30-point scoring average, or his 8 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 4 steals a game, but his humility. Tom Konchalski of Queens, who runs a scouting service called H.S.B.I. Report and has seen Evans play numerous times, said: “People may look at that shooting and say he’s a thug, but I don’t think that’s the case. Sometimes you have people around you that make mistakes. He shouldn’t be judged by that.”
Konchalski compared Evans to Derrick Rose, a freshman at Memphis who was sheltered by three older brothers in a tough Chicago neighborhood.
“I don’t think he’s a bad kid, in spite of what happened with his cousin,” Konchalski said of Evans. “He’s not that outgoing. He’s sort of guarded. That might be good. A kid like that, who’s received that kind of attention, he’s got to be suspicious of the motives of people. I think he’s a good kid. A protective cocoon has been set up by his family. Growing up in a rough area like Chester, you need family support. That is critical.”
From the time he was 4, Evans was coached in Biddy Ball by Reggie Evans. Another brother, Eric Evans, 30, known as Pooh, played point guard at Cheyney State University and helped him develop his jab step and ambidextrous dribbling skills. Julius Evans, 37, a onetime playground star in Chester known as Doc, is a kind of shot doctor who monitors a routine in which his brother takes 1,200 to 1,500 shots every other day, time permitting.
Bob Hurley, the coach at St. Anthony, said Evans was hard to stop. “He’s like a great running back in football, able to plant his feet and change direction and avoid people,” Hurley said. “At the high school level, he can get a shot for himself anytime he wants.”
When Evans was 14 and became part of a national-champion A.A.U. team, his older brothers began to formulate a plan for his future. They try to meet once a week, or once every two weeks. Together, they serve as a kind of familial Global Positioning System, said Julius Evans, a shipping manager for a coffee company.
“There are so many ways they can go,” he said. “There’s no reason for a kid to carry a gun. We don’t condone that. At the same time, you don’t know what kids are going through. It’s important to stay involved and make sure you see what’s going on, make sure they do the right thing.”
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