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Evans notes: 'I'm going to be honest: That comes from God'
Published on Nov 1, 2010 09:24PM 0 Comments
Raw notes from a recent feature about Jazz forward Jeremy Evans.
Time with uncle: Most was eight months in high school. College he was out for a couple months; came to a game. He's been in and out a lot. Should be soon. Supposed to be end of this year.
Uncle's trouble: He says he's done.
Living: Downtown. Learned grid system. Hang out with Gordon and Ryan. Still keep in touch with Ryan.
Hayward: We have a lot in common. We're both pretty thin. Hard workers. And just the way he is, I guess. Not a bad person. Good personality. Respectful. Don't find a lot of guys like that, though.
Trouble when growing up: The people I hung around, they might've done some things. But they never asked me. The first time I met them, I told them I didn't do it. Ever since then, they left me alone. But if you give in the first time, they know they've got you next time.
Jazz teammates: If they were bad guys, you probably wouldn't see me smiling as much.
Confident about talent: Workouts/draft/post-draft workouts.
Working with Sloan: Just doing what he asks. A lot of guys try to take shots they don't usually take. I just try to run the offense and take the shots where they fall in.
Crossett, Ark.: Know where Scottie Pippen's from? It's like 15 minutes from there. … Ran across him when I was real younger. Walmart or somewhere.
Talking with mom: It helps a lot. A lot of times she's at work when I get done playing. I can't catch up with her; she can't catch me. But we talk a lot of stuff.
Mom's job: Works at a bag company.
Western Kentucky: Each year I thought about leaving. But I never considered myself as a quitter. I just stuck it out and stayed til the end. I think that helped me out a lot, just to fight through it.
Growing up: It was a good situation, because my mom always stayed on me and my brother about everything. I think the most I got whupped was probably arguing with him or fighting. She didn't really let us go out of the house much. We didn't watch TV, other than movies. Had TV but no cable. I was always outside doing something.
It was tight to us as kids, but it was the good way. Growing up, you probably don't like it. But after you get older, you're like, 'I'm glad she did this.' Looking at your friends: seeing where they are now and seeing where you are.
Why so strict: Probably because I have an uncle. Growing up, she told me that she was around him a lot; things that happened with him. I think he could have had a chance, a good shot at the NBA.
My mom watched him growing up. After I got older, into high school, she seen that I had a chance. She just stayed on me a lot.
He's locked up now. It's rough.
He should be getting out this year time. We try to stay in touch with him. Talked to him a month ago on the phone, that's about it. He's doing good.
Dad: Didn't really see him too much. He'd come around once in a while.
Memories of uncle: Just all the people talking about how good he was. Then we'd go to the playground, and he'd still hit shots. Kill them. And then always practicing. And then he never did anything after he got older. But he still could shoot.
Taught him the game: Shoot, I guess my mom. But she didn't really teach me a lot. And learned from other people; just watching. I'd always go to the playground and the older guys would always have something to say, even if it was something that wasn't too good.
Started third or fourth grade with team. Playing with the other kids, I always scored a lot. Rebounds. Coach put the ball in my hands.
Gwyn Evans
Evans' father: He's never really been a part of Jeremy's life. Jeremy doesn't know him well. In a nutshell, there's not much to say about that.
Evans' uncle: Aw, man, he was awesome. My brother, he was a great basketball player. Played against Scottie Pippen. Played college against each other. Went to Ozarks.
Evans growing up: I kept Jeremy sheltered quite a bit. That's why he turned out the way he did.
As a single parent, I was away at work when they were at home. And I didn't want the TV raising them, because I knew what was on TV.
If you're home, you can monitor what they watch. But if you're not there, I mean, hey: children will do what they want to do. People in general, they're going to watch what they want to watch.
Evans as a kid: Very quiet. But everybody loved him. But he was real quiet. Real shy.
Evans' warm personality: I'm going to be honest: That comes from God. No. I'm serious. God, he's the one that gives us our personalities, everything about us. It's God. I give him the credit for that. And sometimes I tell Jeremy, I say, 'Boy, I wish I was more like you.' Because he's just so humble and mild mannered. I've very seldom see Jeremy get upset. I'm serious. Growing up, maybe one time. He's just amazing.
Ken McDonald
Evans: He's just got the type of personality that is so engaging and so sincere. … He's just a very warm-hearted kid. And that comes with some challenges for him on a high Division I level. Because it's intense and there's always toughness involved.
You've got a kid who is just an absolute, salt-of-the-earth sweetheart. I mean, he is just a fun a guy, a nice, wholesome guy as I've ever been around.
Relationship with Evans, Gwyn: It took a while for mom to trust me a little bit. She didn't at first. But I think eventually I hope she understood I was just trying to get the best out of Jeremy. And, honestly, Jeremy and I, we had our struggles.
Almost each year he was at Western, he was considering just quitting the team and going back home. I'll never forget some of the times we had where I had to talk him out of the homesick thing. Or maybe he just wasn't liking the fact that I was challenging him to be a better player and bring our team so more toughness that weren't really in his personality. I was really asking him to come out of his personality, and that's not always easy.
I just couldn't get him to be aggressive. I couldn't get him to shoot. You never have players who worry about that. Never.
Added weight: Five to six pounds in two years. At most 10 pounds.
Hayward
We have similar interests and similar styles of humor. It's good to have someone on the team that's kind of my age. Closer to my age than someone I can relate to.
I know I have my dad with me right now. But I know when he leaves, we'll be hanging out even a lot more because we're both kind of on our own. We both have [girlfriends] in college, so we go through the same thing with that. Talk about that. But it's a fun time.
Sloan
Meeting Gwyn: I told his mom she's done a great job with him. When I met her the other night, I just had a great feeling. Because I just had a great feeling about [Evans]. They were all happy for him and I was happy to see it. They were about as excited as it gets.
— Brian T. Smith
bsmith@sltrib.com
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