The Kings were impressed with Tyreke Evans willingness to discuss the shooting in Nov. 2007 in which he drove a sport utility vehicle that his cousin, Jamar Evans, shot and killed another man, Marcus Reason, from the passenger seat of the car.
Tyreke Evans testified he didn't know his cousin had a gun and was never charged with a crime.
Tyreke Evans said he didn't want to appear to be hiding anything so he discussed the incident with every team he met with starting with the pre-draft camp in Chicago last month.
"I started off telling them about me," Evans said Friday after his introductory press conference. "I told them what happened in that situation and they respected that. They knew I wasn't the type of guy to get into things like that. Like I said it was the wrong place, wrong time. It's something I learned from and I'm moving on from it.
Evans hadn't addressed the issue with local media before the draft. It came back to the forefront after Jamar Evans was sentenced to nine to 20 years in prison for third-degree murder and weapons charges from the incident.
Time to sell Tyreke
After today's press conference Tyreke Evans saw a preview of what will be a 25-foot billboard with Evans in his No. 13 Kings jersey with him promising to "Reke Havoc" this coming season.
Evans is the soft-spoken type. He didn't appear overly excited by the advertising campaign, but he understands his No. 13 jersey will be prominent as the Kings begin trying to lure many of the fans that stopped coming to Arco Arena back.
If the Kings wanted to take the road to easy marketing, they would have selected Ricky Rubio.
Rubio, who comes with a country (Spain) behind him, Olympic highlights and YouTube clips galore showing off his fancy passing.
"Absolutely it entered our mind," said Kings co-owner Gavin Maloof said of marketing Rubio. "But at the end of the day winning's going to sell more tickets."
Number games
Just in case you missed it, Omri Casspi will wear No. 18. Jon Brockman will wear No. 40.
And you can meet all three of the Kings draft picks tomorrow at the Bloc Party at Marshall Park (28th and J Street) in Midtown.
The event runs from 4 - 9 p.m. The rookies will be introduced at 6:30 p.m.
--Jason Jones
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