Standing on the high of the important thing, Basil Evelyn watched intently as former Curie star Cliff Alexander charged up the lane from the baseline, caught a cross slightly below the free-throw line, turned and pulled up.
“You gotta get up, big man,” Evelyn mentioned because the ball bounced off the entrance of the rim.
Looking at Evelyn, who’s 5-5 , strategy Alexander’s towering, practically 7-foot body, you wouldn’t assume he’s one of many elite basketball expertise trainers in Chicago.
Yet, right here he’s in his 15th yr coaching gamers and getting some prepared for the NBA and others able to make it again.
“It’s easy to train Kevin Durant,” Evelyn mentioned. “Who can’t train Kevin Durant? Who can’t train Paul George? They’re gonna be what they’re gonna be. Get a guy like Alfonzo McKinnie to stick and make the team and get in the rotation, that’s special.”
McKinnie, whose journey to the NBA was something however conventional, got here to Evelyn after being reduce by the Toronto Raptors final summer time. Once the 2018 NBA season started, he signed with the Golden State Warriors. Now, McKinnie is enjoying within the NBA Finals towards his former staff.
“He called me and said, ‘I need to get in the gym with you,’ ” Evelyn mentioned. “We worked on his jump shot, ball handling, but the biggest thing with a guy like that was his confidence.”
Basil Evelyn stands subsequent to longtime shopper Cliff Alexander earlier than starting their coaching session at Quest Multisport Complex on Chicago’s west aspect.Annie Costabile/Sun-Times
Evelyn moved to Chicago from New York in 1999 after incomes a basketball scholarship to play for Chicago State. When he graduated in 2002, he instantly obtained into coaching, but it surely wasn’t with any stars.
His first job within the enterprise was at a Bally’s Total Fitness in Hyde Park, and it wasn’t till 2010 that Evelyn obtained his first big-name shopper in NBA journeyman Reggie Williams.
“He made me realize that I can do this at a high level,” Evelyn mentioned.
In the final 9 years, Evelyn has skilled gamers from Draymond Green and Joakim Noah to E’Twaun Moore, Will Bynum and Wilson Chandler. Ahead of the 2019 NBA Draft, Evelyn has had Texas Tech’s Jarrett Culver, Mississippi State’s Lamar Peters, Florida State’s Mfiondu Kabengele and Southern Miss’ Tyree Griffin collaborating in a three-week predraft camp.
The athletes he’s constructed his status with have been the native gamers whose careers had been established in Chicago.
“I’ve been training with Bas since I was 16,” Billy Garrett Jr. mentioned. “Now it’s to a point where he knows my game so well, and I’ve been with him so long, that it’s just about staying sharp and adding minor things to my game. Our goal from the jump was for me to develop into an NBA player, and we’ve achieved that goal.”
Most shoppers coming to Evelyn have tales that mirror McKinnie’s. They are native stars whose highway to the league has been unconventional however continues to be attainable. Alexander is one other instance of that.
After leaving Kansas after only one season, Alexander went undrafted within the 2015 draft. After a quick stint within the NBA in the course of the 2015-16 season, he started a profession abroad.
Alexander is coming off his newest season abroad, enjoying for an expert staff in Germany, and his dream of enjoying within the NBA is way from useless. Evelyn is who he trusts with getting him there.
“If you play basketball in Chicago, you know Basil,” Alexander mentioned. “I’ve been working with him since I started my professional career. This summer, I’m playing summer league with the Clippers, and my goal is to make a good impression. I come in here because I trust him with getting me there. I’ve trusted him the last four years.”
Basil Evelyn pauses coaching to debate method with shopper, Ryan Boatright at Quest Multisport Complex on Chicago’s west aspect. Annie…
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