Tyreke Evans speeding, on camera

August, 2, 2010
Abbott By Henry Abbott
Who knows how many athletes have gotten in trouble in the past for speeding.

Tyreke Evans is one of the unlucky ones who not only got caught, but also stars in nearly 14-minutes of public video tape of one of the dumbest days of his lives.

I don't even really know why I watched the whole thing. It's pretty much exactly what you'd expect.

Even more mystifying is that I watched the whole thing twice. There's just something about NBA stars caught on video.

And this one also comes with some mystery: Who's driving the silver car?

Evans is pulled over, eventually, in his Kings-purple Mercedes. But he's blatantly racing another driver in a silver something-or-other -- there's a close up from the aerial video about 1:39 into the video -- and police say they could not locate that driver.

There are some moments worth noting: About 1:53 in, Evans is stuck behind some cars. The police camera angle widens to keep the two cars in the screen at the same time. The silver car gets well ahead.

Evans then frees himself, however, and that's when he really puts his pedal to the floor. About 5:14 in the video there's a moment that'll make you cringe, where another car seems not to realize the Indy 500 is going on all around, and brushes near. That's the moment, for me, when it really feels like this is not at all a celebrity story, or even a crime story. It's just a story about doing the most boring thing in the world: Driving along the freeway. We have all done it, we will all do it. And as we do, once in a while there's some nut with a big engine and something to prove who makes sport out of almost killing the rest of us.

It's all fun and games unless something goes wrong. On public roads, of course, nobody can ever promise you that something won't go wrong. I know that and you know that. Tyreke Evans didn't know that, apparently. But he might be getting the picture now -- or at least the video.

Henry Abbott | email

TrueHoop, NBA



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