Tyreke Evans, who played for the Indiana Pacers and was to be a free agent, was banned from the NBA for at least 2 years for violating the anti-drug program.
Former NBA Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans was set to his the free-agent market again come July 1, but now will be out of the league for at least two years after the Association banned him under its anti-drug program.
The NBA announced the ban Friday, which is a lifetime suspension with a provision to apply for reinstatement in two years.
Evans, who will be 30 in September, played his first season with the Indiana Pacers in 2018-19, appearing in 69 and making 18 starts while averaging 10.2 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 20.3 minutes per game.
He shot a career-worst 38.9 percent overall and hit 35.6 percent on 3.1 3-point attempts per game.
That came on the heels of his best season since his 2009-10 rookie campaign with the Sacramento Kings.
Evans put up 19.4 points, 5.1 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.1 steals in 30.9 minutes per game for the Memphis Grizzlies in 2017-18, albeit appearing in only 52 games because of hip and rib injuries.
That got him a one-year, $12.4 million deal from the Pacers in free agency last July.
Evans was the fourth overall pick by the Kings in 2009 after playing his freshman season at the University of Memphis following being named a McDonald’s All-American after his senior year at American Christian School in Aston, Pa.
He has played 10 seasons with four teams, spending four full seasons and part of a fifth with Sacramento and parts of four campaigns with the New Orleans Pelicans before his single campaigns with the Grizzlies and Pacers the last two seasons.
The Pacers issued a brief statement on Friday.
"“We take these matters seriously and will reach out to Tyreke to offer our support.”"
Evans is the first NBA player to be banned under the anti-drug program since O.J. Mayo, then of the Milwaukee Bucks, was slapped with a minimum two-year suspension on July 1, 2016.
Mayo went unsigned last summer and spent the 2018-19 season with the Dacin Tigers in the Chinese Basketball Association.
Other notable players who have been banned under the NBA’s various anti-drug policies include Chris Andersen, Roy Tarpley, Richard Dumas, Micheal Ray Richardson, Lewis Lloyd, Duane Washington and Stanley Roberts, per ESPN.com.
Most of those players were eventually reinstated, though Tarpley was booted again for drug use following his return to the NBA.
Reinstatement is possible for Evans after May 17, 2021, but only with the approval of both the NBA and the National Basketball Players’ Association.