Tyreke Evans' strength coach is support system

On paper, Lamont Peterson is listed as a strength and conditioning coach.

In reality, the Philadelphia native is much more. Peterson is an adviser, liaison, promoter, protector and extension of the family to some of the top professional, college and high school basketball players in the area.

He has worked with Sacramento Kings rookie Tyreke Evans, Minnesota Timberwolves' Wayne Ellington, Syracuse University's Scoop Jardine, the Academy of the New Church's Rakeem Christmas and Savon Lloyd-Goodman, and Perry Ellis of Wichita Heights High in Kansas, to name a few. Christmas and Ellis are regarded as two of the nation's top high school players, according to various recruiting services.

" 'Mont is there for us no matter what," said Jardine, a Neumann-Goretti product who is a sophomore point guard for the Orange.

"He's really a person that cares for us, besides basketball. He reaches out to kids and tries to help kids. And there are not a lot of people who are really like that."

A native of Germantown, Peterson shares a townhouse with Evans in Sacramento, Calif., and is always close by when the Kings are not on the road.

Peterson, who serves as the players' operations manager, is in charge of everything from setting body-maintenance appointments to coordinating official appearances to paying bills to serving as an unofficial bodyguard.

"He's definitely been a help to me," Evans said of Peterson. "If I need anything, he's able to get it."

Whether in phone conversations or text messages, Peterson communicates at least twice a week with the players he mentors.

He said those exchanges usually range from on-court performances, to ways to maximize exposure, to succeeding academically.

"With those guys [in school], I have to make sure that they are up to par academically," he said. "It's more than basketball. It's about life."

And when the Kings are on road trips, Peterson is back in the Philadelphia area working out players. When asked, he even accompanies his highly touted high school players to on-campus college visits.

"My business is to see that these kids can go to college," Peterson said. "That's my goal. For every kid, since they can run fast, dribble a ball or dunk, I want them to get a chance to go to college and take advantage of their gift. That's all it's about."

Amira Hamid, who's the aunt and legal guardian for Christmas, vouches for him.

Hamid admits to being a little leery when she met Peterson in 2008. But after a feeling-out process, Hamid has come to appreciate his mentorship of Christmas, the 6-foot-9 junior power forward who is regarded as third-best college prospect in the Class of 2011, according to Scout.com. "And we have not paid Lamont a dollar for anything," Hamid said. "All he gets are thank-yous."

Not everyone buys Peterson's generosity. Some consider him to be nothing more than an opportunist. They'll tell you the former Team Final AAU coach lures hot-shot recruits into his stable by promising to provide more exposure than their current coaches.

"They hate him in Philly," said Paul Gripper, who coaches the Team Phenom AAU squad. "They hate him, because he has been doing a lot of stealing of kids."

Peterson disputes the claims. "Real recognizes real," he said in response to the accusations. "These kids know when you are sincere. It's always when you don't have anything to offer a child, that's when you say that 'He's stealing.' "

Peterson's detractors also say that he's not even a legitimate basketball person. To them, he's just someone who was introduced to Evans six years ago.

"That's not true, I did skill training and I coached at the highest AAU level in high school and was on staff at Memphis for a year," Peterson said.

Peterson, they say, is benefitting from Evans' star quality. Hamid hears comments like this regularly but it doesn't bother her. "I think a lot of people don't know him the way that we know him," she said.

Peterson first came on the basketball scene in 2002. Back then, the Temple graduate was hired as the strength coach for the Willingboro girls' basketball team.

The following fall, Greg Wright, who coached the Hunting Park Warriors AAU team, hired Peterson to work out then-Friends' Central senior Mustafa Shakur. At the time, Shakur was regarded as the nation's top high school point guard in the country.

"Mustafa kick-started everything," Peterson said.

In the fall of 2004, Peterson was introduced to the Evans family by mutual friend William Wesley, for the purpose of training Tyreke. It didn't take long before Peterson became much more than Evans' trainer. He was hand-picked by Tyreke's brother and legal guardian, Reggie Evans, to go places with the standout when none of his brothers were available.

Soon afterward, Peterson was an assistant coach at now-defunct American Christian Academy in Delaware County, where Evans played. He even spent time with the standout last season at Memphis. The Tigers hired Peterson as a paid assistant when Evans signed a scholarship to attend the school.

"Mainly, if I couldn't go with 'Reke, and I was 99 percent of the time with 'Reke," Reggie Evans said, "I had to get a guy I could trust, who was just like a family member to go places with him. And Lamont could pop up just at the drop of the dime and say 'I could do it.' "

In addition to staying at Tyreke Evans' side, Lamont helped Reggie Evans market his brother aggressively.

By the time he graduated from American Christian, Tyreke Evans had been on the cover of Dime magazine twice and Slam magazine once. The MVP of the 2008 McDonald's All American Game was also featured in Sports Illustrated and Rise magazine.

Peterson's relationship with Evans makes him a hot commodity to someone trying to follow in the NBA player's footsteps. They see him as someone with connections and someone who makes things happen.

"He has proven it with Tyreke," Hamid said. "I'm not saying that we want to walk in Tyreke's footsteps. But having somebody that went through that and being able to get their input on what you should and shouldn't do . . . is the reason we love having him there."

Here's a list of players trained and/or mentored by Lamont Peterson:

Wayne Ellington, a 6-foot-4 rookie guard for the Minnesota Timberwolves

Tyreke Evans, a 6-6 rookie point guard for the Sacramento Kings

Bilal Benn, a 6-5 senior forward at Niagara

Scoop Jardine, a 6-2 sophomore point guard

at Syracuse

Hamidu Rahman, a 7-0 sophomore center

at New Mexico State

Aaron Brown, a 6-5 junior swingman at Penn Wood

Rakeem Christmas, a 6-9 junior power forward at the Academy of the New Church

Tyreek Duren, a 6-1 senior guard at Neumann-Goretti

Perry Ellis, a 6-7 sophomore power forward at Wichita Heights High in Kansas

Malcolm Gilbert, a 6-11 junior center at the Academy of the New Church

D.J. Irving, a 5-11 senior point guard at Archbishop Carroll

Savon Lloyd-Goodman, a 6-5 sophomore swingman at the Academy of the New Church

Junior Lomomba, a 6-4 sophomore shooting guard at James Madison Memorial (Madison, Wis.)

LaQuinton Ross, a 6-8 junior swingman at Life Center Academy

Josh Selby, a 6-3 senior guard at Lake Clifton (Baltimore)

Dion Waiters, a 6-3 senior guard at Life Center Academy. - Keith PompeyEndText