When 11-year NBA veteran Jeff Teague is home, there is a pretty good chance you can find him if you know where to look.
The Factory, which opened in late 2017 near I-465 and High School Road in Speedway, is a truly a family affair. Shawn Teague, Jeff’s father, is the chief financial officer for The Factory, a three-court basketball facility with space for strength and agility training.
Teague’s sons, former Pike High School stars Jeff and Marquis, are regulars when home – like right now – from their professional basketball lives. Jeff dabbles in coaching at the younger levels and Marquis does some training. Kwana Evans, a niece of Shawn and Carol Teague, is the director for The Factory, which has leagues from 3 to 5-year-olds, up to the highly competitive top league with former college and professional players. Shawn and Carol’s oldest son, Terrell Teague, serves as the facility manager.
“It’s been fun being able to do this with my family first and foremost with cousins, aunties, people we have as friends who feel like family,” Marquis Teague said. “It’s family-oriented. We end up finding guys we haven’t seen in years. It’s like a family reunion here a lot of times.”
The three basketball courts (two high school length and one NBA) are just part of the facility. The D1 Training portion near the west-side entrance offers strength and agility training for members, along with a wellness room for cryotherapy and a hydromassage machine. Evans said there are plans to set aside time and space in the afternoons for pickleball and a futsal league to go with the basketball and volleyball leagues already offered.
Shawn Teague had been running pro-am leagues for years at Northwest High School prior to opening The Factory. The Teague name goes hand-in-hand with basketball in Indianapolis, which also helped established The Factory from Day 1. But while there might be a current NBA player working out on one court, there could be a 55-year-old trying to get his daily exercise in on another and a 5-year-old learning how to dribble on another.
That diversity, ultimately, is what the Teagues are hoping to build.
“We do have those NBA players come in,” Evans said. “So people might think we’re at that elite status. But we promise we’ll work with anyone. This is for the community. We have a lot of different memberships depending on what you are looking for.”
Jeff Teague calls it “a dream come true” to see The Factory come to fruition. Teague, who will turn 32 on June 10, was traded from the Minnesota Timberwolves to the Atlanta Hawks – where he played his first seven seasons in the league – on Jan. 16. The Hawks were going nowhere, a 20-win team and 14th in the Eastern Conference, when the season abruptly ended on March 11.
Atlanta was at home that night, playing the New York Knicks.
“I had just subbed out and the ref said, ‘Good season,’ shook my hand and said, ‘See you next year,’” Teague said. “He said someone in Utah had got sick and they were shutting it down. We only had 15 games left and weren’t going to make the playoffs. I thought it was an early vacation. I thought it might be a three-week thing. But then I saw how everything changed and one of my former teammates (Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns) lost his mother to it and I saw it a whole different way and took it a lot more serious.”
Teague said he intends to play “four or five more years” in the NBA if possible. After a breakout playoff series against the Chicago Bulls in 2011 following an injury to starter Kirk Hinrich, Teague became a full-time starter at point guard in his third season in 2011-12 and stayed in that role for the Hawks through 2015-16, for a season with the Pacers in 2016-17 and two years with the Timberwolves. Last season – or, technically still this season – Teague is back into mostly an off-the-bench role.
He knows that comes with the territory. He was once the young guy coming out of Wake Forest, looking to get a chance.
“In the NBA, it’s hard to get there and harder to stay there,” said Teague, who is in the final year of a three-year contract. “Someone gets drafted and he’s the next guy. There always someone new who is hot. So you have to learn how to perfect your craft and start figuring out what teams want. One time in my career I was fast-running, dunking the basketball, exciting player. As the years go by, you have to learn to help the younger guys, make key shots, be a crunch-time player and just be an effective player. That’s how the league is. You just have to embrace your role and develop in other areas.”
It does not hurt that Teague has a place to develop those skills and a younger brother to push him. Marquis Teague, 27, was the more highly-regarded prospect coming out of high school at Pike, where he was an Indiana All-Star in 2011. Teague, a consensus top-10 national recruit, committed to Kentucky, where he started alongside Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist on a national championship team in 2011-12 that featured seven players who would reach the NBA.
The Bulls took Teague with the 29th overall pick of the 2012 draft. But after 67 games with the Bulls over two seasons, he was traded to Brooklyn, where he played 21 games in 2013-14. Teague, who was just 21 by the end of that season, struggled to adjust to coming off the bench for the first time in his life.
“I don’t regret leaving (Kentucky) after one year,” he said. “I kind of got put into situations that I hadn’t been in before – like not playing much. I let that affect me mentally. Instead of getting in the gym and working hard, I let it get to me. Now that I’m older, I know how to handle it better. I was 19 when I came into the league. I wasn’t prepared for anything like that.”
Marquis got another crack at the NBA in 2017-18 with the Memphis Grizzlies, averaging 3.7 points and 4.3 assists in three games after a callup from the G League’s Memphis Hustle. After playing in Korea in 2018-19, he returned to play with the Hustle again last season after the birth of his daughter. Teague was averaging 13.2 points and 4.3 assists in 41 games and believed he was going to get another shot at the NBA before the shutdown.
Timing and opportunity can make all the difference. Jeff, a 2007 Pike graduate, said his younger brother is “playing the best basketball of his life.”
“The thing is,” Marquis said, “everybody in the NBA can play. It’s not like anybody is a slouch or anything like that. It’s just about opportunity. I had games where I got in and played really well, games I knew I could compete at that level. Jeff got an opportunity, took full advantage and hasn’t looked back since. There’s a reason you make it to the NBA, you just have to take advantage of your opportunity when you get there.”
The competition at The Factory helps the Teagues stay sharp. But more than that, it’s a place to call home.
“I enjoy see young guys and girls in here, helping to give them pointers,” Jeff said. “I’m going to do that. Why not share that knowledge? People did it for me along the way so I’m going to try my best to do it for them.”
Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.
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Teagues helping community, themselves at The Factory, the family's training facility - IndyStar
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