Here’s a personal anecdote that seems unnecessary but makes sense considering the topic. Over the past three years, I have never cried for emotional reasons. I consider myself a positive person and things don’t typically get to me in that way.
That is, unless I’m watching the Indiana Pacers. In the last three years, this team has made me cry exactly eight times, with the most recent occurring this Tuesday after Indiana’s miraculous 20-point comeback to win Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals and Tyrese Haliburton’s game-winner.
Let’s talk about some of these recent moments and focus on one player who has recently let his feelings towards Indiana and their fans become known: Myles Turner.
Rewinding about a year back to Game 7 of the 2024 Eastern Conference Semifinals between the Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks eventually lands us to this moment. An exhausted Myles Turner, following a 17 point, five rebound, and four block performance to send the Indiana Pacers to their first Eastern Conference Finals in a decade pours his heart out post-game, referring to the storied rivalry between the two franchises and how excited he was to represent the Indiana Pacers in the Conference Finals.
While Turner stated that he was fighting back tears, the real tears were to be shed by the fans, myself included. For the last decade, Myles Turner’s individual development has been seen as parallel to Indiana Pacers basketball as a whole; full of promise but always held back by a factor or two. Turner’s recent article in the Players’ Tribune now seems like a perfect time to dissect the legacy of one of Indiana’s favorite sons.
While the sentiment feels weird for a fan to say, and a fan much younger than Turner at that, to see Turner blossom into the player he is now, on the team he is on now, makes me feel like a proud father who always knew his son had it in him. And the reason for this is simply that I, along with many others, have seen the parallels between what Turner has felt over the years and what we, as fans, have felt. As it turns out, Myles Turner has felt the same way over his 10-year career that we have felt watching him and the Pacers over that same time.
When Turner talks about his initial years in the league, being brought in as one of Indiana’s last hopes for contention during the Paul George era and one of the main building blocks following George’s departure, I can visualize exactly where I was as a fan. When Turner brings up the consecutive first-round losses leading up to George’s departure and the magical 2017-18 season that followed, you instantly get taken back to those moments. The truth is, I felt the same way many fans did, thinking George was our last hope to remain relevant and trading him would issue in a lengthy rebuild.
As a Pacers fan, the 2017-20 post-PG era represented a glimmer of hope. Even though Indiana was never close to contending for a title, they were always right in the mix in the East’s top teams, finishing fifth in the East in 2018 and 2019, and fourth in 2020 through a combination of defense, chemistry, and finding diamonds in the rough.
Unfortunately, those Nate McMillan-led teams could never pull it off, and the 2020-21 season represented a real fork in the road for the franchise and for Turner as an individual. Immediately following Indiana’s elimination in four games by the Miami Heat in the 2020 NBA Bubble Playoffs, rumors started swirling about two specific Pacers players potentially heading elsewhere: Myles Turner and Victor Oladipo.
At this point, both players’ reputations drastically differed from what they are now. Oladipo was still the beloved hometown kid, straight out of IU, having won Most Improved Player only two years prior and been hampered by injuries ever since. Fans loved Oladipo and wanted the front office to do anything possible to ensure he remained a Pacer. Unfortunately, as we now know, Victor didn’t feel the same, and his tenure in the blue and gold only lasted nine more games past that season.
On the other hand, Turner was a polarizing figure in the eyes of fans. Following a season where he led the league in blocks and shot close to 39% from deep, the big man had a decline in every major statistical category, including efficiency. While some of his decline had to do with Domantas Sabonis having a breakout season and becoming an All-Star, the two big men never seemed to gel as well as hoped on the court due to their natural positions both being at the 5. While “Turbonis” was a fun name to use when the Pacers won, it was clear the two vastly talented players were holding each other back somewhat. Thus, the 2020-21 season represented a crossroads in Pacers basketball.
As Turner said himself, “I’d see stuff on social media like, ‘Myles Turner is a finished product’………. man. Even if I knew it was only basketball talk, it was still hard to keep it basketball-only in my feelings. And maybe that’s dumb when you’re making millions of dollars to play the game you love. But what can I say? I was young and I’m human. And I’m not ashamed to say I got pretty depressed.”
Sure enough, along with the trade rumors came plenty of pundits doubting Turner’s ability and immediately chalking him as a career-long 12-14-point scorer who could block a few shots and hit a few threes. Despite a promising start to the 2020-21 season, where Indiana went 11-5 in their first 16 games and Turner earned some Defensive Player of the Year noise, this would be Indiana’s lowest point in quite some time. A combination of injuries, flailing team chemistry, and new coach Nate Bjorkgren losing the locker room led to the Pacers feeling something they hadn’t felt since before the Paul George era: directionless. Even during the 2014-15 season, Indiana’s last losing season before 2021, there was still hope that George would turn the ship around once he returned. This time, however, there was no such hope, and after getting knocked out in the second Play-In game by the Washington Wizards and drafting 24-year-old Chris Duarte with their late lottery pick, Pacers fans, and Myles Turner himself, felt stuck in place, like a hamster running on a wheel that went nowhere.
Isn’t it funny how almost everything about the current Pacers team can be linked back to the afternoon of February 8, 2022? Over his first six seasons in the league, Myles Turner had to watch the revolving door of Pacers basketball spit out a different point guard for him to play with, almost on a yearly basis. After three seasons of three different starting point guards, Turner thought he found some continuity with Darren Collison, only for him to retire abruptly following the 2018-19 season. While Malcolm Brogdon was a worthy replacement, he wasn’t the most reliable in terms of staying on the floor, and never came off as a true point guard, more of a shooting guard in a point guard’s body.
In one day, Turner found his two biggest issues fixed. Not only was he given the truest of point guards in Tyrese Haliburton, but the departure of Domantas Sabonis in the trade allowed for Turner to occupy the lone big man spot, which was all he needed for his career to turn around.
While Turner didn’t get a chance to play with Haliburton in the 2021-22 season due to a stress reaction in his foot, his excitement to play with Haliburton mirrors the excitement of Pacers fans eager to see him play with Haliburton. In the words of the big man, “I’ve GOTTA get out there. I’ve gotta get out there and play with this dude.”
Around this time, I remember telling everyone who was willing to listen that we were about to witness the Myles Turner breakout that was years overdue. Over his first few years in the league, Turner became the embodiment of the so-called “Potential Man,” which is to say a player who fans tout as having all the star potential in the world, but never achieves it due to one reason or another.
One thing Turner didn’t touch on in his Players’ Tribune piece, but something that was definitely on his mind that offseason, was that, for a brief moment, the Pacers signed his presumed replacement. It gets lost in the shuffle now, but in the summer of 2022, Indiana signed Deandre Ayton to a four-year, $133 million offer sheet, the largest in league history. Of course, Ayton as a Pacer only lasted a few hours, as Phoenix quickly matched the offer, but if they hadn’t, it would have been hard to see a reality where Ayton, a ball-dominant inside scorer, just like Sabonis, would share the floor with Turner night in and night out. If Phoenix hadn’t saved Indiana from themselves, Myles Turner’s Pacers career would have presumably ended without him and Haliburton playing a single game.
This represented another crossroads in the then-26-year-old’s career. Turner could turn his nose up at the team that almost signed his replacement, or as he said, he could “put my love for the game into the game.”
Thus, you can imagine how vindicated I and the rest of the Turner truthers felt in the 2022-23 season when he upped his scoring average by five points and shot far more efficiently doing so. Gone were the days of “Just wait and see.” We waited, and we saw exactly what was hiding in Myles Turner, and all it took was a true point guard, freedom from Rick Carlisle, and a newfound chip on his shoulder to unlock it.
When Turner talks about the “this second chance I’ve been given to be a part of something with the Pacers,” it can all be traced back to the day of the Tyrese Haliburton trade. Before the trade, Turner averaged around 12 points and six rebounds on 49% from the field and 35% from deep. Since the trade, however, he has averaged close to 17 points and seven rebounds on almost 52% from the field and close to 38% from deep. As it turns out, Turner was not the ‘finished product’ many thought he was before the Haliburton trade.
Unfortunately, Indiana’s promising start to the 2022-23 season was cut short due to injuries to Haliburton and Turner, but in the summer, Turner and the team, much like every Pacers fan, knew that what they had was special, and they got a chance to show it in the 2023-24 season by playing some of the fastest basketball in NBA history and leaving teams in the dust en route to a Cinderella run to the Eastern Conference Finals. Despite suffering a sweep at the hands of the Boston Celtics, Turner, much like every fan, knew they were far closer to their first NBA Finals since 2000 than the series suggested, and didn’t want to accept the “moral victory,” as he called it.
Currently, it’s the morning of Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals between the Pacers and the one-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers. Thanks to solid performances from Turner and the crew in the first two games and the heroics of Tyrese Haliburton in Game 2, Indiana has a chance to pull off the upset and make their second Conference Finals in a row. While some may discredit them as lucky and only reaching their position due to injuries, the Indiana faithful know better, chief among them being Myles Turner.
As the fourth-oldest player on the team, having recently turned 29, and the second-most tenured player at 10 years pro, Turner is the old guard by this team’s standards. While Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam may take credit as the team’s stars, and Andrew Nembhard gets credit for being a playoff riser and hitting impossible shots, everyone on that team and in that fanbase knows it doesn’t get done without Number 33 in the middle. As a kid from Bedford, Texas, who, by his own words, felt “alienated in high school for being awkward and different, then got named “one of the most disappointing players in college” when he was still just trying to figure this world out,” Turner could have very well shrugged Indiana off as just another place where he got sent to play basketball, but he did the exact opposite. He embraced Indiana as his home, welcomed the community with open arms, and never gave it less than 100% on the floor when the going got rough.
I can only speak for myself here, but as someone who has zero ties to Indiana, who started following the Pacers in 2012 because they faced the Miami Heat in the second round, I feel as much a Hoosier as anyone else when I see Number 33 block a shot or spot up at the top of the key for three. In feeling like he belonged in Indiana, Myles Turner made others feel like they belonged, and with all his memories in a Pacers uniform, that might be his biggest accomplishment.
Myles Turner was drafted with the 11th pick in the 2015 NBA Draft as Indiana’s first lottery pick since Paul George. Ten years later, he means far more to the state than anyone could have imagined. As Turner prepares to be an unrestricted free agent for the first time this summer, in front of him is a bigger goal than a shiny new contract: an NBA Championship. With a motivated core, not content with shocking the world once, and two wins over the Eastern Conference favorites already under their belt, Indiana has business to take care of. If they put away Donovan Mitchell and company, they stand face-to-face with a Conference Semifinals rematch with the New York Knicks, or a Conference Finals rematch with the Boston Celtics, where they have the chance to right last year’s wrongs.
No matter their opponent, every Pacer out there should be playing for more than just themselves. They have to do it for Myles. As he stated at the start of his piece, Turner was confused about why he was given a celebration for his 10th year in the league when he had not won any major awards yet. The mindset the rest of the way should be to give the big man something to celebrate this summer, hopefully before he signs the deal that keeps him in Indiana for the rest of his career.
As much as Myles Turner loves Pacers fans, we owe it to him to show him how much we love him back. Here’s to you, 33.
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