At the NBA draft, players instantly earn labels from the media. Players can be the perfect selection, a steal, or they can view prospects as the wrong pick. It's the first of many narratives to come. Many times the evaluation of rookies is inaccurate. The job of an NBA analyst can be challenging. Each year in the draft, you're going to be wrong about something. On the ClutchPoints YouTube series Year 1 with Mark Haynes, Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner talked about his draft night critics.
“It might have been CBS Sports. They wrote an article about how they graded everybody's draft, and they gave the Pacers a D- for picking me. That stuck with me D-. You remember stuff like that,” Myles Turner told ClutchPoints.
Players often take notes when noticing negative comments. Even late in their career, the annoyance with opinions still can get under players' skin. We've learned that with Golden State Warriors veteran Draymond Green. He is still one of those guys. He made a list of people who doubted the U.S. basketball team's chances of winning gold and even took screenshots to document the disrespect.
“I remember during the draft, I watched a recording of it. It was Jay Bilas and a couple of other guys,” Turner continued. “They were just surprised quote unquote that they (Pacers) took me. They were talking about, ‘oh, I thought the Pacers were going to take a guard.' It wasn't like this is what Myles brings to the table.”
Myles Turner was the 11th pick in the 2015 draft. He believed he would be a top-five pick. Teams told him they were taking him in that range. As names came off the board and Turner's name wasn't called, he was nervous.
Players in the past received invites to the green room and ended up dropping out of the lottery. Myles Turner could have been that next player, but once the Pacers selected him, that possibility ended.
When asked about the teams who passed on him, Myles Turner said, “That's one thing I did take personally.”
Being drafted sooner would mean more money and maybe a few business opportunities, but now the Texas native was officially in the NBA.
“I wasn't too concerned about it. I got drafted. My family is secure, and I figured everything out that I needed to,” Turner said.
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