Players have to earn respect in the NBA. If they aren't respected, they will be a target opposing teams pick on. Since he was a rookie, Indiana Pacers big man Myles Turner has received a ton of respect from peers; from the media, not as much as he believes he deserves.
In a recent interview on ClutchPoints' YouTube series Year 1 with Mark Haynes, Turner talked about his rookie draft night, his block on LeBron James, the highs and lows of that season, and more.
Q. Mark Haynes: Do you remember anything that was said about you during the draft?
A. Myles Turner: It might have been CBS Sports. They wrote an article about how they graded everybody's draft, and they gave the Pacers a D minus for picking me. That stuck with me, a D minus. You remember stuff like that.
Q. Mark Haynes: Did you use that as a little bit of a chip on your shoulder?
A. Myles Turner: Every team that passed on me, I made a focal point that season, even the following season, to at those certain teams. It's cliche you hear a lot about people doing that, but that's one thing I did take personally teams that told me at the draft they were going to take you, then they ultimately flake in the end. In, It gives me something to play for like I needed any more motivation.
Q. Mark Haynes: Your rookie season, you had one of your biggest blocks against LeBron James. Can you tell me about that moment?
A. Myles Turner: It was like my first quote-unquote viral moment. That's when I had everybody back home hitting me up like yo that just happened. I had a lot of eyes and attention on me at the time. When you first come into the league, you crave that in a sense. You crave that attention. You want to be known, so it was one of the things that kind of put me on the map, but the actual moment itself like, I knew it was going to end up on SportsCenter one way or the other, I was going to block it, or I was going to get dunked on. There's a certain fearlessness that you have to have on the defensive side of things. I'm a shot blocker, and it's one of the things I've always done. I just went out there and let the chips fall where they may.
Q. Mark Haynes: You are one of the best defensive players in the league. Do you feel you just don't get the acknowledgment?
A. Myles Turner: I think it's one of the things that, even if it's not the Defensive Player of the Year, it's at least the all-defensive team with what I've done. People talk about you just block shots. That couldn't be further from the truth. I'm one of the better pick and roll defenders in the game, and I guard the perimeter, I defend, guards out to the perimeter as well. Teams don't make it a focal point to switch on me. They'll try to pick on somebody else because they know I can move my feet, and I block shots and recover. I at least average a steal a game, but there's more stuff that I'm doing that doesn't get the acknowledgment that it deserves, or you would have never seen if you've never watched me play. That's the problem. We have these media members, they see all these ESPN games, and they see all these TNT games. Indiana Pacers aren't on ESPN and TNT. We maybe get two, maybe three games a year on national TV. So they've never seen me play. They only see the box score. They don't get to see the advanced stats. You don't get to see this talented defensive player every day. You only get to hear word of mouth only get to see one or two games a year.
Q. Mark Haynes: Do you remember what you felt like was you welcome to the NBA moment?
A. Myles Turner: Yeah, I remember like it was yesterday. I just put up my career-high (31) in Golden State. The very next night, we go to Sacramento to play, and I'm playing against prime Demarcus Cousins, and this is the Boogie that was in the post. People are accustom to the one shooting threes and the handles. He was doing that a little, but he was straight post Demarcus Cousins at that point. Bro was just abusing me. I think he probably put up 45. It might have been a 50 point game, but there was nothing I could do. There was not one thing I could do to stop him. You go from the high of scoring your career-high to low of just getting absolutely dominated. I legit looked at the coach in a timeout and said I didn't know what to do.
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