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Myles Turner: Jalen Brunson always has just been a master of angles, you know what I mean? Even had his height, even had his stature, his center of gravity is real low. Obviously he can get to wherever he wants with his handle or whatnot, but he just reads the floor really well. Like in today's day and age, like a pure point guard is just so hard to come across. there's only a few that are left in the league.
Myles Turner: "These guys are tired. It's just what comes with it. I don't understand what people think when I say tired. It's not just sleepy tired. It's not just like I'm a little fatigued. Mentally, emotionally, you're exhausted, bro. Like, side-to-side movement. People don't realize just, like, basketball is not just a one-dimensional sport where you're sprinting up and down the floor. Like, sliding laterally and what not, playing on different linear planes, that takes a lot out of you."
Run It Back: Bobby Portis responds to Myles Turner saying Giannis was constantly late to the Bucks: "I thought it was AI. ... I think it was over-exaggerated... there ain't that much traffic in Milwaukee!"
Myles Turner: It’s tough because you do have guys who have kind of mastered the manipulation of the game, like the James Hardens of the world, the Shais, and Lukas, and stuff like that. But then you also have guys who play the game very pure. I look at someone like Giannis. What they told him — and who knows if I’m supposed to be saying this or not — is that he doesn’t flop. Giannis is one of very few players in this league who doesn’t flail his body and flop and move around. So he actually doesn’t get foul calls. The fact that he tries to run through people, and the fact that guys are hitting him and he’s not flopping, they won’t call him any fouls, even though he’s getting fouled. So it’s like, do we even know what a real foul is anymore? I don’t know.
Myles Turner: These refs are human, bro. And they have human emotions as well. So if you go out there and cuss a ref out, or front him out in front of people, they’re going to remember that shit. There’s a perfect example of this. I think Fred VanVleet — this was like two, three years ago, right? He said he went off in his postgame presser about one of the refs. Went crazy. He didn’t get calls for three months straight, boy. Because I’m going to tell you right now, I told you the refs are like the police. If you fuck with one of them, you fuck with all of them, you know? And it’s like they band together, and it’s like, “Nah, he’s not getting no calls.” And I’ve seen it actually happen, bro. It’s crazy. And one thing you’ll see, too, is like the rookie refs, or the younger refs, the veteran refs really look out for them. So if you go after a rookie ref, or cuss them out — or the female refs as well, like on our side — if you go after the female refs, the veteran refs will come in and step in, and basically fuck you out of the game.
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Milwaukee Bucks center Myles Turner revealed on his podcast with New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart that former Bucks head coach Doc Rivers “didn't fine anybody ever” this past season, and that superstar forward Giannis Antetokounmpo was the teammate who was most likely to be late for team events. “Guys were late all the time,” Turner told Stewart on a new episode of “Game Recognize Game” that was released Thursday. “Guys were showing up to film whenever they wanted to show up. Guys were missing meetings. It was one of the craziest things I personally ever experienced.”
Antetokounmpo reportedly had one foot in and one foot out this season with the Bucks. That comes to mind when listening to Turner’s podcast comments. “If the plane took off at 2 o'clock, we weren't leaving till 4:30,” said Turner, who left the Pacers last offseason to sign a four-year deal worth more than $100 million with Milwaukee after it waived Damian Lillard. Turner continued: “I'm being so serious, bro. It was crazy, dawg. Guys were an hour late to the plane. It got to the point where I knew not to show up until an hour after they said the plane was taking off. It was crazy.” When Stewart asked Turner which teammate was most likely to be late, he didn’t have to do much thinking. “Oh, that's easy,” he said. “Giannis. Giannis is going to show up whenever he wants, really. I think that this kind of just came with the territory that — and once I saw it was going down, I was like, 'Hey man, s***, more power to you. They ain't going to fine you. S***, do what you do.’”
Myles Turner: There are different avenues to go. When I first got to the league, obviously, you’re making — you’re a lottery pick, so you make a lot of money very quickly. I didn’t take it as seriously as I should have. I was like, ‘Oh, someone else will handle it for me.’ You know what I mean? Like, ‘I’ll just pay a financial advisor,’ or, ‘My parents will do it,’ this and that. I realized right away, probably by my third or fourth year, that was the worst approach I could have taken, because all of a sudden, you start seeing money get moved around that may not have been moved around properly, or you start seeing money go to places where it shouldn’t have gone. All my vets were telling me, ‘Man, watch your money. Wake up every morning and check your account.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.’ I wish I would have done that earlier, because I had an advisor I worked with earlier, and he kind of scammed me out of some bread. It wasn’t substantial, but it was enough to make me raise a brow. So after that, I started waking up, checking my accounts every single day, seeing exactly where the money was flowing.
Myles Turner: The best thing you can do is just put your money away and invest it, bro. If you have part of your paycheck — I’d probably say mine’s a little overkill — but I save like 70% of it, bro. Then the other 30%, that’s for you to do whatever you want with. Just keep saving. Keep saving, saving. Don’t let your money sit where it’s liquid. You need to put it away, where it’s working for you at all times, whether it’s the stock market, real estate, or land. Find something you’re passionate about, a niche, and good partners that will help you there. Just don’t let your money sit too liquid. Always let it work for you.”
Myles Turner: So, it’ll be a very interesting offseason. I don’t have any idea what’s going to happen. These exit meetings are going to be interesting. I literally have no idea the direction of our team — even if Doc will be here next year, if Giannis will be here next year, what our ownership is doing. So, I’m literally just kind of floating right now.”
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Myles Turner: “Listen, man, I don’t know who Shams’ source was. I’ll come out and say it right now: I was not the snitch. I was not the mole. I don’t know who was, but a lot of stuff in that ESPN article came out very accurate. I think someone had to have had a tape recording at this point, because a lot of what was said was actually to a T. Yeah, we had a really rough game in Chicago. We had like a 20-point lead and pissed it away in the fourth quarter, which is a really bad point in the season for us. We were in a very must-win mode, and we had a game against Boston the next day. Doc kind of came in and was like, ‘Listen, I heard y’all been talking shit, so let me talk my shit too. I’ve taken teams that are less talented than this to the playoffs,’ and whatnot. He basically said, ‘I thought this was the team to do that.’
Myles Turner: So, I think it was a way of trying to fire us up, but in a room full of ego, he kind of came with the whole ‘Google me’ thing, and I don’t think it went over as well as he might have thought it would. And again, it was a little unoriginal too, because the guy from Indiana, the coach, had just done that. It was a cringe moment for everybody at that time, because we were all kind of looking around like, ‘All right, guys. Well, I guess let’s go beat Boston now.’ You know what I mean? It was tough.”
Turner’s first season in Milwaukee, however, did not go that way. Injuries limited Antetokounmpo to 36 games on the season, the fewest he’s played in a season, and the Bucks missed the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Individually, Turner averaged 11.9 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in 26.9 minutes. Those averages were Turner’s lowest since his rookie season. The rebound average was the lowest of his career. Turner also took just 9.1 shots per game, which was the lowest since his rookie season.
“It was definitely a rude awakening,” Turner said in an interview with The Athletic and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel before the end of the regular season. “It was difficult throughout the year, obviously, with all the injuries and whatnot. But one thing I was really encouraged by was, honestly, the spirit of all of the guys, man. “I feel like, especially on the players’ side, guys had the right approach, and that’s made it more easy to go about the days for myself. It’s obviously been a rough adjustment, but I think that kind of just comes with anything new.”
