Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner discussed surviving Pacers trade talks, Tyrese Haliburton’s rise and where he ranks among NBA point guards, Pascal Siakam’s free agency, Rick Carlisle behind the scenes, and more with Senior NBA Insider Michael Scotto on The HoopsHype Podcast.
For more interviews with players, coaches, and media members, be sure to like and subscribe to the HoopsHype podcast on Spotify , Apple Podcasts , and anywhere else you listen to podcasts. Listen to the podcast above or check out some snippets of the conversation in a transcribed version below.
1:50 Pacers vs. Knicks Semifinals series
Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Myles Turner: I’ll say it’s definitely a storied rivalry between Indiana and New York. My dad is a big New York guy who grew up in Queens. This was a huge dream come true for him to be able to experience his son playing in the Garden, the Mecca, on this stage in a Game 7, and to be able to win. Throughout the series, there were plenty of hecklers and fans. That just comes with the game. To me, that’s just fun. That’s part of the playoffs, with people being able to talk their noise. If you lose one game, you’ve got to wait a couple of days. When you win, it’s your turn. The back and forth of it all is always fun for me. I never really get too consumed in that type of stuff, but after the game, I’m sure a lot of people saw my post on Instagram trolling the fans outside. After every game at MSG – and we lost there three times – they were going crazy, saying a whole bunch of sh*t that I can’t even say on the podcast. You’re from New York. You know how the fans are out there. It was nothing but love, but then after that, when I got my moment, it was my turn. I didn’t have to say anything. I was basking in the boos, the hate, and how mad they were that their season was over. It was just a moment I wanted to have and enjoy a little bit. I’ve got no quarrel with New York fans. It’s all love at the end of the day.
4:15 What does it mean for the Pacers to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since the Paul George era a decade ago, and potentially going forward?
Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
MT: First and foremost, you have to give credit to the Knicks. Talk about resiliency, everything they had been through this entire season, and coming into the playoffs -- with pretty much all of their main guys banged up -- they showed incredible resiliency to get it to 7 games and test and push us to our limits. Moving forward, for me, this is huge. I’ve been here all nine years of my career and never went past the first round. To get past the first round and then some is just incredible and couldn’t have been written any other way. I think we finally have a good group of guys that understand what the assignment is. There are really zero egos on this team. We all play for each other, and we’ve got eight to 10 guys that can go off for 15 to 20 points a night. To get to this point in the season where we’re at, we don’t want to stop here. We want to keep pushing and upping the ante. Everything starts with Game 1, and you take it from there. We want to come into this as confident as possible and try to go out and let our best game show.
6:05 On Pacers being heavy underdogs against the Celtics
Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports
MT: That’s life as an Indiana Pacer. It was the same thing as the last series. If you look at every single poll on ESPN, everyone picked the Knicks to win. If you look at the series before that with the Bucks, it might’ve been 80 percent of the people picking Milwaukee to win. That’s something that, since I’ve been here, at least in my career, it’s been like that every single season. We don’t get TV games, and we’re not publicized like that. In the press, it’s never the Pacers won. It’s the Knicks lost. That’s regular stuff for us. We use it as fuel and as a chip on our shoulders. We definitely go in there, and it’s less pressure on us because if we’re the underdogs, we’re the uninvited guests. It’s up to us to go out there and prove everybody wrong. That’s the goal at the end of the day.
7:30 How do you see yourselves stacking up against the Celtics?
Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports
MT: I feel like our confidence comes from our preparation and each other. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that we don’t think we have a chance because I think that’s just hellacious to speak that way. We’re a very confident group, and we’ve been through a lot of stuff this season to put us in this position. If we go out and play our brand of basketball and stick to our principles, then we’ll give ourselves a really good shot.
8:25 Surviving trade talks and speculation through the years
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MT: It’s pretty dope. A lot of people were expecting you to fold with that. When you start hearing those types of rumors year in and out, you start kind of getting insecure. You look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, “Am I the problem?” You’ve been hyped up your entire life, and when you get to this stage, everything’s under a microscope. When you start playing for these multi-million dollar organizations, any little thing that goes wrong, the blame is going to be on you. That’s where it got in my career. It’s a full circle serendipitous moment to finally get an opportunity to play and ball out on this stage, the biggest stage in basketball, while also seeing every single phase of Pacers basketball. I got here with
Paul George , where I was spoiled in my first couple of years making the playoffs. Then, he gets traded, and you have the rise of
Victor Oladipo . Then, he gets hurt and goes on his way.
Domantas Sabonis comes in and has his All-Star run, and then he goes on his way. Now, we’re in a new era of Pacers basketball, and I’ve seen all this stuff, and we’re in a really good spot. It definitely means a lot to be in the same uniform that I was drafted in, but it means more that I still have the trust and support of the front office and this fan base.
10:35 What does this playoff trip mean for you as the longest-tenured Pacer?
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MT: Being an example. I stood tall throughout all this. I had to endure those years where everyone was talking down, telling me things were my fault, and you’re a sh*tty player. I had to sit there and live through that stuff. To sit here and say it was easy, it wasn’t. There were times when you couldn’t get on social media. It feels like when you show your face in public, you’re not received the same way. Living through that stuff wasn’t easy. To the regular fan, you get paid millions of dollars. You’ll be okay. Wipe away your tears with money. But at the end of the day, we’re all human beings. We all look for that outside validation at times. Not receiving that is something that definitely hurt, and I had to make myself look inward. That’s when you have to depend on your circle and the guys that are around you to keep you going. I rallied around my guys, and they really got me to where I’m at. I’m trying to be an example for young guys around the league to stay the course and stick it out. That’s something that means a great deal to me because I’m living proof that you can continue to do it.
12:30 What future goals do you have individually and as a team player?
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MT: Individually, it was a huge goal of mine to get to the Eastern Conference Finals, so now that I’ve checked that off the list, it’s on the up and up. As an aside comment on that, I feel like that’s something people don’t understand about fame and money. Once you get the fame and money, now what? What are you going to do with that? That’s how I see this Eastern Conference Finals. What are you going to do with it? Now that I’m in this position, it’s a matter of just going up. My individual goal is to win out and get to the Finals. It would be even crazier if Dallas were to win the West and we win the East, so I’d get to go play back home. Little stuff like that I think about. Individually, you want to get that first All-Star birth. You want to finally get some All-Defensive recognition and be able to be the guy that gets these types of humanitarian awards for the work you do in the community and have stuff like that recognized. As far as a team goal, the goal is to win a championship. There’s no other way to put that. When we started talking about this at the beginning of the year, it was far-fetched to a lot of people to try to make this run to the Finals. Now, it seems more real.
14:55 What’s life like in Indiana now that you have lived there so long?
Dylan Buell/Getty Images
MT: I’ll keep it real with you. I don’t leave the house. My first couple of years, when I got into the league, I was in a college state at 19 or 20 years old, going to different college campuses around Indy, restaurants, shopping at Target, and getting my groceries. Now, I just don’t leave the crib. There’s a lot of excitement around the city with everything that’s going on with the Indiana Fever, Colts, and Indy 500. It’s kind of unheard of for all this stuff to be happening at the same time. The buzz around the city has been different, especially having the All-Star Game here this year. Indy is somewhat recognized, but we’re getting more and more recognition. It’s cool to be here in the midst of it all happening.
16:05 Turner’s work in community over the years and going forward
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MT: The first thing I brought to Indy during my rookie year was my foundation called WARM. It stands for We’re All Role Models. It’s centered around the homeless community and the less fortunate. We put together these go bags with a whole bunch of essential everyday items like hand sanitizers, hand warmers, toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc. You keep them in the back of your car and hand them out as needed to people. It started as an initiative and a community activation where we encourage other people to do it. Now, I have my Turner’s Block, which is my fan section in Indiana, and I pay for about 40-50 seats every single season for fans to come and show up every game. They actually help out with the packaging of all these bags I referenced. We’ve had days where we call it a block party, have the community get together, and have food trucks come out and deliver food to people who might need a meal. I do a lot of work with Wheeler Mission. It’s a local food bank and a local homeless shelter as well. They take in and house people every day in the community. I go there and help out now and then. I’ve done a lot of work with the Red Cross back in Texas and the United Way as well. I’ve done little endeavors here and there, but the biggest thing I know that I can definitely hang my hat on is that I have been a pillar in the community and a voice. I feel like a lot of people resonate with that around the Indianapolis community.
18:50 Tyrese Haliburton’s rise and where he ranks among point guards
Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
MT: He’s definitely helped transcend my career, to say the least. I think the biggest thing with Tyrese is that he wants to pass more than he wants to score. When you think of a point guard, you’d think that would be the epitome of that, but in a league where scoring is paramount, it’s a rarity when you have guys like Tyrese who embrace that role of coming in and being a creator but can also step up when you need him. I think the sky’s the limit for him. The past two or three years since he’s been here, his ascension has been incredible. He’s been able to really help a franchise that was at its lowest and take it to new heights. When it comes to the debate of the best point guards, obviously I’m biased, but if you really sit there and break down his game and look at the numbers, he’s leading a historical offense. We’re one of the best offenses in NBA history. We just set a crazy percentage shooting from the field in Game 7. He’s leading all of that, and it’s not by accident. I think Tyrese is very special. He’s someone who can create not only for himself but for others. It’s really helped bring out the best in me.
21:05 Pascal Siakam’s impact and free agent future
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MT: I think Pascal came here and changed not only our outlook right away but the way we approach the game. He’s someone who has championship experience. He came in right away and was able to be a voice. He was never really shy about speaking up on how he thought about things we should be doing or how we should move. He’s helped us tremendously on the offensive end and being able to have his defensive versatility. He’s a free agent this summer. We’re hoping that he signs back in Indiana. He’s someone that we’d love to have who can really help us going forward. I think it was a great move for us to get him.
Kevin Pritchard was very adamant about trying to add more length, and he was able to get it done with a special player. I’ve really enjoyed playing with him in the frontcourt together. He’s someone who’s also going to help my game. He commands so much attention that I’m able to get loose for my threes.
Scotto: I don’t want to play spoiler alert. Keep this one under your hat and for all the listeners, but I’m pretty sure
Pascal Siakam is going to get the bag this summer and remain an Indiana Pacer, especially with the run you guys have had.
23:20 What’s Rick Carlisle like behind the scenes and his job coaching this year?
Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports
MT: I have a lot of love for Rick. It’s actually insane. When Rick first got here, I didn’t know what to think because I grew up watching a Mavericks championship run. I was familiar with who he was basketball-wise, but from things I heard from the outside, it was like he loves basketball, but he’s kind of a weird guy. When I finally met Rick one-on-one, he was just like me. Weird isn’t the word to describe Rick. He has a very straight-to-the-point type of personality. He doesn’t really bullsh*t around. We’re going to get right to the point of what we’re talking about. He’s someone who has a phenomenal basketball mind, but as a person, he’s so well-versed. He flies planes. He's a heck of a pianist. He’s someone who’s in the gym literally every single day in the weight room with us working out. I’ve got a lot of respect for who he is as a person. He’s had me over to his house, and I’ve met his family. His wife cooked me a meal one day. It's stuff like that where a lot of head coaches, I don’t think, take the time to invest in the players. He’s someone who was able to do that with me as soon as he got here. I could tell that it was genuine. I think he wanted to get to know me as a person and wanted to figure out how we could take Indiana basketball to new heights. I’ve got a lot of love for Rick.
Scotto: You said Rick flies planes. Are we talking like Top Gun the movie? What kind of planes are we talking about here?
MT: I’ve never been in a plane with him or seen him do it, but I do know that he’s capable of piloting planes. It’s something that he took classes on or whatnot. He’s shown me some pictures. I’m not sure if I’d jump in a plane with him yet, but I do know it’s something I think he practices in his spare time.
Scotto: I don’t know if you’d jump in a plane with him, but I know he’d jump in a foxhole with you. I always remember the times when your name would be mentioned in trade talks. I’m pretty sure he emphatically said during a postgame presser close to the deadline with both hands on the table and said, “
Myles Turner is not going anywhere. I’m going to tell you that right now. We’re not trading Myles.” He’s always been a guy that’s in your corner.
You can follow Michael Scotto ( @MikeAScotto ) on X, formerly known as Twitter. 1
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