Evan Turner seems to like surprises.
After joining the Boston Celtics as a surprise coaching hire, Turner jumped in front of the camera Monday afternoon for a surprise media availability.
Turner has officially retired from the NBA after a 10-year career and is now turning his attention to mentoring.
“I also always wanted the opportunity to coach and try to figure out if I wanted to do front office or something like that,” Turner said. “When the Celtics came with the opportunity, I thought that was the best possibility for me. It’s a super duper internship in a city I like a lot, I love, and to learn under Brad was just a no-brainer, obviously. I jumped on it and took it.”
Turner is learning on the fly, but mostly he’s just leaning on his natural ability to communicate and connect with players who have had minimal opportunity in Boston to be coached by former NBA players.;
“I think it’s super beneficial. Obviously I’m not saying this because it’s me or anything like that, but I guess guys – everybody likes comfort and everybody likes familiarity,” he said. “They try to soak up as much knowledge as they can. And I think it’s going to pay dividends in the future. It speaks volumes how much they want to learn. They’re definitely a special group of individuals.”
There’s no guarantee that a player is going to listen to a coach just because he’s a coach, but Turner’s NBA experience resonates with a lot of these players. He was the second overall pick in 2010, so he knows what it’s like to play with expectations, the lows of a situation not working out, and the highs of playing yourself back into getting a huge contract.
“It’s been great having Evan here,” Marcus Smart said. “We’re talking about a guy who had a decent career here in the league, and just a really overall guy, his work ethic, he knows the game, his IQ, and just for him to be able to come back here and really give that knowledge that he has learned over his career, and continue to learn to us and these younger guys that we have here is a blessing. You don’t get to see that very often. And I know everybody here is appreciative of it, and we’re thankful to have him.”
A turning point in Turner’s career came here in Boston, when Brad Stevens made perhaps the best use of what Turner did best. Instead of trying to shoehorn Turner in a role befitting his size, he turned Turner’s on-ball skills into a strength for the team.
“I trust the hell out of Brad,” Turner said. “When it came to trusting and leaving things up in the air with basketball – I left and my last situation wasn’t ideal – trusting Brad to guide me and learn from him, it was an easy situation and transition. I thought it was the best situation for me. That’s what I was looking forward to. He’s given me space to learn and the comfort level to learn as well. And make mistakes.”
There is certainly another learning curve ahead for Turner. He knows things are going to be different as a coach than they were as a player, but he also sees the similarities. He still has to earn everyone’s respect and make sure he’s being held accountable just as the players are.
However, Turner is a unique character, and if there’s one thing Stevens wants on his team is for people to be genuine and true to who they are. Which means Turner is going to speak his mind, and have some fun.
“Brad knows. He knows I’ve got a little bit of luck left in the tank. So he’s trying to take it and get him two or three ‘ships, you know what I’m saying?” Turner joked, referring to his championship run coaching Ohio State alums in The Basketball Tournament. “He knows I have a great basketball mind. He knows I have a great basketball energy. You know, his first playoff appearance was when No. 11 was on the court. Now No. 11’s on the bench – not Payton Pritchard, me. Behind the bench, like, far behind the bench. Now I think we can make it or take it deep into July every year.”
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