Myles Turner discusses his return to Indiana and Gainbridge Fieldhouse
Myles Turner discussed his return to Indiana as a member of the Bucks and the intent of his comments since leaving the Pacers
- Myles Turner clarified that his recent comments were not a criticism of Indiana fans or the city.
- Turner stated his departure from the Pacers was a business decision based on feeling more valued by the Milwaukee Bucks.
- The former Pacers center expressed that he felt the contract negotiations with Indiana were a “rug pull.”
INDIANAPOLIS — Myles Turner wanted to make sure he drove home the point as clearly as possible, acknowledging that his comments over the past four months since leaving the Pacers in free agency for the Milwaukee Bucks left room for misinterpretation.
So when a reporter asked him about comments he made at Bucks Media Day saying, “I’m in a city now that wants to celebrate me,” and, “There’s a great quote that says, go where you’re celebrated,” he looked directly into the camera lens of the reporter’s phone to make clear he was not implying that he wasn’t celebrated in Indianapolis.
“That wasn’t a shot at the fans,” Turner said Monday at shootaround before his first game back at Gainbridge Fieldhouse with the Bucks. “I see how fans would have took that personally, just how fresh you were off such a great run and whatnot. But again, I’m going to say this right to the camera. By no means did anything I say have anything to do with the fans or the city. This is strictly a business decision for me personally.”
That comment was one of several Turner has made in interviews or podcasts that have left Pacers fans feeling more sour about his departure after he spent his first 10 professional seasons with the franchise. He returns to Indianapolis for Monday night’s 7 p.m. game against the Pacers knowing to expect that he’ll be booed by at least a segment of the fans in attendance when he takes the floor even though he set the franchise’s all-time record in blocked shots and helped lead them to back-to-back trips to the Eastern Conference Finals and their first NBA Finals trip in 25 years last season.
“I think it’s obviously going to be mixed reviews, mixed feelings, mixed emotions, but for me, it’s always going to be love, man,” Turner said. “I spent so much time in this environment. It’s one of the best sports environments to come play in in my opinion and they’ve held true to that.”
The comments that have gotten Turner in trouble with the fans have mostly been attempts to praise the Bucks as an organization and Milwaukee, but they have allowed for an implication that they had something that Indiana and the Pacers did not. Turner said he thinks that’s an unfair read of what he was trying to say.
“It’s just the media space, man,” Turner said. “I feel like no matter what I say you can flip it to fit your own narrative. I think I’ve been nothing but complimentary of this fanbase, of my former teammates and of my time here.”
Turner said in his introductory press conference with the Bucks in Las Vegas when asked why he switched teams that “ultimately it was about staying competitive. … I saw a chance to remain competitive here.” He said later that after one NBA Finals run, he was making a decision that gave him an opportunity to get back to the Finals. The implication read within that was that Turner did not believe he would be able to stay competitive if he remained with the Pacers despite their recent playoff runs.
Turner, of course, had reason to believe the Pacers might take a back step in 2025-26 with All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton having torn his Achilles tendon in Game 7 of the Finals, which will cost him all season. However, the Pacers also have Haliburton and several of their other key pieces locked up on multi-year contracts so even if a return trip to the Finals is unlikely this season, they should have the players in place to take another shot at it in 2026-27 and beyond. Turner said he agrees, and has even been impressed with what they’ve done in the early going this season despite not only missing Haliburton but several other starters an rotation players with shorter-term injuries. He didn’t mean to imply, he said, that these Pacers couldn’t be competitive.
“I know how this team is built,” Turner said. “I just watched this team beat a really good Warriors team the last time they played. I know what the DNA and identity of this team is.”
What Turner did mean to imply — and what he has been more explicit about saying — is that he was not pleased with how free agency negotiations with the Pacers went. He said in a podcast last week with Bucks teammate Thanasis Antetkounmmpo that conversations he had with the front office throughout the season suggested that the Pacers were pleased with his performance during the Finals run and that he would be “taken care of” with a new contract when the season ended.
Turner did not perform well in the Finals, averaging 10.6 points and 4.4 rebounds per game and shooting 37.7% from the floor and 21.4% from 3-point range in the Pacers’ seven-game loss to the Thunder. However he was particularly strong in the first two rounds of the playoffs, averaging 16.2 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.8 blocked shots per game while making 9 of 16 3-pointers (56.3%) in their Eastern Conference semifinals upset of the Cavaliers. He averaged 15.6 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game in the regular season, posting the third-most total blocks in the NBA with 144.
Turner said he had good conversations with the Pacers’ front office about a new contract even up until the point he left Indiana for the offseason but that he felt the initial offer he received from the Pacers didn’t reflect that. Neither Turner nor president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard have been clear about what the offers actually were. Some reports have indicated that the Pacers’ offer never got above three years, $66 million but sources told IndyStar’s Gregg Doyel that the Pacers got up to four years, $96 million. Turner’s previous contract had paid him approximately $40.9 million over two seasons, though the Pacers also used their cap room to add approximately $17.1 million to his 2022-23 salary so that he totaled about $37.1 million that year
Whatever this free agency offer was, Turner apparently had greater expectations.
“It’s a little bit of a rug pull,” Turner said. “I think that’s the best way I can describe it as a little bit of a rug pull for me personally. I feel like for the most part, people were pretty up front with where we were going to be. … We don’t have to rehash old stuff, but it was a little bit of a rug pull.”
Turner allowed his agent to look for other offers and the Bucks came through with a surprising deal worth approximately $109 million over four years. To make it happen, they had to waive and stretch All-NBA point guard Damian Lillard who will also miss all of this season with an Achilles tendon tear and who was apparently happy to go back to Portland where he started his career. Pritchard told reporters in July that the Pacers weren’t given the opportunity to match the offer and that they would have liked to have tried, but acknowledged that the offers they made did not match what Turner got from the Bucks.
“Let’s talk about value, go where you’re valued,” Turner said. “I feel like the front office and the ownership valued me in Milwaukee more than the ownership and front office in Indiana.”
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