While he spends the next few days in New York City for the 2014 Jordan Brand Classic at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, Myles Turner, the only remaining uncommitted prospect partaking in the All-American game, will share his daily experiences with SLAMonline. Check in over the next three days to read up on his preparation leading up to Friday night’s highly anticipated game and on what it’s like behind-the-scenes to be part of this prestigious game. As many of you may know, the seven-footer is a late-bloomer who blew up last summer after some impressive outings in multiple grassroots showcases throughout the country, basically going from being unranked a year ago to a five-star recruit and top-10 prospect today. Aside from the speculation surrounding his looming college decision (whose college list includes Kentucky, Duke, Kansas, Texas, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, SMU and Arizona), an ankle injury he suffered last week while playing at the Nike Hoop Summit has made his JBC game-status questionable, and thus he’ll keep us up-to-date on his injury progress. For more info on the game, including how to buy tickets, rosters, and alumni, visit the game’s official website JordanBrandClassic.com.
As told to Franklyn Calle
What’s up ya’ll,
It’s been real busy since I got here.
On Tuesday, my flight left around ten in the morning and I got in to New York at around three o’clock. We had to stay in the airport for an extra two hours – we were waiting for about five or six players to also arrive so that we could all get a ride. Other player’s flights got delayed because of the weather. We didn’t end up leaving the airport until like 5:30. When we got to the hotel, we got our gear and chilled for another ten or fifteen minutes before we had to go to another hotel for a ping-pong tournament, or something like that, and an NBA 2K tournament. We stayed there for a couple of hours. It was pretty fun. The international guys won both tournaments, so that was kind of interesting. It was pretty fun. I was actually just a spectator – I didn’t sign up for any of the events. I didn’t really feel like throwing myself out there.
I’ve been to New York a couple of times. I‘ve been here for the Elite 24 and the Big Streak Classic, so I’ve seen the city quite a bit. My dad is actually from New York – he’s from Queens and he moved to Texas after high school. The city is cool but I wouldn’t want to live here though. I really like the way it seems but it’s just so busy. The traffic is crazy. After practice [on Wednesday morning], it took us an hour to get from practice to the hotel. It was crazy.
[Yesterday] was media day. A lot of questions about my recruiting situation, of course. I just stay finessing it really. I’ve learned that you just don’t have to let other people pressure you into saying what you don’t want to say. For the most part I’ve been pretty good about that, so I wouldn’t say it’s been too stressful. I finally announced today that I’m committing on April 30.
Even some players have thrown around a quick pitch here and there about going to their school. But they don’t really hound me about it.
I’m looking forward to meeting Michael Jordan up here. I think we get to meet him at the banquet. So I’m really looking forward to that.
I actually didn’t practice today as I’m still waiting out to see how my ankle feels. It seemed like everyone was pretty much chill, relaxed and laid back at practice. As far as me playing, it seems like it will be a game time decision. I’m going to see how I feel tomorrow. If I don’t feel right, then I’m not going to push it. I just started walking yesterday and I haven’t had [any pain] yet, so I’m not going to push it.
We also went to the BET 106 & Park studios after practice [yesterday]. That was actually really fun. We were featured on the show. I think it comes out [today]. I used to watch it sometimes, but ever since ol’ girl left I haven’t watched it as much. But it was cool just being there and seeing how everything works behind the scenes.
I would say D’Angelo Russell is the jokester of the group. He almost got kicked out. He was dancing behind the cameras and almost got in trouble. It was funny.
From the guys here, I’m really cool with Emmanuel Mudiay, just because he’s from Texas. I haven’t really known any of these guys for that long. I just met them this summer. Me and Karl Towns are cool too, so we talk a lot.
Going from basically unranked a year ago to now playing the top high school kids in the country has definitely been a transition. The McDonald’s game was a lot of fun. It was a huge honor to be a part of that.
That is all for now. Check back tomorrow to find out how Thursday went for us!
