Thanks drgilbert. Don't know if LASIK is a part of the process, don't think so, but I am having both eyes done for cataracts. Thanks to Obamacare, I have much better insurance than I did last year, but i still have a high deductible (Please do not think of this as a political statement, just nothing but the facts). I am waiting until after January because I will then go on Medicare and I will not have to pay so much out of pocket. Luckily, I still have good enough vision to drive, one eye is much better than the other, but I will still eventually have to have both eyes done. I am looking forward to perhaps eventually not having to wear glasses for the first time since I was in the first grade.
Pay wall, smay wall ... I just transcribed the entire article from my paper copy of yesterday's paper. Somebody had to do it!
Let's see, hand done transcription ... Check! Proper attribution ... Check! Proper web reference so you can run smack dab into the pay wall ... Check! Hmmm! ... Looks like if you post the proper web reference from inside the pay wall you can access the entire article from outside of the pay wall ... who woulda thunkit? Maybe next time I won't have to hand transcribe the entire article! Happy reading!
The Myles Turner interview: Is he Texas’ next Durant? Or first Turner?
By Brian Davis - American-Statesman Staff
 Texas’ newest basketball sensation has a warm smile, a humble, engaging personality and … GOOD GRIEF, PEOPLE! Look at Myles Turner’s feet!
“Yeah, these are size 21s,†Turner says with a laugh. “My shoe size is really 20, but I wear 21s for the extra room.â€
Incoming Texas freshman Myles Turner, the former Euless Trinity star who picked the Longhorns over Kansas, has a size 21 shoe,
Who really knows whether the 18-year-old Turner will be a difference maker? Have the Longhorns truly found their next Kevin Durant, a one-year wunderkind already eyeing the NBA draft? Maybe, maybe not.
He’s considered 6 feet 11 by some, 7 feet tall by others. USA Today has already labeled Turner one of the 10 best players in college basketball — and he hasn’t played a single minute yet. Yes, those around the Longhorns’ basketball program truly believe he’s the missing piece that can make a good team great.
Go find yourself a burnt-orange bucket hat. “They’re all over the Internet,†Turner said. You might want one this winter.
“A lot of people were bashing Texas, telling me not to come here,†Turner said last week, in his first interview since starting summer basketball workouts at Cooley Pavilion. “I’m not going to say who, of course, but a lot of people in my area were telling me that’s the place you don’t want to go. That (coach) Rick Barnes, he doesn’t know what he’s doing down there.â€
Turner is referring to the perceived chaos stemming from two seasons ago, Texas’ 16-18 disaster, which Barnes would love to forget. Last year’s team was rebuilt from the ground up. The Longhorns were in Big 12 title contention at one point and got back into the NCAA tournament.
Turner said he and his father, David, went crazy watching the Arizona State game at a local Buffalo Wild Wings. Cam Ridley scooped up a loose ball and scored at the buzzer, pushing the Longhorns into the next round against Michigan.
People on social media noticed when @Original_Turner tweeted out a message supporting Texas.
“Really, I was leaning toward that because I filled out a bunch of brackets,†Turner said. “If Arizona State had won that game, I would have been knocked to almost last place.â€
No, Turner wasn’t pulling for the Longhorns because the uncommitted Euless Trinity star was leaning Texas. It was still very much in the air at that point, he said. In fact, Turner didn’t pick the Horns until the night before his much-ballyhooed April 30 announcement on ESPN.
Turner said he realized he had to pick Texas over Kansas. He knew his parents, David and Mary, wanted to attend his games. His sister, Mya, too. This is an athlete who grew up with a Texas pennant hanging in his room. It had to be the Longhorns, right?
The next day, Turner indeed picked Texas, pulling out that burnt-orange bucket hat that is now en vogue. The Trinity gym went wild. But …
“I fell asleep that night and, to be honest, I had Kansas on my mind,†Turner said. “It really hit me when I woke up the next morning, I’m in the state of Texas. I’m a Texas born-and-raised kid. I had a little Texas pennant, and the Longhorns were staring me right in the eyes.
“I just felt like, dang, I made the right decision.â€
Meeting at the IHOP
Myles Turner’s story actually begins in the early 1990s, long before he joined us on March 24, 1996.
David Turner got paired up with Ken “Slim†Roberson when the two worked an NBA Pro-Am summer camp in Dallas in 1993. Those two didn’t know each other from Adam, both men said. But they ran the program together for little over two years and became close friends.
If you know anything about Dallas basketball, you know Slim. He was once Karl Malone’s roommate and became his personal trainer. “My guinea pig,†Slim said. His second-biggest pupil was Larry Johnson. He worked with Texas’ LaMarcus Aldridge at one point. Acie Law and Quinton Ross came along later.
David Turner and Slim lost contact, and the years flew by as they raised their families. Until one morning, Slim and a friend went to play at Riverside Golf Club in Grand Prairie, and the skies opened up.
“We were up there at 6 o’clock, and the clouds just let out,†Slim said. “About 15 minutes later, we’re soaked. I guess the shower was needed to send us where we needed to go.â€
Slim and his friend sought shelter at a nearby IHOP. And there was the entire Turner family having breakfast. David Turner and Slim figure that Myles is probably about 10 or 11 at this point — “a little chubby,†Slim said. David knew about Slim’s past and asked if he’d ever work with Myles. Sure, Slim said. Reluctantly.
“I started working with Myles when he was probably 13 or 14 at the time,†Slim said. “He couldn’t pick his knees up. I know a lot of people who wouldn’t have taken the case. I know some trainers who would have run from that. Unless Dave was going to pay big money. Myles wasn’t nowhere near being notable.â€
David Turner said, “That was the best move I’ve ever made.â€
Parents heard ‘bones crunching’
There’s just no way to properly describe Myles Turner’s growth spurts. His junior year in high school sounds like science fiction.
“His foot was the first thing that started growing crazy,†David Turner said. “He got his first pair of LeBron James’ shoes. His foot grew three sizes in a week in a half, from 14 to a 17.â€
Myles wore a size 18 shoe for about six months and a size 19 for four more. Once he reached size 20, the family hoped that was it. From a height perspective, Myles got up to 6-5, then 6-6, and he just kept going.
“Mary and I can hear his bones just crunching when his body was sleeping at night,†said David Turner, who has spent most of his adult life working at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Mary Turner is an executive with Starwood Hotels and works in downtown Fort Worth. Mya Turner is going into sixth grade this fall.
“It sounds impossible, but we’d swear we’d go in his room and hear his bones stretching,†David Turner said. “If growing is a problem, then yes, he has a problem. But other than growing, the kid is fine.â€
Obviously, anyone who is at least 6 feet 6 inches tall is going to attract attention. It’s well-documented now that Myles Turner wasn’t highly recruited until the summer before his senior season. Once word got around that Trinity had a blossoming star, every coach imaginable came calling, including those from Texas.
“He wasn’t as recruited as he should have been his junior year, but his senior year, he shot out like a cannon,†said Cory Carter, who has known Myles since the seventh grade. Carter is headed to Incarnate Word on a track scholarship this fall.
Carter and Turner have done everything together over the years. “We even got in our first car wreck together,†Carter said.
Carter is one of four people that Myles Turner lists as his true friends. Turner keeps his circle very tight. So does his family. Everyone seems aware that Turner will be a high-profile target for people wanting to “get on the Myles Turner train,†Slim said.
They’re all looking ahead, assuming that Turner will play one year at Texas and jump into the NBA lottery.
So, about the NBA …
Myles Turner is asked constantly about the NBA. He’ll get asked about it all season long, whether he excels as a college freshman or not. When you see who else is getting drafted these days, why shouldn’t Turner consider it?
“If I would be blessed with that opportunity, I feel like I have to take it,†Turner said. “But I’m not really looking into that right now. I haven’t played a minute of college basketball yet. I haven’t had my first college basketball practice. We’re just going to see how that goes.
“Texas basketball is greater than me at the moment,†Turner adds, “and that’s what I feel I need to be focused on.â€
Myles Turner was driving down Interstate 35 en route to Austin earlier this month when he received a text from guard Javan Felix. The team has 6 a.m. workouts every Thursday at Clark Field, and Felix wanted to know if Turner would be there.
Turner absolutely wanted to be there, but he wasn’t cleared by the training staff to participate. Still, Turner arranged to be picked up at his hotel at 5:45 a.m., and he was there, standing on the side while his new teammates worked out at dawn.
Before this interview, Turner was working out alongside senior Jonathan Holmes. Former Horn Brad Buckman was also tooling around the weight room. There seems to be plenty of leadership around Turner already, and official practices haven’t even started.
In the one workout session Barnes had with Turner, the coach had the freshman tape his thumb to the palm of his hand while shooting 3-pointers. Barnes convinced Turner it’d help him get more spin on the ball.
Texas strength coach Todd Wright can already see Turner’s overwhelming athleticism.
“When you work with those kids, they pick up drills so fast, and you watch them get better at every rep they perform,†Wright said. “He’s one of those kids.â€
Just as Barnes envisioned, Turner said he feels like a natural power forward. That would mean Holmes slides to small forward and Ridley plays center this fall. There are tons of lineup possibilities, all things that will get dissected this November.
For now, Myles Turner wants to settle into the UT community and enjoy the experience. He’s already taking a course in psychology.
“Larry (Johnson) never played the game for glamour,†Slim said. “He played the game to win. He would sacrifice points. Myles is exactly the same way.â€
ABOUT THAT BUCKET HAT …
Texas freshman Myles Turner said he ordered two hats off the Internet because he wasn’t sure which school he’d pick — Texas or Kansas.
The Kansas hat arrived in the mail before his April 30 announcement on ESPN. But the Texas hat didn’t, so a mad scramble began. Turner and his sister, Mya, searched multiple stores all over the Hurst-Euless-Bedford area. Finally, Turner said his mother, Mary, stepped in. “She said, ‘I’m going to get this done. Relax.’ â€
Mary Turner found the now-famous bucket hat at a Sports Authority store in Irving. Crisis averted, at least for Texas fans.
So where is that Kansas hat now?
“I don’t know what I did with the Kansas hat,†Myles Turner said. “It’s probably long gone by now.â€
