INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Pacers are waiting, and waiting.
Could that call be coming for them to return to their team facility, and possibly re-start the 2019-20 season?
That’s the hope, with nothing imminent.
For the time being, the Pacers are making various staff members and players available to the media, via Zoom.
From Kevin Pritchard giving his thoughts earlier in April, to Victor Oladipo meeting the media a few weeks back, it was Myles Turner’s time to chat on Tuesday.
What did Turner have to say?
–On what Turner has been up to during the quarantine: “I’ve been working out. I wake up pretty early, 6:30, 7:00 every morning. It’s really the only time I have access to a gym. I go there, knock that out and then I lift about 2 or 3 times a day, do yoga, condition a little bit. Then after that I just watch a lot of shows. I’ve been learning about finances a lot lately, learning about the stock market and that type of stuff. The stock market is the biggest thing. It’s something I haven’t got into. You have the app on your phone and see little stuff on the ticker. But I never knew what any of that stuff meant. Over a week process, I obviously still have a lot to learn. I’ve got into that a lot more. Just seeing how money is moving, seeing how the economy affects the market and what not. I think it’s something you don’t learn in school. I didn’t go to college for that long so it’s something I didn’t learn there. And learning how my finances work more. What’s going on for me on a day-to-day basis. From a reading standpoint, I’ve really been reading more non-fiction books, nothing really fictional. ”
–On staying in contact with teammates during this time: “We have a group message and we just keep each other updated. But we haven’t been talking much about basketball right now. Now is a time when we don’t have to really worry much about basketball, per se. Guys are doing other things, going on other endeavors. Not a lot of basketball conversations, but we keep each other updated through text messaging and what not.”
–On Turner’s affinity for doing yoga: “I’ve been doing yoga for about three or four years now. I started to take it more serious a couple of years ago. Me, personally, it helps with injury prevention, my mental game, my mental focus, my breathing. Personally, I think it’s another workout, outside of lifting weights. You can lift all the weights you want, but you have to be able to have a lot of muscle functionality and yoga helps with that. I just have fun with it. It’s a little hobby of mine that I’ve picked up and I’ve continued to do…I’m still trying to do a handstand, but there’s a lot of variations I do. I do a crow, into a handstand and certain poses to get into it. I’m just working on the different movements and poses.
–On the family impact from Turner’s father contracting COVID-19 (and recovering): “Everyone is doing fine now. Initially, it was a rough patch for a couple of weeks. After he got the virus, about a week before my birthday (March 24), they think he contracted it in Indiana and then flew to Texas. He got it very early before all the frenzy started happening. Once he got it, he had a whole bunch of symptoms, fever, chills, pneumonia. He had to get to the hospital. Initially, they thought he had H1N1 and sent him back home. Then he started feeling worse, so we sent him to a different hospital, and they tested him right away and said he had corona. He stayed there for about a week. He said you are literally in isolation. They have armed people at the door, nobody can get in or out. It was crazy. There weren’t a whole bunch of people in the hospital so he could get rapid treatment, in and out. His recovery process took a while. He was on oxygen for a little bit. He’s better now but it was definitely scary at the time.”
–On concerns about getting back together with teammates and playing again this season: “There are concerns. I think that teams are doing their best to follow the CDC guidelines. That’s the best we can do because I think they have the best outlook on everything. From a personal standpoint, I’ve seen how it can affect families. I know this virus isn’t going anywhere for a while now, until we come up with a vaccine. So obviously, the immediate impact will be the spread of the virus and the research of it, especially in the fall time. All we can do now is follow the CDC guidelines and hope for the best.”
–On the potential of the NBA season starting up again this year: “I most definitely want to play, just the competitor in me. I thought we were starting to get some good leverage towards the end of the season. I definitely want to be out there in front of the fans. Like I said earlier, the way this has affected me from a family standpoint, I see why there might be precautions not to play this year. I want to play, but I see why we couldn’t play, from a perspective of why we wouldn’t be able to do it.”
-On the possibility of playing games in front of empty arenas: “That’s something that goes without saying, it’s going to be an adjustment for all of us to (possibly) have to play in front of no fans. But it’s probably going to be necessary. It’s not something we are going to be looking forward to. We were looking forward to going out there and playing. So whatever it takes to play, we are going to go out there and do it.”
–On how long it would take for players to be ready for a playoff game: “From a player standpoint, you need a bare minimum of three weeks, just to play a regular season game. To jump right into the intensity of a playoff game, you would definitely need some more time. I think a couple of exhibition games first, before we get into it. I know there’s a lot of talk and TV rights and what not, with teams having to at least play 70 games. That’s the biggest concern in terms of not jumping right into the playoffs. But I would say at least three weeks to get the team together, get the body recouped and get some more chemistry.”
–On watching ‘The Last Dance’: “I think it’s something they’ve done a great job with, especially the two episodes a week. It’s something I watch with my dad every weekend. It’s a good conversation piece, just for the league. It gives us a great mindset to keep us motivated and a source of entertainment. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it, just taking a deeper dive into something that Google can’t really tell you. It’s been pretty cool.”
