Chinese Name: Evan Turner Foreign Name: Evan Turner Nationality: U.S. Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois Date of Birth: October 27, 1988 Graduated from: The Ohio State University (Ohio State) Height: 2.01 m / 6 ft. 7 in. Weight: 93.0 kg / 205 lbs. Sports: Basketball Affiliated Sports Team: Philadelphia 76ers jersey number: No. 12 field position: forward swingman NBA Draft: 2010 1st round, 2nd place by the 76ers High School: St. Joseph's High School (West Chester, Illinois
College Career Junior Season (2009-10): averaged the highest scoring (20.4 points) and rebounding (9.2) for the Big Ten, while 6.0 assists and 1.7 steals ranked second. of steals ranked second. Despite missing a month due to injury, Turner has continued to be a force since his return, winning nearly every individual award in the Big Ten. During Turner's absence due to injury, Ohio State went 3-3, including 0-2 in the tournament, which shows his importance to the team. Throughout the season, Turner was one of only two players in the nation to post multiple triple-doubles, posting 16 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists against Lehigh
Philadelphia media photo
Prescott, and grabbing 14 points, 17 rebounds and 10 assists, including a collegiate career-high in rebounds, in the opener against Alcorn State. Chipped in 31 points, 11 rebounds and six assists in the Big Ten final against Minnesota and collected the Big Ten Most Outstanding Player Award for his outstanding performance in the game. Sophomore Season (2008-09): Ranked first in the Big Ten in scoring at 17.3 points per game, third in rebounds at 7.1, fourth in steals at 58, eighth in assists at 131, ninth in field goal percentage at 50.3 percent, and 10th in free throw percentage at 78.8 percent. Named to the first team of the Big Ten Conference's Best XI and was named one of the nation's best college players by the Associated Press. In the NCAA Elimination Game against Siena, Turner led the team through two overtime periods, playing 50 minutes and grabbing 25 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Recorded a double-double on nine occasions throughout the season. Freshman Season (2007-08): averaged 8.5 points and 4.4 rebounds in 27.1 minutes per game, collecting his first collegiate double-double - 21 points and 10 rebounds - against Tennessee. Had 16 points, a season-high 11 rebounds and six assists against Michigan. In the NIT Tournament, Turner averaged 10.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.4 steals per game, with 11 points, eight rebounds and three assists in the quarterfinals, 17 points against Ole Miss in the semifinals, and 20 points in the finals. [1] Editor's note Individual honors -2009-10 Season, won the John Wooden Award, Oscar Robertson Award, and Associated Press Player of the Year Award, selected Big Ten Player of the Year and Big Ten Tournament Most Outstanding Player. -Nominated for All-America by the Associated Press, named to the Big Ten First Team and picked up the Oscar Robertson Trophy in 2008-09. Named Player of the Week a Big Ten record eight times in his college career. -Represents Team USA at the World University Games in 2009. [1]
Suffering from an illness as a child, and experiencing the loss of a close friend in high school, Evan Turner has gone through trials and tribulations and challenged himself
Evan Turner turned in perfect numbers at Ohio State (averaging 21.8 points, 14.8 rebounds, and 6.0 assists per game), and also drew the attention of many NBA scouts with his all-around performance.
It was late at night, Barbara Moll still immersed in the grief of her son's suicide, when the phone rang, Barbara forced to endure the grief and picked up the microphone, the caller is a 16-year-old teenager, but Barbara can not hear what the other side is saying, she can feel only the grief of the heart.
The teenager on the other end of the microphone was so depressed that Barbara could barely make out what he was saying. It took nearly a minute for Barbara to stop crying and recognize the other man.
Five years since that day, Barbara has been able to see the boy who called regularly on TV. He's now an NCAA point guard, 6-foot-7, incredibly strong and confident on the court, beating one opponent after another and catching the eye of NBA scouts.
But Barbara can still see in today's aura the boy of yesterday with the sadness in his heart.
Evan Turner wore No. 21 at Ohio State, the same number that Barbara's son, John, chose in his final season.
Barbara said, "He told me he was going to choose that number when he made the varsity team his junior year of high school, but it didn't work out. Now when I see him wearing Ohio State's No. 21, I know he did."
No player in the first two weeks of the NCAA season has made such dazzling strides as Turner. In the first game against Alcorn State, Turner posted a triple-double -- the second time in the history of the 'Shamrocks (Ohio State) that a player has done that -- and since that game, Turner has made the same kind of progress. Since that game, Turner has posted a double-double and is averaging a staggering 21.8 points, 14.8 rebounds and six assists per game.
Watching him play, you get the sense that he's playing at will, effortlessly, like a child of God, gifted with a gift. In last week's Coaches vs. Cancer Classic (note: also known as the 2K Sports Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer, which takes place every November to raise money for cancer research), he made his opponents' defenses look like null and void, and he also drew cheers from Madison Square Garden with his spectacular play. He was cheered again and again.
When you get to know Turner, you realize he's a different kind of player in the NCAA, one who is courteous and considerate of others, and who doesn't flaunt his talent like other NCAA players. Before the new season began, Turner was surprised to find himself on the covers of major magazines, and he took some to his family, but not to show off, just to say, as Turner put it, "It's just the strangest thing in the world."
You'll get a better idea of Turner's inner workings after hearing his story, which is not unlike those players who come from prominent families and achieve impressive things right off the bat. He suffered from illnesses from a young age, but worked his way through them with a strong will and extra hard work. The excesses of life have made him more aware of his family and friends.
Five years ago, on Dec. 11, John Moll walked toward a roaring train, ending his troubled, 16-year-old life. Since then, Turner has called his best friend John's mother, Barbara, on three days a year - Mother's Day, John's birthday and the day of John's sacrifice.
Nearly five years have passed since John Moll chose to leave this world in an extreme way, and Evan Turner hasn't forgotten.
"It was really hard for a while." Moll said, "Every time I see Evan, I think of John, who would be 21 by now and probably in college. But as a mother of a troubled teenager, when you know that your son has never been able to fulfill the hopes you placed in him, sometimes you can't help but think of a young man like Evan as your own son, and it eases some of the pain in your heart.Evan was special, and he was an outstanding young man. That doesn't mean basketball-wise."
Turner's mother, Iris, said something magical happened the day Turner was baptized, and while the feeling can't be described in words, Iris is certain her son will accomplish something extraordinary in the future.
Turner's survival to the point of baptism was a miracle in Iris's view and it gave her the assurance that her son would one day make a name for himself. In the first 12 months of his life, Turner suffered from a number of hospital stays and his mother was so anxious that she didn't have him baptized until Turner's first birthday.
There were countless times when I thought God was taking him away from me." Iris said as she looked at Turner in front of her, "And now that strangers often come up to me with magazines with Turner's story in them and tell me about him, and people have told me what they expect from Turner, sometimes I wonder how long that will last. Knowing that for the first year of his life, I was always asking God, when is his health going to get better?"
Turner weighed 10 pounds at birth, but endured illnesses including chicken pox, pneumonia, asthma, and measles before he reached his first birthday.In the winter of 1989, an epidemic of measles swept through Chicago, and Iris realized that her son's condition had become so severe that he couldn't even cry.Iris called a doctor Perhaps the doctor thought Iris was exaggerating and suggested she take the child to a clinic. Out of maternal instinct, Iris took Turner straight to the emergency room.
"The doctors took one look at him and immediately resuscitated him, they quickly got all the medical equipment they needed ready and he had catheters all over his body, he was saved from death by the doctors."
Turner survived that major measles outbreak, but was left with severe respiratory sequelae. So doctors surgically removed his tonsils with surrounding glandular tissue to alleviate his breathing difficulties. But Turner slept in his mother's arms every night until he was a year old, because once he was placed in his crib, he would suffocate because of his breathing difficulties.
Turner's childhood was marked by trials and tribulations like Job's. At the age of three, Turner was involved in a car accident in which his mother saw him get knocked off his feet by a car and fall in a head-touching fashion, though Turner appeared to be fine aside from some concussions as well as a few stitches.
Turner also had an unusually difficult time learning to talk. His milk teeth were much larger than those of children his age, and because of a malocclusion, although he was able to speak, only his older brother, Darius, was able to understand him. So Iris had to rely on Darius' explanations to understand Turner, who couldn't even say "Momma" clearly, pronouncing it more like "Bobba.
Iris said of the special bond between her two sons, "I don't know what things would be like without Darius."
When Evan Turner was a tender, sickly child, his mother could never have imagined that one day in the future she would see her son on an NCAA court.
Extensive speech-disorder remediation has improved Turner's pronunciation, but the sting of attending special classes and the frustration of not being understood have made Turner reticent and make him feel insecure, Iris says: "Sometimes I'd be so anxious that I'd yell out, Darius, what does he really want, what does he really What does he want? Whenever this happened, poor Evan was always particularly frustrated, and he would slur out nebber minb (note: Iris mimics Turner's pronunciation at the time)."
"I'm still shy, but I don't feel intimidated anymore." Turner said, "I know how to deal with the situation better. When I was little, I didn't like being in crowds, I liked to go out and play alone, and that probably helped me some."
Turner can't remember when he first got into basketball, but the Turner brothers have been "shooting" with children's basketball hoops since they were just walking, and he vividly remembers sitting in his house as an eighth-grader playing "March Madness" in 2003. "March Madness," a video game modeled after the NCAA, in 2003 when he was an eighth-grader sitting in his house.
"In the game you can build your own team, and of course, I would make myself the best player on the team." Says Turner, "In the game, Dickie V (note: Richard J. "Dick" Vitale, an American basketball broadcaster) yells out that this freshman rookie is so great, he's already the centerpiece of the team. That's when my brother walked in, took one look at me and said, "I hope one day your dreams come true."
Turner came to recognize his brother's influence on him when he entered St. Joseph High School in Chicago.
That's also where he met John Moll, whom he had met on the summer high school circuit and who became a friend when Moll also enrolled at St. Joseph High. But at the time, Moll was already in trouble and facing many charges. Personality-wise, Moll was much more flamboyant than Turner, and although still a kid, Moll asked his parents for permission to grow his hair so he could change it to the bang that was so popular in the '70s.
Turner didn't know about the many problems Moll faced: He didn't know that the mandatory drug-testing trials in middle school drove Moll crazy, bad-mouthing and punching his parents; and he didn't know that Moll was adopted, and that his birth mother, a schizophrenic, gave up custody of Moll. All he knew was that Moll was an interesting guy, a tough defensive player and a good organizational defender.
In retrospect, no one, neither his parents nor the specialists who counseled him, knew what struggles Moll went through in his inner world.
Barbara Moll recalls, "He had counseling, he saw a psychiatrist, and he had a probation officer who would come in weekly to see how he was doing. No one sensed that he would choose suicide. Those professional psychiatrists were more surprised than we were; no one expected this to happen."
So when Turner found out that Moll, his close friend and teammate, had chosen to take his own life on a December day in 2004, he nearly broke down.
Iris: "I was really worried about Evan during that time, he was in extreme pain."
Turner says: "It wasn't that I couldn't get over it, it was just that I couldn't understand why he was doing it. His locker was to my right and I kept thinking he would never use that closet again, and when I saw his desk, I realized he would never sit there again. Inside I kept hoping that one day he would come back. It took me a long time to realize what was really going on."
Barbara watched Ohio State games regularly, and she kept an eye on Turner, and they still keep in touch.
Turner doesn't know what drove him to call Barbara Moll that night.Turner's mother didn't suggest it, not to anyone, and he picked up the microphone himself.
That call was short, but it meant a lot. Despite enduring the grief of her beloved son's suicide, Barbara Moll
attended all of St. Joseph High School's 2004-05 season games and celebratory banquets hosted by the team. She kept an eye on Moll's classmates until they spent their last two years at St. Joseph High. She also watched Turner slowly grow into a true star in the NCAA Division I ranks. Though the vast majority of eyes at the time were going to Turner's older brother, Derrick Rose, Turner still earned the honor of being his own.
Barbara Moll, who went to Evanston to see Ohio State play live last season, signed up for Facebook this year because it would allow her to better connect with Turner as well as Mike Capocci, also a former teammate of John Moll's.
Next year? If Turner chooses to enter the NBA next year, she doesn't know what she's going to do.
But she's not alone.
Unlike the vast majority of parents who are eager to see their sons in the NBA, Evan Turner's mother has concerns.
Iris said, "My mother told me she's happy to see Turner realize his dream, but I think it's a little too soon, and that means you have to take on a lot of responsibility."
If anyone looks fully prepared to enter the NBA, it's Turner, who told his friends he had decided to enter the draft and that he was serious about making that decision.Turner has all the good qualities needed to survive in the NBA.
Despite his impressive numbers these past two weeks, Turner remains humble. he doesn't seem to realize how much he's improved, and he's even more surprised when he hears that some eighth-grade kids are sitting in their rooms playing video games and imagining themselves as Evan Turner.
Turner said, "People show me those magazines, and I can't help but wonder, is this really me? I'm in a magazine? It's crazy, it's funny." There's no doubt Turner is a good kid -- Barbara Moll knew that the night Turner called.
"I'm still amazed he would call that night." Moll said, "Even an adult wouldn't have called that night, but he did and was only 16 years old. Now that I think about it, he did surprise me, and now I'm even more proud of what he's accomplished."
Turner impressed by grabbing 17 rebounds in each of his first two back-to-back games to open the season. That statistic is all the more shocking considering he plays point guard on the floor.
Turner showed his versatility by averaging a solid 19 points per game to go with seven assists.
With Buckeye's lineup deficiencies, Turner has taken on the responsibility of point guard, organizing the rotation to perfection and displaying his natural ball handling and passing game. His ability to distribute the ball and get the entire team involved in the offense and allow his teammates to score at their own familiar pace is a testament to his maturity on the floor.
The talented Buckeye will face the defending champion UNC Tarheels on Thursday (a game that will be televised), and the former will have a chance to make a difference in the tournament.
BODY QUALIFICATIONS
Barefoot Height: 6' 5.75" Height in Shoes 6' 7" Weight (lbs.) 214 Arms Length 6' 8" Standing Touch Height 8' 7.5" Body Fat % 8.6 Hand Length (inches) 8.75 (22.225 cm) Hand Width (inches) 9.5 (24.13 cm)
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