Pacers' Myles Turner says years of trade talks made him 'insecure'

Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner is in the midst of the best two-year stretch of his NBA career, but there’s been no shortage of critics over that span. 

More specifically, Turner’s name is constantly at the center of trade rumors in the offseason and around the trade deadline, but the big man remains with the team that drafted him No. 11 overall in the 2015 NBA Draft.

Best of all? Following a two-year stretch in which Turner averaged 18.0 points and 7.5 rebounds (2022-23) and 17.1 points with 6.9 rebounds (2023-24), the Pacers are just four wins away from a trip to the 2024 NBA Finals.

Turner spoke about outlasting all the trade rumors and speculation during a recent interview with HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto, admitting that the criticism sometimes made him somewhat insecure.

“A lot of people were expecting you to fold with that. When you start hearing those types of rumors year in and out, you start kind of getting insecure. You look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, “Am I the problem?” You’ve been hyped up your entire life, and when you get to this stage, everything’s under a microscope,” Turner told HoopsHype.

“When you start playing for these multi-million dollar organizations, any little thing that goes wrong, the blame is going to be on you. That’s where it got in my career. It’s a full circle serendipitous moment to finally get an opportunity to play and ball out on this stage, the biggest stage in basketball, while also seeing every single phase of Pacers basketball.”

To Turner’s credit, his ability to overcome the rumors and speculation has been impressive over the past two seasons. The 28-year-old big man is in the midst of an excellent stretch of play with the Pacers during this year’s playoff run, averaging 17.5 points and 6.5 rebounds while shooting 50.9 percent from the field and 45.7 percent from beyond the arc in 13 games.

Turner’s play will be integral to the Pacers’ hopes of pulling off an upset against the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. But after all, Indiana has made it this far in the underdog role, so who’s to say it can’t continue the impressive run?