This is an odd one.
Players have to answer to the media before and after every game, a responsibility they understandably sometimes dodge prior to a contest by ducking out of the locker room and into the trainer’s room to get “treatment.” This means these guys have to toss out quite a few words over the course of an 82-game season, often in the minutes following running up and down the court during a professional basketball game, while changing back into street clothes while strangers mill about with recorders and cameras.
That is to say, we understand why players could get weird with things, following a game.
Evan Turner, however, got super, super weird with things in the minutes following his return to Philadelphia on Monday night. Turner, who was a 76er from 2010 until last February, was booed upon checking into Monday night’s contest. The current Boston Celtic then made a strange comparison when Boston media asked him about his reaction to the Philly fans. From CSN Boston:
"I don't worry about it anymore. I don't want to sound super weird, but Jesus was hated too. At the end of the day, I just worry about the stuff that's important. If it makes you happy to boo me, go ahead. I'm still happy. I put all that stuff behind me."
Jesus Christ, if one believes that he did once walk the earth and is not a composite character, was indeed hated by many.
Evan Turner was booed by some basketball fans at an anonymous NBA game in December played between two teams with a combined 10-36 record.
The takeaway here? Don’t compare yourself to Jesus. If you can somehow turn water into wine without using grapes and a years-old fermentation process, perhaps we’ll talk. Until then, don’t compare yourself to Jesus.
Also, outside of sheer boredom, why in the world would you boo Evan Turner?
It’s understandable that 76ers fans are frustrated at yet another miserable Sixer season, the team has won just twice in 24 tries and you get the feeling that the team’s front office feels that that mark is two wins too high. The Celtics are a decades-old rival, of sorts, the game was close when Turner entered at the 4:14 mark of the first quarter, and Evan wasn’t really all that great for Philadelphia in his three and a half seasons there.
With that in place, it wasn’t Evan Turner that drafted Evan Turner second overall in the 2010 draft. Boo Doug Collins. Boo Rod Thorn. Boo the old guard that turned the Sixers into a middling outfit for too long during that era.
The 2010 NBA draft wasn’t an especially great one. John Wall (selected first overall) and DeMarcus Cousins (selected fifth) have turned into franchise cornerstones, but injuries (Wall) and attitude issues (Cousins) delayed that cornerstone-laying process for a few years. The most celebrated player in that year’s draft, Indiana’s Paul George, was a late bloomer that didn’t start to take in a significant amount of draft hype until the days leading up to his selection. Turner was chosen by numerous outlets as the NCAA’s player of the year following his junior season at Ohio State, and his frame and skill set seemed perfect for the NBA’s style of play.
His game hasn’t really translated, though. Turner isn’t exactly selfish, but he has to take a lot of shots to score his points, he’s not a big contributor in other areas outside of scoring (though his assists have spiked this season) and he’s not exactly a lockdown defender. He remains the sort of guy that looks like he could be a great NBA player, while falling well short of stardom.
Perhaps this is why the Sixers fans booed. Philadelphia fans are notorious for voicing their displeasure, so any bit of disappointment likely leads to this sort of thing.
And that led to Evan Turner passive/aggressively comparing himself to Jesus Christ.
It’s a long season.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
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