Evan Turner is one of the highest paid players in the NBA and yet, he may also be one of the most original. In a recent interview with DIME Magazine’s Oliver Maroney, Turner noted that in his spare time he belongs to a book club with Andre Iguodala and other unnamed NBA players.
“I read a lot of books,” Turner says. “Myself, [Andre] Iguodala, and some other NBA guys have a book club. The last book we read was Pour Your Heart Into It by Howard Schultz. But aside from that, I relax and I try and do a lot of things around the community. But once a day, I try to make it not about myself and about someone else.”
Along with his NBA book club, Turner was also very outspoken about the value of the mid-range shot in the NBA today.
“The game goes in waves,” Turner says, “and I just think there is so much out there with social media and the internet that a lot of people out there don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. When I was growing up, I was a big fan of J.J. Redick and you see what Steph Curry is doing now, how can you not like that? But then you get guys like DeMar who will give you hell all over the court. He’ll score 45 and shoot only one three but he’s still the toughest player to guard. Nobody really speaks on what a good mid-range shooter can do if he plays the right way, distributes, and plays defense. If I can’t shoot the three, but I can do nine to ten other things and everyone else is shooting threes, then whatever. I comprehend why people love the three-point shot, I comprehend the analytics, but you still need the other facets of the game.”
Turner’s contract is still the biggest talking point of his career but he also went into why basketball players don’t live a “real life.”
Turner told Oliver From DIME:
“Truth is, people are going to critique your game whether you’re a starter or the 15th man. Elton Brand once told me ‘it’s not a real life, you get paid millions to set a screen and make a bucket.’ My teammates and I can’t go to Wall Street and tell you how to run things, but the guy sitting on the couch can tell you how to play basketball.”
What would pay to be apart of that book club? Who else could be in it?
