Even during the hardest parts of his first five seasons in the league, which is to say before he became a Celtic, Evan Turner always saw the best in himself.
“Honestly, man, I look in the mirror and I think I’m going to have a night, regardless. I walk in and think I’m the coolest guy alive,” the Celtics forward said recently. “I don’t know what the respect is, but I just care about the people on the team and the people in the organization. It doesn’t phase me.”
Turner is referring to the Celtics. Unlike Indiana and Philadelphia, the Celtics are the team that decided the uniquely-talented swingman needed the ball in his hands to be effective, and allowed him to function all season as a kind of surrogate point guard.