Did the Indiana Pacers do Myles Turner dirty? According to the Milwaukee Bucks’ new center, the Pacers led him to believe he’d “be taken care of” in free agency, but, when it was time to negotiate a new contract last summer, they didn’t come with the kind of offer that he’d expected. In an appearance on teammate Thanasis Antetokounmpo’s podcast, Turner said he had a “vision for myself with Indiana, the organization,” but found out that the franchise was looking at the situation differently.
Turner ended up signing a four-year, $108.9 million contract with the Bucks, who used the stretch provision on injured star Damian Lillard to clear the cap space to make it happen. On “Thanalysis,” Turner contrasted his experience with several of his former teammates’ — after the Pacers made the Eastern Conference finals in 2024, they re-signed Pascal Siakam (four years, $189 million), Obi Toppin (four years, $58 million) and T.J. McConnell (four years, $44.8 million) and signed Aaron Nesmith to a contract extension (two years, $40.4 million).
“We had a great run, everybody got taken care of, everybody got paid because we won,” Turner said. “Then you go to the next year. We surpass what we did. We go to the Finals. And all everybody told me was, ‘Myles, just keep your head down. You keep your head down and work, and then you’re going to get taken care of.’ And then you hear the rumors of, you know, Indiana, we’re going to go into the luxury tax for the first time ever, yadda, yadda, yadda.”
Indeed, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported in June that, in order to re-sign Turner, the Pacers were willing to go into the luxury tax for the first time in two decades. Turner implied that their calculus changed when their franchise player, Tyrese Haliburton, tore his Achilles in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
“Everybody gassed me up all year long, said, ‘You’re going to get taken care of, you’re going to get taken care of.’ And then the unfortunate situation happens in the Finals with Tyrese and then I guess the front office and ownership just basically changed…
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