The Year of Luigi, 2014, has been an interesting year for former Ohio State Basketbuck standout Evan Turner. First, Turner was traded from the Philadelphia 76ers to the Indiana Pacers in a last-place-to-first-place move. Unfortunately, Turner promptly got into a fistfight with teammate Lance Stephenson before a playoff game. (The Pacers, the No. 1 seed, did not win the championship.)
In June, Evan Turner again made news for the wrong reasons by letting his Ferarri run out of gas at Columbus' 315/670 split. Ultimately, however, he was okay because in September the Celtics gave Turner plenty of more gas money (~$6,000,000).
Since signing with Boston, however, Evan Turner has made news by getting ejected for hitting a referee with a bounce pass during a preseason game and bashing referees and Kyle Korver's defense in a regular season loss to the Atlanta Hawks (in which he was owned by Kyle Korver's defense).
And yet, Evan Turner may have saved his best performance for late December. Turner, the former No. 2 overall pick by the Philadelphia 76ers, made his professional return to the City of Brotherly Love last night. Naturally, he was booed by people for failing to live up to their expectations.
The 76ers, who are historically bad, weren't feeling as froggy as their fans. The Sixers fell to Turner's Boston Celtics, 105-87. Turner dropped a respectable 12-point, five-rebound, six-assist performance, and after the game he was asked about the Philadelphia welcome.
From A. Sherrod Blakely of CSN New England (via Mike Prada of SB Nation):
"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."
Don't worry, Evan. That'd only be super weird if it wasn't coming from a guy nicknamed "The Villain."
