"I Can't Stand Philadelphia" -- Evan Turner, About A City That Completely Forgot He Exists
It feels like 10 lifetimes ago that the Philadelphia 76ers selected Evan Turner out of Ohio State with the 2nd overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft.
Just think about how much has happened with the Sixers since that moment. Sam Hinkie, Ben Simmons, Markelle Fultz, Jerry Colangelo, Jerry Colangelo's burners, Zhaire Smith, Embiid MVP, Embiid injuries, Jimmy Butler, Daryl Morey, James Harden, Paul George.
So much has happened with the Sixers over the last 10 years that we forgot that we even forgot about Evan Turner in the first place. But if Evan Turner wants to be the one to jog our memory that he played here in the first place, then we can remind him that he's the reason "The Process" was created in the first place. The Sixers had only won a single playoff series since their run to the Finals in '01. They were trapped in perpetual mediocrity. Good enough to sneak into the playoffs, not good enough to actually win in the playoffs.
Evan Turner represented that era of Sixers basketball to a tee. Evan Turner was basically just a basketball player who existed. Nothing more, nothing less. And the Sixers were just a team that existed. Nothing more, nothing less. Sam Hinkie came in, decided that the only way to go up was to go down first, and Evan Turner gets traded to Indiana.
I don't know if there's anybody in Philadelphia who holds any ill-will towards Evan Turner. Maybe his gripe with Philadelphia is that his game never translated to the NBA level, and he never became the player he was hyped to be out of college? I don't really see how that could be Philadelphia's fault, especially because he went on to play at a few different places and only continued to get worse.
But yeah. Evan Turner can't stand Philadelphia, and Philadelphia now just remembered drafting Evan Turner 2nd overall in 2010.