Kevin Pritchard ‘shocked’ by Myles Turner’s decision to leave Pacers

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Milwaukee Bucks officially announced on Monday that former Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner signed with the team.

Turner had played all 10 years of his career in Indiana with the Pacers.

He signed with the Bucks on a four-year deal worth $107 million, per reports.

Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard shared his initial reaction when he saw ESPN’s Shams Charania’s post announcing Turner had left the Pacers in free agency.

“I was shocked,” Pritchard said.

Pritchard said the Pacers really wanted to keep Turner, but it didn’t work out.

“Herb Simon and Steven Rales and the Simon family were fully prepared to go deep into the tax to keep him, and we really wanted to do that,” Pritchard said. “We were negotiating in good faith.”

“I think the most important thing is, we were deep in conversations with Myles, and then we saw that he had accepted an offer with Milwaukee.”

“There are two kinds of things that I believe is kind of fundamental to the league right now and that is, change is inevitable and expect the unexpected. And I can’t tell you that we were fully expected for that.”

Turner was an unrestricted free agent this offseason.

“Because a guy is unrestricted, he has the right to say, that’s the offer I want,” Pritchard said. “I’m going to take it and that’s best for my family. Again, we were in good faith negotiations.”

Turner was the longest tenured Pacer on last year’s team, which made it to the NBA Finals. It was the first time the Pacers had played in the NBA Finals since 2000.

“He gave 10 great years here,” Pritchard said. “I loved having him be here. I hope I’m friends with him for a long time.”

“There is no better person than Myles. We really wanted to keep him, but it didn’t work out… He’s meant everything to this organization.”

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