PORTLAND, Ore. — When Barbara Turner joined the Rockets’ staff as a development assistant this season, she considered it a dream job. Still does.
She will leave it after one season, but it took a Dream job to make the change and fully commit to a career that a year ago she was still just considering. Turner will become the lead assistant for the Atlanta Dream of the WNBA in a rapid career ascension since moving from player to coach.
“All of it was because of this season,” Turner said. “Everything. Everything.
“I learned that I actually love it as much as I do playing. I build relationships with the players. Josh (Christopher) was giving me a hard time just now, but he’s happy for me. He said I traded on him, that I’m not going to be there to train him. But it’s exciting. Everything about it is exciting.”
Turner, 37, had for several offseasons been hesitant to join the Rockets full time because it meant ending her playing career. She had worked with Rockets lead assistant John Lucas since he was the Cavaliers’ coach from 2001 to 2003 and had been working with him as a development coach for several years, getting to know Rockets general manager Rafael Stone.
Last summer, Stone brought Turner on as an intern, adding her to the developmental staff this season to work under Lucas and Rockets coach Stephen Silas.
Whether she had decided to make the career change to coach permanent or not, she found she had little choice. It became not what she does for a living but what she had become.
“In my last years playing in Turkey, I always found two or three young players that I would work with before and after practice,” Turner said. “I developed a love that way. … You get to see what they’re feeling, what they feel on a personal level. That made me develop a love for it because it’s something I always wanted as a player.”
In a Rockets season full of losses with a priority on development, that attitude has been especially valued.
“She’s got spirit, she’s got expertise, she has a knowledge of the game from the point of view of an elite basketball player … and she’s been able to connect with every single person in the building, whether it’s coaches, players, trainers, whoever ,” Silas said. “It started off, ‘Oh wow, she played in Turkey, and she could help us with Al-P (Alperen Sengun, the Rockets’ Turkish rookie center.)’ It turned into she can help everybody on the floor and the coaching staff .
“She is always smiling. Always looking at the positive. But she has a little edge to her.”
That “edge” is the competitiveness of a former McDonald’s All-American out of Cleveland’s East Technical High School, where she was Ohio’s Ms. Basketball, and as one of the stars of the University of Connecticut’s run to back-to-back national titles in 2003 and 2004.
Turner played three WNBA seasons from 2006 to 2008, including a season with the Houston Comets in 2007, before a successful career in Turkey. Though she had worked with Lucas for several years in the offseason, Turner was unsure about ending her playing career. He might have known before she did where basketball could take her next.
“One of the main things that I could talk about is the opportunity I was given by the Rockets, by the Fertittas (franchise owner Tilman and his son Patrick), by John Lucas walking me into the gym in the summer, seeing this is what I could be. Coach Silas and Rafael Stone, too,” Turner said.
For the Rockets, her role was especially important in a season that began with five teenage rookies, two second-year players, and a point guard in his first full season at the position. Though Lucas is Silas’ lead assistant, he still heads the development coaches — Robbie Keck, the director of player development, and Turner.
“Our developmental team, headed by John Lucas, has done a fantastic job,” Stone said. “Our whole coaching staff has done a really, really good job with bringing the young guys forward and making sure they were improving throughout the season. I think we’ve seen consistent improvements in all of our young guys, not just the rookies, but we have a lot of young players that have gotten better. Barbara’s definitely has a big part of it.
“(The Dream) are beginning on a rebuild the same way we are. One thing that’s nice is I think they saw the progress our players made, and they want to try to emulate that. I think that’s a big reason they were attracted to Barbara.”
Stone also emphasized that Turner has been part of an unusually diverse group in leadership that also includes the president of business operations, Gretchen Sheirr, along with a Black coach, Silas, and Black general manager, Stone.
“I think it does speak to who we are as an organization in what we are looking for consistently is to try to find people who are the most qualified person, and we don’t give a damn what that person looks like,” Stone said . “I think the fact that we do have people from disparate backgrounds enjoying success in our organization is a testament fundamentally to Tillman and his priorities because he hired me, he hired Gretchen, and he sets the bar for our organization.”
Stone and Sheirr were both promoted from within the organization. And Turner is about to move to a coaching position after finishing the season with the Rockets.
“It is gratifying,” Stone said. “I’m really happy for her. Hopefully not just the Rockets but other NBA teams are able to start affording really successful, really good, really knowledgeable professional basketball players like Barbara the opportunity to jump-start (careers.) I do think Barbara is exceptionally talented and I think she’s going to go far fast.”
Before she goes anywhere, Turner will go through a few more shooting contests and keep building relationships with the Rockets.
“Me and Barbara sticking it through my rookie year,” Christopher said. “She’s been a big factor in my progression. We put trust in each other, and it worked out. She’s definitely been a great helping hand leader for me this year.”
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