Basketball is a game that's constantly evolving. Elston Turner has seen it all and learned to just keep coaching.
Back home in Knoxville, the 67-year-old Turner is a basketball legend and 2025 Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame inductee.
He led Austin-East to the 1977 TSSAA Class 3A state championship before starring at Ole Miss, where he helped the Rebels reach their first NCAA Tournament in 1981. The Dallas Mavericks selected him 43rd overall in the second round of the 1981 NBA Draft.This is Turner's 30th year as an NBA assistant, and this offseason brought him and the Minnesota Timberwolves plenty of change. Longtime lead assistant Micah Nori was hired as coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, while the roster turned over after trades sent Julius
Randle and Naz Reid away in exchange for all-star guard LaMelo Ball.
"You always expect the unexpected in terms of roster movement," Turner told Knox News on July 29. "My job is to coach whoever's in the uniform. We got shorter, so we'll scramble more. If you have a disadvantage on one end, you should have an advantage on the other."
The time away from home doesn't last forever, though. Turner has returned to Knoxville to host his annual youth basketball camp at Austin-East for nearly four decades. This year's camp, with support from the Emerald Youth Foundation, began July 27 and runs through Aug. 1. Turner credits Emerald Youth Foundation for raising the camp's quality over the years, saying there once weren't enough basketballs for every camper, let alone lunches.
"This is my neighborhood," Turner said. "I walked and ran up and down these streets, like some of the kids are doing now."
He grew up in the Austin Homes area before starring at Vine Junior High and Austin-East. As a young player, Turner wanted access to professional mentors but never had it. The camp is his chance to change that.
"I want to be available," Turner said. "Something I didn't have when I was growing up. To see the excitement in their eyes to find out I coach Anthony Edwards, that I played with Michael Jordan, that I was born and raised here, that's a really good reason that I come back."
Turner played eight NBA seasons with Dallas, Denver and Chicago before finishing his career overseas and in the CBA. He won an Italian League title with Scavolini Pesaro in 1990.
He broke into coaching with the Chicago Rockers in the CBA in 1994 before making the jump to the NBA two years later. Since then, he’s been on eight NBA staffs, coached three All-Star Games and came within one win of the NBA Finals twice.
Four decades around the league have given Turner a front-row seat to the NBA’s constant change. He isn't interested in debating whether the balance of power has shifted from West to East because experience has taught him that preseason favorites don’t matter by April.
"The landscape around the NBA is competition," Turner said. "There are some really good teams in the East, really good teams in the West. On paper, people think, 'Oh, they're gonna win it.' But there's only one basketball, and you've got a team full of people that want the basketball. Injuries always come into play. At the beginning you might be predicted to win this or that, and at the end, you just never know."
That perspective also shapes how Turner views Minnesota's place in the league. Rather than worrying about a crowded conference, he believes the Timberwolves' biggest step forward has little to do with talent.
"If you get fouled and the ref doesn't call it, that's next play, nothing else," Turner said. "That's what I've seen the championship teams do. They're focused on winning that game, nothing else. Once we fix that mentally, I think we'll be OK."
He admits even the way players are coached has changed, so he adjusts for his campers as well.
"If I had to do everything over again, I probably would major in psychology," Turner said. "Coaching used to be harsh. You'd get cursed out. Nowadays you have to use more polished communication to get guys to move and react."
After a lifetime in basketball, Turner said the game has taught him one lesson that reaches far beyond the court, and it's one he reinforces to the those attending the camp.
"Whatever you do for a living, you should be able to come back and show somebody else how to do it," Turner said. "I've been blessed to have a good life around basketball. To come back and share my experience, teach and hopefully help some of the kids here, that's why I do it."
Xavier Burton is a sports intern for Knox News. Email: Xavier.burton@knoxnews.com
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Elston Turner on NBA's new landscape, Timberwolves' title hopes, Knoxville camp
