The picture on the back of the book shows a wooden backboard and a hoop without a net, mounted on a gnarled tree.
It’s one of the hoops that Snoqualmie resident Rick Turner found in Jamaica, during his globetrotting travels as a volunteer and professional basketball coach.
The threadbare court shows the challenges and the promise that Turner encounters every summer in his youth basketball program, which teaches the sport to hundreds of children in Kingston and rural Jamaica.
“The people there are super-passionate,” he said. Young players often lack the fundamentals of the sport, but are so athletic “that the sky’s the limit as far as what they can do.”
When Turner started going there as a volunteer coach 15 years ago, the effort wore him out. He kept telling himself each year would be his last. But the experience kept growing on him. Now, he goes back every July.
“Now, it’s the thing I look forward to most every year. I can’t imagine not going,” he said.
The book in question is Turner’s own, “If my name was Phil Jackson… would you read this?” Published in May, and chronicling the “anonymous adventures of an anonymous coach, Turner’s book follows his professional coaching career, tracing his experiences coaching college, pro and semipro teams across the Northwest, in China, and in Jamaica.
Coaching start
Turner joined the coaching world against his better judgement. In 1997, at age 30, he departed a job as the Seattle Supersonics’ Director of Broadcasting for new pastures.
His first gig was as a volunteer assistant with the Bellevue College, then Bellevue Community College, men’s basketball team. He ended up becoming athletic director, then head coach. From there, he struck out for the pros.
“When I got into this, I took a leap of faith,” Turner said. “I was flying without a net. I wasn’t sure what I was doing was right.”
Volunteering for University of Washington men’s coach Lorenzo Romar, he observed the Huskies’ approach, up close.
“For me, it was like a graduate program in coaching,” Turner said. The experience also confirmed to him that he could do it.
“I knew there was no level I couldn’t coach at,” he said.
Over the last 15 years, he helmed teams in the minor-league American Basketball Association, the Continental Basketball Association, then in China.
The book came about after he started sending friends e-mails about the funny and amazing experiences he had as a Chinese basketball coach.
“I had so many people saying, ‘This is good stuff,'” Turner said. “I figured there might be something there. I dove into the book, and started pouring out.”
A portion of the book, and part of the proceeds of its sales, goes into the Jumpball Basketball camp for youth in Jamaica, where Turner has spend more than a decade as a volunteer coach. In that time, Turner watched Jumpball go from 65 to 600 youth, many coming from poor backgrounds.
Chinese superstar
China’s hoops scene, too, is very different from the one here.
“In China, they are just fanatical about basketball,” Turner said. “We were like the Beatles over there.”
Turner says he’s no superstar, but he watched in awe when his team was given an honor guard of military police to leave their stadium one night.
“I walked into the arena one night and looked around,” he said. “People were holding posters of me! It was Rick Turner Night.”
Chinese talent is high, and the people are proud of homegrown international stars like Yao Ming. They look at their own Chinese Basketball Association as the equivalent of the N.B.A.
“It’s no small deal,” Turner said.
Origins and philosophy
Turner’s love basketball dates back to his early teens, when “I was a total basketball gym rat.” Until ninth grade, Turner was cut from every team, but when he started in high school in Kirkland, there was a no-cut rule put in place in the Lake Washington district. Turner was embarrassed to be the oldest boy on the JV squad, but the rule kept him in the game. He got bigger, and better as an athlete, but when he got to college, injuries sidelined him.
“I never really scratched that basketball itch,” he said.
Leaving the Sonics, Turner turned to coaching.
“There comes a time when everyone says to you, You need to be doing something you love. Find your passion and pursue it.”
For him, that passion was in coaching. He supported himself with other jobs while volunteering on the court.
On the court, Turner has a rule of thumb: Let the players play.
“I’m not one that looks for control,” he said. “I don’t really care how you get there. You’ve just got to get there.”
In his philosophy, coaches don’t win games—they help players do that.
“You want to put players in the best positions possible and give them opportunities to succeed. Ultimately, it’s up to them. If you try to micromanage them, to make make guys (into) players they’re not, you’re going to have problems.”
Turner has now hung up his pro coaching whistle. This week, he starts coaching a different level of team—his daughter’s seventh grade select team.
“It’s all her friends, I’ve watched them play the last few years,” Turner said. “I’m excited.”
One of the lessons that coaching has taught him is the surprising impact a coach has on his players. It’s bigger than he suspected.
“The things you say have long-term effects,” he said. “You better make them important, or at least put some thought into it.”
Most players in the minor leagues wind up doing it for the love. And almost every one of his former players keeps in touch. He learns about their lives, their families.
“These guys become part of your family,” Turner said.
The connections that he’s built also helped Turner finally scratch that itch. All those years ago, he wasn’t sure he would be a good coach. Today, he’s certain about the difference he made.
• Rick Turner will sign copies of “If my name was Phil Jackson… would you read this?”, on three dates:
• Noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 1, at the Issaquah Costco
• Noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8, at the Woodinville Costco
• Noon to 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16, at the Kirkland Costco
You can visit his Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001974142031
