In the immediate aftermath of Myles Turner’s departure from the Indiana Pacers, it was believed that the team’s front office was to blame for the veteran’s exit. The initial thought was that management didn’t do enough to keep the longtime center on their roster, and ultimately let him walk to join the rival Milwaukee Bucks.
In recent days, however, Pacers president Kevin Pritchard has alleged he found out about Turner’s deal with the Bucks the same way as everyone else: in a social media post from ESPN insider Shams Charania. Pritchard also claimed that the front office would have been willing to go “deep into the tax” to keep the center, an assertion somewhat at odds with that initial read on the situation.
All that to say—there is clearly a bit of beef and/or tension over the situation, which has amounted to one of the buzziest moves of NBA free agency so far. And now, Pacers guard Bennedict Mathurin may have stirred the pot even further.
On Tuesday afternoon, Mathurin shared what looked to be an innocent photo—a picture of him posterizing another player, seemingly during practice—to his Instagram story. No harm, no foul.
But a closer look reveals that that player is Turner … meaning Mathurin might be trolling his ex-teammate.
The photo itself appears to be a screenshot from a clip Indiana beat reporter Alex Golden re-posted on Tuesday afternoon, months after Pacers forward Pascal Siakam initially shared it online. In the full video, you can clearly see that it’s Turner getting dunked on.
So, although it’s possible that the post is all in good fun, it’s also possible that Mathurin is calling out his former teammate for how he left. And if that’s the case, well … we’ll see how these two settle this on the court next season.
