Goodbye Myles Turner, Goodbye '24-'25

Please forgive the pretentiousness of starting this post with a quote from French philosopher Blaise Pascal but the '24-'25 season is officially over and I'm prone to introspection when good things come to an end.

To be sure – no matter how anybody is feeling at this very moment – the Indiana Pacers' '24-'25 season was a very good thing. A special thing, in fact. It seemed to be powered by the forces of good. The team played basketball the right way and the basketball gods rewarded them (well, at least until Tyrese's achilles popped).

They played a brand of basketball that the rest of the league will surely try to emulate but few will be able to copy successfully. That's because playing hard and unselfishly are not things you can simply coach. The players have to truly want to put the team first. They have to care about each other – and know that they are cared about.

The record-setting run of improbable comebacks can be chalked up to luck, sure, but I think that misses the point. The '24-'25 Pacers consistently put themselves in the position to be lucky because, when the chips were down, they showed up for each other. They never pointed fingers or threw fits about play calls. They simply banded together and fought back.

They were a team... The best one the league, in my very biased opinion.

But the '24-'25 season is officially over as of yesterday at 6PM. You could argue that the Pacers season ended when Tyrese Haliburton's achilles tendon gave out. I'd argue that it ended when Myles Turner signed with the Milwaukee Bucks today.

If you were wondering, the quote at the top says, "the heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing."

This sums up my feelings about the Pacers allowing Turner to walk. Of course, it's easy to follow the front office's logic:

1. Next year is lost without Tyrese.
2. The modern Luxury Tax rules are punitive and staying out of it for as long as possible is shrewd.
3. Finally, if we're being honest, Myles Turner has peaked as a player. That's not to say he's not still a very good starting center. Just that he's lost a step and time isn't on his side.

However, despite all of the logic, my heart has reasons of its own and losing Turner feels like a major loss. If I were to try to rationalize why losing Turner feels like such a gut-punch, it's that this marks the end of an era. My heart mourns the power-of-friendship Pacers, which I'm afraid are gone for good.

Nobody represented the camaraderie of this squad better than Myles. We all know the sacrifices he made over the course of his 10 seasons in Indy. Despite all of the scrutiny, all of the trade rumors, he brought nothing but positivity and leadership to the franchise. Just listen to his voice after we clinched the Eastern Conference Championship. It's hard to believe only a few weeks have passed between then and now.

But, alas, all good things come to an end. Spring turns to summer and summer turns to fall. As sad as it is that the leaves are changing and a new season is upon us (literally and figuratively), I'll always cherish the moment in the sun that was the '24-'25 campaign. More than that, I'll cherish the decade I got to root for Myles Turner.

Au revoir, Myles. Au revoir, '24-'25.