“The young and foolish laugh at love, so they run away; confident and sure that fate will bring another love their way.” — Four Tops, Just Ask the Lonely
OKLAHOMA CITY — One of the lessons Indiana Pacers big man Myles Turner has learned is that nothing is guaranteed.
The lesson Oklahoma City Thunder guard Ajay Mitchell is trying to learn is that you have to savor the moment because the moment may not come again.
As the NBA Finals shifts to Indianapolis for Games 3 and 4, Turner and Mitchell find themselves on opposite ends of the NBA spectrum. Turner, the Pacers’ 29-year-old center, is a 10-year NBA veteran. Mitchell, 22, is an NBA rookie. The Pacers won Game 1 111-110 and the Thunder evened the series at a game apiece with a 123-107 win in Game 2.
Despite the difference in age and experience, veteran and rookie are sharing a first: Turner has spent a decade in the NBA and has finally reached the NBA Finals. Mitchell has reached the Finals in his first NBA season.
The lesson is not to take anything for granted.
“I literally was just talking to one of our rookies, Johnny Furphy, about it,” Turner said, referring to the Pacers’ 6-foot-9 forward. “I said, ‘You’re spoiled, man. The fact that you get this as a baby is huge, but you know, whether you get here again or not you have to be where your feet are — really enjoy what this moment and opportunity present. Even if you’re not playing, just look at the cadences, look at the crowd, look at everything that comes with this. This is the final stage, we’re the only team playing.’ ”
Mitchell said he’s trying to savor the Finals experience.
“Just understanding that this doesn’t happen every year, so just enjoy the moment,” he said. “You never know when you’ll be back here.”
Turner admitted he was spoiled. In his rookie season of 2015-16, the Pacers reached the playoffs and lost to the Toronto Raptors in a hard-fought, first-round series that went seven games. The Pacers reached the playoffs each of his first five seasons.
“I got spoiled a little bit myself,” he said. “My first year I went to a Game 7 in the first round and got to see a competitive environment. And you do start thinking that it’s going to come year by year by year. And then you miss the playoffs three or four years, and it’s like, ‘Oh, wow.’ ”
The Pacers missed the playoffs three consecutive seasons (2020-21, 2021-22; 2022-23) before getting back. Missing the playoffs reminded Turner to savor every moment of the experience — the good and the bad.
“Just the moment itself,” he said. “Every single day, how painful it is after a game, how much you don’t sleep, how much better the food tastes. All the little things, I’m taking it all in.”
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While the Pacers are heavily dependent on Turner, who has averaged 15.6 points in the playoffs, Mitchell largely has taken in the drama from the bench. During the regular season, Mitchell played in 36 games and averaged 6.5 points.
On Thursday in Game 1, however, he played four minutes. Before that he played mostly in blowouts. In a 143-101 loss to Minnesota in the Western Conference finals, Mitchell played a whopping 19 minutes. Mitchell entered Sunday’s game with 2:25 left to play, OKC leading 117-100.
Mostly, he has watched, learned and celebrated beating the odds of simply getting to the NBA. Out of 10,000 high school players, only 2% will receive some form of athletics scholarships to Division I or II schools. The NCAA estimates that about 1.2% of college basketball players will reach the NBA.
Mitchell was born in Liege, Belgum, where his father, Barry Mitchell, played professionally after playing collegiately at Norfolk State. Ajay Mitchell moved briefly to France then returned to Belgium, where he played high-level youth ball. He accepted a scholarship to UC Santa Barbara, where he played for three seasons, then was drafted in the second round by the Thunder in 2024.
Mitchell’s father was his first source of inspiration.
“Just watching him when I was growing up, watching him play and then looking up to him, it was like a model, basketball-wise,” he said. “I wanted to play basketball because of him.”
During the media session on June 7, I asked Mitchell how he became that needle in a haystack and how he would advise young players to become that one in a million?
His answer was faith.
“I would say the biggest advice for me, put God first,” he said. “And never forget that no matter what’s going on.”
Mitchell said faith helped him regain his equilibrium after he reached the NBA, and he assumed that goal would make him happy.
“When I got here, I thought I was going to be all fine and that, ‘I’m in the NBA, there’s going to be no problems,’ ” he said. “I realized, like, ‘Hey, this is not the only thing that’s making me happy,’ and understood that there was more to life than that. Once I understood that, it took a lot of pressure off my shoulders. I could actually enjoy being in the NBA instead of seeing it as business. I could enjoy being at the highest level and knowing that I’m doing it for a purpose.”
One of Mitchell’s mentors helped him focus on what Mitchell felt was really important.
“The first thing that we talked about was my relationship with God,” he said. “So I think always putting God first, having that relationship, and then I think sharing it really helped me to stay focused on basketball, but not put too much pressure on myself and actually enjoy the game more.”
Typically, when athletes mention their faith I’ll let it go, take them at their word and move on. I was curious in Mitchell’s case to learn about the source of his faith and how it helped him prepare for the challenges of NBA life. He suffered the first serious injury of his career in January. He underwent surgery in January to repair a turf toe injury and would not play again until April.
Faith helped him pull through.
“I was always a Christian,” he said. “But I think it kind of flipped the switch when I got to college. When you get to college, you’re focused on basketball, school, and then you have parties and college life. At some point I was trying to find myself in all of that, and I of reverted to God.”
One of his mentors invited Mitchell and a teammate to attend church in Santa Barbara.
“When we went there, it really changed a lot for me,” Mitchell said. “That’s when I was like, ‘This is the most important thing in my life.’ It kind of flipped the switch for me.”
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This time last year, Turner’s Pacers had just been eliminated from the Eastern Conference finals and Mitchell was preparing for the NBA draft. Now their paths have converged: The rookie and the veteran are experiencing their first NBA Finals, though I suspect that Turner’s appreciation for the moment may be deeper because it’s taken him so long to get here.
Turner has survived 10 NBA seasons but has never been an All-Star, has never made All-NBA and has never won a ring.
The hardest lesson to learn when you’re young and climbing the ladder is to savor the experience. Turner has learned through heartbreak and disappointment to take nothing for granted, because nothing is guaranteed.
“I’m not taking it for granted,” he said. “Just finally being here and finally being able to soak my feet in the moment.”
