While the Indiana Pacers and St. Vincent Hospital wanted to get their new practice facility and partnership some shine, team president Larry Bird still managed to talk about a couple of his new players.
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To introduce this new $50 million project — which is being privately funded by the Pacers — and St. Vincent partnership, there was a press conference Wednesday morning that consisted of Bird and other high-ranking members of both Pacers Sports and Entertainment and St. Vincent.
Rookie draft picks Myles Turner and Joe Young were brought in to showcase Indiana’s new practice jerseys which now have a St. Vincent logo on the right shoulder area.
More on the new St. Vincent Center, with medical offices and the #Pacers' training facility: http://t.co/duAob8EMXI pic.twitter.com/zHQLpHIsEv
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) August 26, 2015
During the press conference Bird just had to go off topic to talk about the two models of the morning.
"“You forgot to introduce the two young men that’s most important to me here today,” the team president said. We guess he was directing that comment to Bill Benner, Pacers VP of corporate, community and public relations, who had made introductions. “That’s Myles Turner and Joe Young.”"
Before Bird went on to rave about this new facility, which will be called the St. Vincent Center, he talked about his expectations for the two rookies.
"“(I) expect great things out of them this year,” Bird said. “Usually, you bring in rookies and you say nice things about them then they don’t play for a couple years. But I expect both of these guys to play, play well. They are very talented.”"
Bird’s focus was mostly on talking up the St. Vincent Center, but even these short statements about Turner and Young are rather newsworthy. On draft night, not many people expected either player to see much playing time in the near future, but after Summer League and some of the training Turner and Young have done with Paul George, they have done nothing but prove they deserve to compete for a spot in the rotation. And for Turner, a spot in the starting lineup.
Turner was looked as a project coming out of college. Aside from his shot blocking and rebounding ability, he never showed to have much of a consistent skill in his lone collegiate season to throw him in the fire right away. Turner has proven he is a hard-worker in his short time in Indiana, and that work and will to get better has already earned the respect of the Pacers and the entire league.
He’s 19, but Turner acts much older than that and because of his mature approach to basketball and life, he could very well be the starting center on Day 1.
Young also showed out in Summer League with not only his shooting ability, but on the defensive end as well. He is a combo guard, but showed a lack of vision — in the earlier part of Summer League, at least — and seems more suited as a shooting guard, currently.
That was June, though, and he has been working right alongside Turner and fellow rookie Rakeem Christmas and may have improved in that area. Young projects to be more of a depth guard at the moment, but could very well see some time at both guard positions this season.
The St. Vincent Center, the actual focus of the press conference, looks to be a great investment for the future of the Pacers organization. Some may see it as just a bigger, newer practice facility. It is that, with two practice courts surrounded by offices for Pacers staff along with the incoming doctors.
But it’s also much more.
Those doctors will be monitoring players sleep patterns, hydration and much more to make sure they can be the best and healthiest possible to not only be the best product on court, but off court as well. Because after all, the well-being of your Indiana Pacers should be the top priority.
This new facility, expected to be done in early 2017, will also be used as a way of recruitment for future free agents. With the upcoming cap rises of the next few seasons and everyone having cap space, the St. Vincent Center could help sway some top free agents to bring their talents to Indiana, and make being in downtown Indianapolis that much more enjoyable.
The announcement of the St. Vincent Center certainly came as a surprise, but after finding out all that it will be used for, it was a good one.
I’m sure the Indiana tax payers favorite thing about the new facility is that they won’t be paying for it.