Carefree Turiaf gets a move on to the NBA

YAKIMA — The game — and his brief Continental Basketball Association career — has just ended, and a half-dressed Ronny Turiaf is storming through the Yakama Sun Kings' locker room, looking for a missing shirt and cursing his misfortune.

"Damn, damn, damn," the Martinique native says in a distinctive French-English patois. "I cannot believe I did that. How could I do that?"

The question is directed at no one in particular, but the few of us standing nearby shoot him back a puzzled look. Do what?

"How could I miss those free throws?" asked Turiaf, who capped his nine-game stint with the Sun Kings by nearly posting a triple-double. "That's going to haunt me all night."

Turiaf, not yet a year removed from Gonzaga University, where he became a beloved figure and basketball star, is very much a carefree spirit.

Still quick with a smile and even quicker with a wisecrack, he abandons the search for the shirt and throws a heavy jacket over his bare torso before stepping out into the near-freezing weather.

And that's when you notice it, the 6-inch pinkish scar that begins just below his collarbone, snakes downward over his chest and stops above his abdomen.

Turiaf often catches those around him staring and breaks the tension with self-deprecating humor.

"You looking at this?" he asked. "This little thing. Oh, this is nothing. Just a little something I picked up last year."

On July 26, 2005, a team of surgeons led by cardiovascular specialist Dr. Craig Miller at Stanford University Medical Center opened Turiaf's chest to repair an enlarged aortic root. During the six-hour procedure, Miller inserted a synthetic conduit into the base of the aorta.

If the aortic valve had been faulty and required replacement, then Turiaf's NBA career would have ended before it began.

If complications had arisen, then Turiaf's life may have been cut short in its prime.

"The only time I really, really doubted him [Miller] was when I first got on the bed and I was going to go in the operation room," Turiaf said. "I had a panic attack. I just started panicking. I was like, I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I don't want to go.

"I kept saying, 'I'm not going to survive. I'm going to die. What is that room over there? Why is it so dark?' The guy was like, 'You know what, I have a little special thing for you,' and he gave me that anesthesia and I just passed out."

Turiaf's life might one day become a Disney movie, so perhaps it's fitting that his delayed NBA career will begin in Los Angeles. The Lakers selected him in the second round (37th overall) of last summer's draft, but voided his contract when they detected a heart condition during a team physical.

Los Angeles retained his rights, continued its relationship with Turiaf and paid for his medical expenses.

"From a selfish point of view, we want to see him on the basketball court because we think he can help us," general manager Mitch Kupchak said. "But if he does do that, and based on where he's come since July, it's really an incredible human-nature story. This is not arthroscopic surgery on the knee, it's open-heart surgery."

Kupchak made a trip to Central Washington on Tuesday and sat perched above the court at the Yakima Valley SunDome. He received glowing reports from scouts, but wanted to take a personal account before extending a league-minimum $339,000 contract, prorated to games played for the season.

Turiaf's agent Bouna Ndiaye said the sides settled on their original three-year deal worth about $1.2 million. Turiaf is expected to join the Lakers this week.

"No offense to Yakima, but I wanted that to be my last game," said Turiaf, who'd initially taken to the family atmosphere of the CBA where fans bake cookies for players, but grew weary of the six-hour bus rides to Boise and longed for the NBA's bigger stage.

Still, the Sun Kings (16-8) are one of the top teams in the CBA and lead the league in attendance, averaging 3,409 fans.

"Ronny has lifted attendance," said coach Paul Woolpert, who used a fifth-round draft pick on Turiaf. "This is uncharted waters having a young man in here who just had open-heart surgery, so I told him we had to keep our lines of communication open. ... I'd be lying if I said I didn't have some concern."

Turiaf wears a white plastic chest protector surrounded by low-density foam over his sternum, but twice he gave Woolpert a serious scare. The first came when Turiaf was elbowed in the chest, the other when he took the brunt of 275-pound Sioux Falls center Brandon Hunter while drawing a charge.

"Both times he got up and kept playing," Woolpert said.

Tuesday's game was a rematch against Hunter, considered one of the CBA's best post players.

Sioux Falls coach Dave Joerger sensed it might Turiaf's last CBA game, as he pleaded to officials before the game: "Let's not put this kid on a pedestal."

The 6-foot-9 Turiaf, who is about 10-to-15 pounds overweight at 240, was the last player to reach the court. He didn't look as if he belonged out there because he was so much bigger than the rest. The 23-year-old, who celebrated a birthday Friday, also looks older than he is because of his nappy cornrows and shaggy beard.

Woolpert has refused to start Turiaf, so Turiaf entered with 1:53 remaining in the first quarter. In 29 minutes of play, he finished with 21 points, nine rebounds and eight assists while leading the Sun Kings to a 122-108 victory.

Turiaf did his best work on the right block against the 6-7 Hunter, 6-10 Mark Sanford, the former Washington Husky, and 6-10 Joe Dabbert. The trio was helpless against an array of hook shots, spin moves for layups and short jumpers.

However, Turiaf played his best from the high post, where he directed the offense. He appeared to find greater joy in making an assist than making a basket.

"I put a lot of weight into being a good teammate as opposed to talent," Woolpert said. "From the minute he got here, he didn't big-time anybody. He got online. Checked out our team, knew our roster, knew our record and did a little research. I think guys respected that."

The day after the game, Turiaf overslept and was an hour late for a breakfast meeting.

Still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he apologized profusely and said he would have to postpone an interview because Kupchak asked if he'd like to drive with him to Portland to watch the Lakers.

"How could I say no?" he said before hopping into a black Lincoln Town Car. "This is how my life has been lately. I never know what's going to happen from day to day. ... One thing I've learned is to not question things. Just live and see what happens.

"Now I'm just having some fun. Going to bed late. Playing video games and enjoying myself because you never know what's going to happen. You can be here today and gone tomorrow."

Percy Allen: 206-464-2278 or pallen@seattletimes.com. More columns at seattletimes.com/columnists