How Indiana Pacers’ Myles Turner Spent His First $1,000,000

[bright music]

What's up y'all? It's Miles Turner,

power forward and center for the Indiana Pacers.

I'm with GQ today, Baby.

I'm gonna break down how I spent my first million.

[bright music continues]

So one of the first things I did,

was I got spent 10 K on sneakers, Jordans, specifically.

[bell chimes]

Now, when I was in school,

the only pair of shoes I had was Converse Chuck Taylors.

It was a black pair, and I wore 'em to school every day.

Wore 'em to a pulp.

They had holes in 'em and everything,

but I couldn't really obviously afford like big name brands

like the Nikes and the Jordans and whatnot.

Once I finally got to the league,

it was like my revenge tour to get

every Jordan and every colorway.

One of the first stores I went to was Undefeated.

It was actually out in LA.

I wear a size 18, so it's not,

you can't just go to Foot Locker or you know,

grab 'em off the, off the drawer.

So I got out to about like 70 pairs of Jordans,

and I still got 'em all to this day

in a big closet back home.

But, yeah Bro, you know, 10K go a long way.

[bright music]

If you don't know me, now you know.

Bro, I'm big into the Lego universe.

One of the very first things I did too was I copped

a bunch of Lego, Bro.

Like I'm talking like 10 to 15, 20 different sets.

And if you know about that,

you know how expensive,

and how lucrative that can be. [bell chimes]

Another thing I did too,

was I got a whole bunch of Nerf guns.

I got drafted at 19, Bro.

I was just a, you know, just a big old kid.

I had these Nerf guns with all the mods, Bro.

I was like, he had a silencer on it.

Red dot sites, banana clips.

I actually stayed with a couple of my boys,

and that's one of the main things we would do

is just set up the house, like,

whole ass like forts and everything, Bro.

Have like big old like Nerf wars and whatnot.

I'm talking like Call of Duty, like diving,

like jumping around, like it was,

yeah, I used to get to it.

One big thing in the Lego Universe is called

the Cloud City Set,

and it's a mini figure in there.

It's a Cloud City Boba Fett from Star Wars.

Like, he'd go for about $2,500 now.

I did the big Millennium Falcon.

It just came out the UCS set,

the Northern Cathedral and the Rome Coliseum.

You know, hundreds of thousands of pieces in the Lego.

I mean I got a whole,

whole collection back of the crib, Bro, you know.

If you know me, you know it's out there.

[bright music]

The Ford Raptor.

I'm gonna tell you right now,

I was never really into cars and all type of stuff,

but being from Texas,

I had to get me a truck,

[bell chimes] and specifically a

2014 Ford Raptor.

But was just something about it.

It was like a sports car in like a pickup truck.

Where I'm from, Bro, like,

it's not really a flex to have like the Lamborghinis.

You have the big old pickup trucks,

and you put 'em on Duallys and whatnot,

like that's the real flex right there.

My senior in high school, I was like,

Bro, if I ever come into some bread,

like that's gonna be the truck I get specifically.

I blacked it out, murdered it out or whatnot.

I put subs underneath the seats.

I had pipes on there so it sounded more aggressive.

Yeah, that was my baby for the longest, you know.

Unfortunately I don't, I don't got her no more.

She's on to, you know, to better things.

But I loved that Raptor.

[bright music]

A lot of people helped me get to where I'm at.

It take a village.

You know, I spent 50K

[bell chimes] on my, my trainers,

who helped me all the way from middle school to high school,

and I also sponsored my middle school team.

Bought them all jerseys and shoes.

You gotta give back, man.

I feel like that's one of the biggest things.

You're paving the way for the next generation

of athletes that are coming through.

I had to take care of the ones that took care of me.

I go back and watch some games here and there,

and just try to support as much as I can.

Shout out to you Trinity High School, man,

Central Junior high.

[bright music]

So speaking of giving back,

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again, one of the most important things to me,

is giving back to the people

[bell chimes] that helped me get here.

I had my basketball camp back home

in Herschel is Bedford.

I went back to my high school,

and was able to put on a free camp,

you know, for all the kids,

you know, they didn't pay anything.

Through my foundation, Work As Role Models,

so, also known as W.A.R.M.

That I was able to make that happen.

You know, W.A.R.M., it serves the community.

It's one of the things where we work with

the less fortunate and the homeless.

And what we do is we put together these go bags.

So when it's cold like it is now, you know,

20 degrees outside, see, you know,

it's homeless folks or just less fortunate people.

You have these packs in the back of your car.

I mean it could be toothbrush, toothpaste,

maybe some snacks, I mean hand warmers,

anything you can put it in the pack,

and you have it in the back of your car,

and just, you know, give it out as you go.

Through that foundation, I was able to fund my camp.

It's huge, man,

'cause I know a lot of people look up to me,

you know, where I'm from, from a smaller town.

So just giving back to the people that,

you know, poured into me.

[bright music]

It's one thing to make a million dollars,

another thing to save a million.

So, one of the first people to gimme advice,

you know, coming into the league,

his name is Chris Bosch, you know, Hall of Famer.

He told me, you know, When you come into your funds,

like it's gonna be easy for you to go,

you know, go blow it on cars, and jewelry,

and houses and stuff like that.

But he just advised that, you know,

You get with a good financial advisor,

get with a good lawyer,

and just to make sure your money's working for you.

But one of the first things I did

was actually invest in some land back in like rural Texas.

Also invested in the stock market,

obviously invested in my retirement.

And I invested into some buildings as well,

some real estate.

The advice I give to anybody coming up is to

try to save that first check as much as possible.

My 19-year-old mind wasn't really working like that.

You know, again, I got some really good advice,

and you know, I was able to, you know,

make some good investments for myself to this day.

[bright music]

So again, talk about funding the journey.

You know, you feel like you can never repay,

you know, the peoples that's close to you,

for you know, for everything they've done for you.

So what I did was I took this 150 K right here,

[bell chimes] I was able to get

my grandparents and my parents,

and my immediate family outta debt.

I didn't grow up rich,

I didn't grow up poor, you know,

I was like real low,

lower middle class if you will.

But one thing my parents did an amazing job was,

is making us feel like we were rich.

You know, rich in love, just rich in,

you know, the spirit that we had around the house.

Bank accounts didn't necessarily reflect that,

but the feeling just as a kid, you know,

like we never really felt like we had to,

you know, struggle for too much.

You know, what's even crazy, my mom,

she emptied her retirement fund.

You know, to fund me going on my

AAU events in the summertime,

and you know, would cover flights, cover travel,

and just fund the journey for the dream.

So I told myself, you know,

If I ever wanna make it, you know this,

that's gonna be the first thing I do.

'Cause you know, just clear the debts,

and just have a new lease on life and start fresh.

So this is the least I can do.

[bright music]

Hold on, hold on, hold up.

[bright music]

There we go.

[bell chimes] I spent 150K

on a team around me.

What I mean by that is I hired a personal chef,

I hired a personal assistant,

and I also hired a business manager.

I grew up and I watched the show, Entourage.

Entourage was like a big like influence on

my career and just kind of where I'm at.

And I saw the way the main character,

the protagonist there kind of constructed

his team around him.

As an athlete,

like you can't just go eat fast food before a game.

You know what I'm saying?

Or just go eat a pizza for a game.

Like that'll probably work your first year

when you're 19, 20 years old, but then, you know.

So I hired a chef,

and who's also a nutritionist,

to make sure I only have to worry about basketball.

And her name is Fatima Duma, Chef D.

One of the best at what she do.

I also hired a business manager just to, you know,

if I want to go out and see this deal,

or I see Lego or something like that,

it's just getting in touch with the right people

and putting 'em in the right place.

These are guys that spending a lot of time

away from they families and make sure that I'm straight,

and I still have them employed to this day.

So shout to my team, man.

Taylor Wilson. Got you, guy.

[bouncy congo beat]

I like to think of myself as an artist.

You know, I've always kind of had like

an artistic eye if you will.

And one of the things I did

when I first got to the crib in Indy,

I spent about 50K myself just to

go design the place.

You know, I decided not to hire an interior designer.

[bell chimes]

So I had to be my own interior designer,

use my own artistic eye.

I went to all little stores, you know.

I went to the Ikea's, the At Homes, the Home Goods.

I'm huge on plants.

I feel like plants are great

for the energy and the air around you,

and you know, I'm a plant dad at that.

So, like I'm one of the dudes that be

talking to my plants and all that.

All the artwork,

and just all this stuff I had around the crib.

I decided just to do everything myself,

put my own touch on things.

It was fun for me, you know,

something I spent a lot of time on,

and something I took a lot of pride in.

And I just enjoyed that process if you will.

[mellow music]

That's a wrap.

GQ, appreciate y'all for having me, man.

And remember, man, always count your chicken, man.

[bangs on money stack] Always count your chicken.