When Myles Turner was drafted into the NBA by the Indiana Pacers at 19, he quickly banked his first milly — but how did he spend it? From splurging $40,000 on Nerf Guns to dropping $150,000 on his own personal team (shoutout Entourage), Myles Turner splashed the cash that he earned in the NBA.
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00:00What's up, y'all? It's Miles Turner, Powerful Winner Center for the Indiana Pacers.
00:06I'm with GQ today. I'm about to break down how I spent my first million.
00:08So one of the first things I did was I spent 10K on sneakers, Jordan specifically.
00:20Now, when I was in school, the only pair of shoes I had was Converse Chuck Taylor.
00:23It was a black pair that I wore to school every day.
00:25I wore them to a pole. They had holes in them and everything,
00:28but I couldn't really, obviously, afford big-name brands like the Nikes or the Jordans or whatnot.
00:32Once I finally got to the league, it was my revenge tour to get every Jordan and every colorway.
00:36One of the first stores I went to was Undefeated. It was actually out in L.A.
00:39I wore a size 18, so I was not keen to go to Foot Locker and grab them off the drone.
00:44So I got up to about 70 pairs of Jordans,
00:47and I still got them all to this day in a big closet back home.
00:50But yeah, bro, 10K go a long way.
00:53If you don't know me, now you know, bro. I'm big into the LEGO universe.
00:57One of the very first things I did, too, was I copped a bunch of LEGO, bro.
01:01Like, I'm talking like 10 to 15, 20 different sets.
01:05And if you know about that, you know how expensive and how lucrative that can be.
01:09Another thing I did, too, was I got a whole bunch of Nerf guns.
01:11You know, man, I got drafted at 19, bro. I was just a big old kid.
01:14I had these Nerf guns with all the mods, bro.
01:16It had a silencer on it, red dot sights, banana clips.
01:19I actually stayed with a couple of my boys,
01:20and that's one of the main things we would do,
01:22was just set up the house, like, whole ass, like, forts and everything, bro.
01:26Have, like, big old, like, Nerf wars and whatnot.
01:28I'm talking like Call of Duty, like, diving, like, jumping around.
01:30Like, it was—yeah, you used to get to it.
01:32One big thing in the LEGO universe is called the Cloud City set,
01:36and it's a minifigure in there.
01:37It's a Cloud City Boba Fett from Star Wars.
01:40Like, he'd go for about $2,500 now.
01:42I did the big Millennium Falcon that just came out, the UCS set.
01:45The Notre Dame Cathedral set, I did that.
01:47You know, I'm hundreds of thousands of pieces of LEGO.
01:49I mean, I got a whole collection back in the crib, bro, yeah.
01:52If you know me, you know what's out there.
01:57The Ford Raptor.
01:58I'm gonna tell you right now, I was never really into cars and all type of stuff,
02:02but being from Texas, I had to get me a truck,
02:05and specifically a 2014 Ford Raptor, bro.
02:07It was just something about it.
02:08It was like a sports car in, like, a pickup truck.
02:12Where I'm from, bro, like, you know,
02:14in, like, a pickup truck.
02:15Where I'm from, bro, like, it's not really a flex to have, like, the Lamborghinis.
02:19When you have them big old pickup trucks,
02:21and you put them on duallys and whatnot, like, that's the real flex right there.
02:23My senior year of high school, I was like, bro,
02:25if I ever come into some bread, like,
02:26that's gonna be the truck I get specifically.
02:28I blacked it out, murdered it out and whatnot.
02:30I put subs underneath the seats.
02:32I had pipes under it, so it sounded more aggressive.
02:34Yeah, and that was my baby for the longest.
02:35You know, unfortunately, I don't got her no more.
02:37She's on to, you know, to better things, but I love that Raptor.
02:44A lot of people helped me get to where I'm at and take a village.
02:48You know, I spent 50K on my trainers
02:51who helped me all the way from middle school to high school.
02:53And I also sponsored my middle school team,
02:55bought them all jerseys and shoes.
02:57You gotta give back, man.
02:58I feel like that's one of the biggest things.
03:00You're paving the way for the next generation of athletes that are coming through.
03:02I had to take care of the ones that took care of me.
03:04I go back and watch some games here and there
03:06and just try to support as much as I can.
03:07Shout out to Euless Trinity High School, man.
03:08Central Junior High.
03:10So speaking of giving back,
03:12again, one of the most important things to me
03:16is giving back to the people that helped me get here.
03:18I had my basketball camp back home in Herschel's Bedford.
03:22I went back to my high school and was able to put on a free camp,
03:25you know, for all the kids, you know, they didn't pay anything.
03:27Through my foundation, Workers' Role Models,
03:29so also known as WARM, I was able to make that happen.
03:32You know, WARM, it serves the community.
03:34It's one of the things where we work with the less fortunate,
03:37So when it's cold like it is now, you know, 20 degrees outside,
03:40see, you know, some homeless folks or just less fortunate people,
03:43you have these packs in the back of your car.
03:45I mean, it could be toothbrush, toothpaste, maybe some snacks,
03:49I mean, hand warmers, anything you can think of, you put it in a pack
03:51and you have it in the back of your car and just, you know, give it out as you go.
03:54Through that foundation, I was able to fund my camp.
03:56It's huge, man, because I know a lot of people look up to me,
03:58you know, where I'm from, from a smaller town.
04:00So just giving back to the people that, you know, poured into me.
04:08It's one thing to make a million dollars, another thing to save a million.
04:11So one of the first people to give me advice, you know,
04:14coming to this league, his name is Chris Bosh, you know, Hall of Famer.
04:16He told me, you know, when you come into your funds,
04:18like, it's going to be easy for you to go, you know,
04:20go blow it on cars and jewelry and houses and stuff like that.
04:23But he just advised that, you know, you give with a good financial advice,
04:26to give it a good lawyer and just to make sure your money's working for you.
04:29One of the first things I did was actually invest in some land
04:31back in like rural Texas.
04:33Also invested in the stock market,
04:34obviously invested in my retirement,
04:36I invested into some buildings as well as real estate.
04:39The advice I give to anybody coming up is to
04:42try to save that first check as much as possible.
04:44My 19 year old mind wasn't really working like that.
04:46You know, again, I got some really good advice and, you know,
04:49I was able to make some good investment for myself to this day.
04:55So again, talking about funding the journey, you know,
04:58you feel like you can never repay, you know,
04:59the people that's close to you for, you know, for everything they've done for you.
05:01So what I did was I took this 150K right here,
05:06I was able to get my grandparents and my parents and my immediate family out of debt.
05:10I didn't grow up rich, I didn't grow up poor, you know,
05:12I was like real low, lower middle class, if you will.
05:14But one thing my parents did an amazing job was making us feel like we were rich,
05:17you know, rich in love, just rich in,
05:19you know, the spirit that we had around the house.
05:21Bank accounts didn't necessarily reflect that,
05:22but the feeling just as a kid, you know,
05:24we never really felt like we had to, you know, struggle for too much.
05:26I was even crazy, my mom, she emptied her retirement fund,
05:30you know, to fund me going on to my AU events in the summertime and,
05:33you know, but cover flights, cover travel
05:35and just fund the journey from the dream.
05:36So I told myself, you know, if I ever wouldn't make it, you know,
05:39this is gonna be the first thing I do is, you know,
05:40just clear the debts and just have a new lease on life and start fresh.
05:44So this is the least that at least I can do.
05:52Hold on, hold on, hold on.
05:54There we go.
05:56I spent 150K on a team around me.
05:59What I mean by that is I hired a personal chef,
06:01I hired a personal assistant and I also hired a business manager.
06:05I grew up and I watched the show Entourage.
06:06Entourage was like a big like influence on my career and just kind of where I'm at.
06:10And I saw the way the main character protagonist there
06:13kind of constructed his team around him.
06:15As an athlete, like you can't just go eat fast food for a game,
06:17you know what I'm saying?
06:18Or just go eat a pizza for a game.
06:19Like that'll probably work your first year when you're 19, 20 years old.
06:22But then, you know, so I hired a chef and there's also a nutritionist
06:25to make sure I only have to worry about basketball.
06:28And her name is Vertima Duma, Chef D, one of the best at what she do.
06:31Also hired a business manager just to,
06:34you know, if I want to go out and see this deal or I see Lego or something like that,
06:38just getting in touch with the right people and putting them in the right place.
06:41These are guys that spend a lot of time away from their families
06:43to make sure that I'm straight and I still have them employed to this day.
06:46So shout out to my team, man. Taylor Wilson.
06:48Gotcha, yeah.
06:52I like thinking of myself as an artist.
06:54You know, I've always kind of had like an artistic eye, if you will.
06:56And one of the things I did when I first got to the crib,
07:00in Indy, I spent about $50K myself just to go design the place.
07:05You know, I decided not to hire an interior designer.
07:08I decided to be my own interior designer, use my own artistic eye.
07:10I went to all the little stores, you know, I went to the Ikeas, the At Homes, the Home Goods.
07:16Huge in plants.
07:17I feel like plants are great for the energy and the air around you.
07:19And, you know, I'm a plant dad at that.
07:21So like, I'm one of the dudes that be talking to my plants and all that.
07:24All the artwork and just all the stuff I had around the crib,
07:26I decided just to do everything myself with my own touch on things.
07:28It was fun for me.
07:29You know, something I spent a lot of time on and something I took a lot of pride in.
07:32And I just enjoy that process, if you will.
07:36That's a wrap.
07:37GQ, appreciate y'all for having me, man.
07:39And remember, man, always catch a chicken, man.
07:41Always catch a chicken.