Summer Q&A: Ronny Turiaf

We recently caught up with Ronny Turiaf to get his thoughts about coming East to join the Knicks.

NYKnicks.com: So how has your summer been treating you?

Ronny Turiaf: Real good. I was travelling for a while. I was in Africa as everyone was aware of with Basketball Without Borders and I was in South Africa before that at the World Cup with my best friend Boris Diaw. I was rehabbing my knee the rest of the time getting myself healthy to play extended minutes this year. The rest of the time I was spending time with my family and now I am in New York for good.

NYKnicks.com: How did you find out you were being traded to the Knicks?

Turiaf: I was in Africa when it became official, but I was made aware of the possibility of a trade happening a few days before I left. Based on what happened the first day of free agency, I knew pretty much what direction things were going. So I got a phone call and an email when it was official, and then I was off to New York.

NYKnicks.com: You had an interesting experience getting to New York for the press conference, right?

Turiaf: I was in the middle of Africa in nowhere. I had to drive seven hours to the nearest airport, wait nine hours in the airport as my flight was leaving at 4:00am. It was a pretty hectic trip but coming here was something that I needed and I am very happy. It didn’t matter how long it took to get to New York.

NYKnicks.com: Why is this something you needed? Why are you excited to call yourself a Knick?

Turiaf: I am very excited because this is a wonderful opportunity not only as far as basketball, but I feel welcome here. I feel people genuinely care about the man, not only about the basketball player and what kind of skills you bring to the court. I can only speak for myself, but when people trust in me, I want to give it back times a million. When I got here I started working out a lot with (Assistant) Coach (Phil) Weber and talked with Coach (Mike) D’Antoni and Mr. (Donnie) Walsh and they made me feel so welcomed and excited. I just spoke with our owner, Mr. (James) Dolan, and we had a great conversation and he made me feel so welcomed too. I can’t wait to give it back to them on the court. I feel like I am officially a New Yorker and part of this city.

NYKnicks.com: You can see how genuinely excited you are to be here…

Turiaf: You know how a lot of time people can talk in clichés? When I tell you that it is probably something that I needed in my life, this is something that I needed to my core. I consider this is a blessing from above. I’m a winner. I am somebody that wants to win and I think to be part of that movement, to be part of something positive and somewhere where people want nothing but to be positive and win –I mean, that is what it is all about. And I am willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to make it happen here.

NYKnicks.com: Tell Knicks fans what to expect out of you each and every night.

Turiaf: Well, where should I begin? (laughs). Now that I have two knees and am very healthy, they can expect me to give it my all not only for a short period of time, but for extended minutes. Unfortunately for myself, I have had to deal with knee injuries the last year and a half so I wasn’t free to really show people what I can do. It’s funny. Somebody told me on Twitter yesterday that they can’t wait for me to prove the doubters wrong and the believers right. I thought that was really interesting because people have really questioned me in the past year about my conditioning and that I wasn’t committed to my basketball career. But I was playing with one bad knee, so guess what? Now I am healthy and I am excited to prove myself.

NYKnicks.com: This is your first time living on the East Coast. How is that going to be for you?

Turiaf: I’m not going to lie, I am a West Coast kind of guy. I lived Spokane, Washington right next to Seattle. I went to Gonzaga – shout out to Gonzaga who I am always representing! – but I lived there for four years and it was snowing. But if you look at the basketball side, the basketball side went really well. So I am really hoping that once it starts snowing here and getting cold, the basketball side will go well once again.

NYKnicks.com: What do you think of New York City itself?

Turiaf: It’s pretty cool! There is always something going on. I was talking to Anthony Randolph the other day about the fact that people are so lively here. You drive down the street and see people living and loving life, having barbeques and always up to something, and that is something I have never really seen. This is not the same thing on the West Coast. So I can’t wait until I randomly just show up at somebody’s barbeque and just try to crash it! (laughs)

NYKnicks.com: There is a lot of talent here on this team with Randolph, Amar’e Stoudemire, Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler…

Turiaf: Don’t forget about Toney Douglas!

NYKnicks.com: He was on that list. I was getting there!

Turiaf: (laughs)I just had to make sure you were going to mention him! That is somebody that I respect a lot. His work ethic is phenomenal. He is somebody who the last few weeks I have really watched and learned to appreciate because he might have had a bit of a rough beginning in terms of playing time as a rookie, but you can see he really stepped in and produced when the team needed him. That’s pretty awesome. I can’t wait to see him be a player that people might not see as a star, but he will prove people wrong. But as far as everybody else, everyone is on the same page. We are ready to win. After talking to Ray (Felton) when he first got here and talking to him again a couple weeks ago when he was here, he wants to win. Stoudemire, you know he wants to win. Wilson just said it on the Q & A you had up on the site last week and kept stressing how he wanted to win. I am tired personally of losing and I want to get back to winning basketball games. So we have guys that are definitely dedicated to winning, so I hope that we put everything together and that once the season starts and the ball goes up that first game, we are all willing to sacrifice. If we are all willing to sacrifice for the greater good of the team, we will all end up looking good and seeing the results we want as a whole. I think Coach D’Antoni has a system in place that will keep everyone happy, and I am just ready to get started.

NYKnicks.com: You are going to get a chance to play in France, your home country. How exciting is that?

Turiaf: Like I was telling you, this is a blessing from above. I mean, how many chances do you get to be traded and get to go play in your home country? This is a wonderful opportunity for me to be able to go to my country, and have my parents come watch me and my friends and people who don’t get a chance to travel to the States. It is very special, so hopefully I can have some special shoes made for the game and I get some extra tickets - maybe the Knicks can help me get extra tickets, make sure you put that in there! (laughs) – because I am going to have a lot of requests. But it is going to be a truly fantastic experience.

NYKnicks.com: France may be your home country, but how does it feel to call Madison Square Garden your home court?

Turiaf: To be honest, I want to answer that after the first game. It is a truly special place, so much so that I will have a better idea of what it means after the first game. If you have never experienced something, you can’t get a feel for it and what it means either way. I am expecting great things. Like I tell fans all the time, they better be ready to help for us, because when they cheer for us, that really helps us play to another level that we might not be able to get to ourselves.

NYKnicks.com: Tell us about your beard. Fans seem to really enjoy talking to you about it.

Turiaf: Every summer, I let my beard grow when I travel. This is a yearly thing that I do and for some reason people have caught into it. People want to do T-Shirts and have fun with it, and I am all about that. This is my way of letting people know that this is who I am. I like to have fun. I like to interact with my fans. That is why I love Twitter so much. But it is important for people to know this is who I really am. So whatever you want to do, let’s have fun with it man! I am all about having fun with the fans.

NYKnicks.com: Finally, we always end by asking if you had one thing to tell the fans what to expect this year, what is it you want to tell them?

Turiaf: Greatness. Get ready for greatness.

We've got an All Star and up and coming young studs, so I think having Turiaf is a good character boost. He's smart and worldly. I've wanted to see us have some more solid citizens for a while now.

TMS wrote:they say the same stuff every year... we heard everyone from Nate Robinson to Stephon Marbury to Zach Randolph to Eddie Curry say the same things before every single season, the list goes on & on... let's see them do it on the court... i don't get excited over what players say anymore.

In this case i'm taking into account WHO is saying it. Some guys like Al or Hughes and even Nate come from a position of low credibility. They've failed to do the right thing every year and in their case the words proved to be hollow. I don't believe Amar'e or Turiaf are just saying what we want to hear. When the season began last year we heard similar things, but everyone had that feeling of doubt tinged with hope that they really meant it this time. Amar'e has PROVEN to be a guy that put in more work to improve his weaknesses. I believe Turiaf has a very solid rep for being a guy committed to winning and self sacrifice. So while in essence you're right that these things get said every year, I believe you have to also take into account the messenger. If KG says it you believe it and that's what i'm saying here. The guys we're talking about Felton included, they all have great reps as solid team 1st guys.

TMS wrote:i know what you're saying but in the end words don't mean anything, results matter... all these words about how they're focused on winning won't mean a damn thing unless they win.

We're attempting to read into the mood, thoughts and intentions of the players. Of course they have to prove it on the court. I think as I was pointing out that you can see a bit more of the kind of man that Turiaf is in how he already is concerned about a fellow teammate being slighted. That kind of small detail is what i'm looking at. They've been working out with each other and already working on their games and he's just letting us in on the general consensus of the players even at this early stage. This is before any mandatory work is even being scheduled yet, so I feel good about that development. The only player we haven't heard has been in NY to workout is Curry. I think that's a very good start for a team full of capable players with great reputations in the league already. If it ever stood a chance of being fulfilled it's this season.

These guys aren't selfishly worried about a new contract cuz most of them are expected to be here as part of the new era. A few guys don't have secure situations, but overall it's a team that is full of guys wanting to put down roots here and be part of something successful.

TMS wrote:they say the same stuff every year... we heard everyone from Nate Robinson to Stephon Marbury to Zach Randolph to Eddie Curry say the same things before every single season, the list goes on & on... let's see them do it on the court... i don't get excited over what players say anymore.

That is exactly what I thought! Every year- we're tired of losing! We want to win.

I do have hope that its different this year, just because we have upgraded talent, and guys like Turiaf, while coming from a losing team in G State, it was more of a dysfunctional situation than even here, so they have a shot at turning it around.

Allanfan20 wrote:TMS is right. I want to see what happens on the court. While I am ALWAYS interested in what kind of workouts player do because I like seeing how players prepare and think that's cool, and I am thrilled that we seem to have a guy who seems to just be a good man, we need results on the court in the wins loss column. I think what we especially need is to get off to a good start.

What the players are saying means nothing, but the players we have do excited me.

Couldn't agree more! If we get off to a good start that'll surely boost the team's confidence and pride. Two very important things in sports.

nixluva wrote:

TMS wrote:i know what you're saying but in the end words don't mean anything, results matter... all these words about how they're focused on winning won't mean a damn thing unless they win.

We're attempting to read into the mood, thoughts and intentions of the players.

every single player we've had has wanted to win & has intended on trying to win (except for Eddie Curry)... but they didn't get it done for one reason or another... intentions & thoughts are all well & good... i'm glad Turiaf wants to win & wants to do the things necessary to help us win... until this team wins, it doesn't mean much.

Seems to show that everyone is on the same page as far as winning is concerned.

Fishmike nailed it, this is a very likable group and I think a lot of us are pumped by how young this roster is. Of course, that means we'll have to be careful with expectations but if this team does what it is very much capable of (i.e. grabbing 7th or 8th seed), then I think you will see a lot of happy fans.