Celtics guard Evan Turner reached out to Kyle Korver – via an intermediary – after he blasted the Hawks guard defensive ability in a loss last week.
Hawks center Elton Brand, who was a teammate of Turner in Philadelphia for several seasons, said he got a text message from Turner the day after he said Korver “couldn’t guard to save his life.” Turner made the comment after the Hawks erased a 23-point deficit in a 109-105 win over the Celtics Tuesday.
Brand confirmed the text message. He said Turner apologized for the comments and added they were taken out of context as he also praised Korver for making several big shots in the win. Korver finished with a team-high 24 points in the game, including six 3-pointers.
Brand said he relayed Turner’s text message to Korver, who told him he was unaware of the disparaging comment.
Turner was upset with the officiating in the game, in particular a third-quarter foul he received for tripping Korver.
“They started pressuring and it’s tough to score when you have two hands inside your jersey as well,” Turner told Boston reporters following the game. “At the same time, I got a foul call on Korver and they said I pushed him and tripped him and he just fell. He can’t guard to save his life and he’s grabbing Marcus Thornton and he’s grabbing me and he has no business being in the game on the defensive end but what can you possibly do if they’re allowed to have their hands on you?”
He added, “It got physical, Thornton got hit a couple of times and you really have to be tough with the ball. But take your hat off to the Atlanta Hawks. They played a great game.”
Korver reiterated that he was unaware of Turner’s initial comment. He spoke of his all-around game following the Hawks’ 96-84 win over the Nuggets Sunday, the team’s sixth straight win.
“I’ve always said that if you don’t play defense, you don’t get to play in the fourth quarter in NBA games,” Korver said. “I’ve been fortunate to play for a couple of really good defensive coaches my last couple of teams. I’ve really learned a lot. I love basketball. I love shooting, hopefully that’s always going to be the best thing that I do, but I love basketball. Defense is part of basketball. Passing is part of basketball. I don’t really like dribbling that much but everything else I like. It’s fun.”
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