Landon Montel Turner (born September 30, 1960) is an American former basketball player. He played college basketball for the Indiana Hoosiers and won an NCAA championship as a junior in 1981. Hoosiers head coach Bob Knight considered Turner to have the potential to be the best player he ever coached. Primed for a breakthrough senior season and considered a top National Basketball Association (NBA) draft pick, Turner's basketball career came to an end when he was paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident in July 1981. He stayed with the Hoosiers as a team captain during the 1981–82 season before the Boston Celtics honored Turner by selecting him as the final pick of the 1982 NBA draft. He played wheelchair basketball for three years before he embarked on a career as a motivational speaker. Turner is a member of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame and the Indiana University Athletics Hall of Fame.
Early life and high school career
Turner was born on September 30, 1960, to Adell and Rita Turner. His father competed in track and played football; he received an athletic scholarship to play football for the Purdue Boilermakers but dropped out. Turner considers his father to be his biggest influence as an athlete.
Turner played basketball at Arsenal Technical High School – the same school as his father. He grew from during his freshman year to in his sophomore year, when he also developed the ability to slam dunk. During his senior season, Turner emerged as a star prospect and set an Arsenal Tech season record for points with 616 while he averaged 21.4 points and 15.8 rebounds per game. Turner was named a Parade All-American and played in the 1978 McDonald's All-American Game as the only player from Indiana.
College career
Turner received 300 letters of college offers, but narrowed his choices down to the Indiana Hoosiers and the Purdue Boilermakers in his home state so his parents could attend his games. His father was a fan of the Hoosiers and their head coach Bob Knight, and Turner committed to play for the Hoosiers under Knight in the fall of 1978. Having heard about Knight's relentlessness as a coach, Turner was surprised by his "calm demeanor" during a home visit and jokingly considered Knight to be "a demon in disguise". Once Turner joined the Hoosiers, Knight was so hard on him that he considered quitting the team during his freshman season. Hoosiers teammate Steve Risley believed Knight saw more potential in Landon than anyone else but saw him making less of an effort. Knight thought Turner could be the best player he coached and the greatest Hoosiers player ever but became increasingly frustrated by his lack of growth. At the conclusion of his sophomore season, Knight was so annoyed by Turner's casual attitude that he told him to quit the team and play professionally. Turner persisted with the Hoosiers but his grades dropped as he attended parties instead of studying, which led to his benching by Knight during his junior season. Knight believed that Turner "couldn't think past tomorrow" and grew increasingly frustrated by his lack of willingness to apply himself completely in practices. After Turner restored his grades and Knight saw improvement in his playing, he was returned to the starting line-up with a few games left in the Big Ten Conference, where he helped the team remain undefeated for the rest of the season. During the 1981 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament, Turner formed a formidable trio with guard Isiah Thomas and center Ray Tolbert who were considered to be the Hoosiers' best players. In the final game of the tournament, the Hoosiers defeated the North Carolina Tar Heels 63–50 to win the NCAA championship. Turner was named to the all-tournament team.
With the graduation of Tolbert and the draft declaration of Thomas, Turner was expected to be the cornerstone of the Hoosiers during the 1981–82 season. Knight believed Turner could have been the best player in the country during his senior season while Boston Celtics general manager Red Auerbach had expected him to be a top-five selection in the 1982 NBA draft. Thomas compared Turner to James Worthy and thought "he had all the makings of being a great power forward."