MIES (Switzerland) - Former France national team player and NBA champion Ronny Turiaf paid a visit to the House of Basketball while in Switzerland in early December.
He soaked up some of the history of the game and saw up close many of the important daily activities at FIBA's headquarters.
Turiaf, who represented France as a youth and also played for the senior team, reconnected with national team basketball while in Mies, which is easy to do with so much memorabilia on display.
"Whenever I come to the House of Basketball, I feel so fortunate and feel so grateful to have written a little bit of a paragraph in the book of basketball history," he said.
"I feel humbled by how far this game has come, but also excited for the future. What I really hope is that more people have the opportunity to experience what is being done in the museum, which is in charge of continuing and building the legacy."
"Basketball has touched so many different spheres of the world, and it's way bigger than we could ever imagine"
While at FIBA's headquarters, Turiaf saw that the House of Basketball feels like a house of basketball players at times since many work there.
He went into different departments to see what activities former players are involved in, and he provided his feedback and knowledge on different educational programs for players, including the Career Transition Pathway, something he's been working on since his retirement.
It was a day well spent.
"I wish there were hundreds of thousands of people that could come and see the legacy here because they would understand and appreciate the game that we love even more," Turiaf said. "Basketball has touched so many different spheres of the world, and it's way bigger than we could ever imagine."
In the years since he retired, the 2.08m (6ft 1in) Turiaf, who captured his NBA crown with Miami in 2012 and stopped playing a couple of years later after a season with the Minnesota Timberwolves, has done things like travel, studied for and received an Executive MBA and also offered advice and counsel to players that are looking to start careers off the court. He spoke to fiba.basketball.
Lessons learned from the National Team program
When he looks back at his time in the sport, much of what helped catapult Turiaf to prominence happened because of the realities that he faced in his first years with the national team program.
The French federation welcomed him into the junior setup, despite the fact that he'd not played the game for very long.
"It (playing for France as a youth) showed me that what I was lacking in skills, and I made up for it with the willingness and the energy to do whatever I could to help my team win."
"I was only 14," he said. "I came from a world of soccer. I was completely lost within the rules and I just felt like I was so far behind everybody else.
"It showed me that what I was lacking in skills, and I made up for it with the willingness and the energy to do whatever I could to help my team win.
He did just that in 2000 at the U18 EuroBasket with France. Ronny was absolutely clutch in the final against host Croatia. He sealed the deal in the second overtime with a thunderous dunk while his friend, Tony Parker, was on the bench with five fouls.
"That is something that carried on throughout my whole life, to try and find ways to help, in whatever capacity possible."
Basketball opened the door for Turiaf to enroll at Gonzaga University, where he accelerated his development in the game by playing for the Bulldogs. His coach was Mark Few, a legend in the American college game who served as one of Steve Kerr's assistants at the Olympics this summer in France.
Turiaf was a Zag when he made his France senior team bow at FIBA EuroBasket 2003 in Sweden, and was a teammate of Les Bleus legends Tony Parker and Boris Diaw.
That summer, France missed out by the smallest of margins on qualifying for the Athens Olympics, after a loss to Italy in the Third-Place Game.
Nine years after the disappointment in Sweden, Turiaf made his Olympic bow. He played for France at the London Games, which took place shortly after his NBA title win with Miami.
That was his last event with the national team.
Voice of the Players
During his visit to the House of Basketball, Turiaf saw how FIBA emphasized getting the views of players so they can help them have a better experience in the sport.
FIBA launched its Players Commission in 2015. It is currently chaired by Dirk Nowitzki and has numerous former men's and women's players as members.
I'm so proud to see the willingness of FIBA to incorporate feedback from players
"I'm so proud to see the willingness of FIBA to incorporate feedback from players that have played the game," Turiaf said.
"Both at the international level, outside of Europe, in Europe, to have men and women with different backgrounds because it shows you that the willingness to hear from the position of the court and to really create this dialogue that is happening on the court with what is going outside the basketball court."
Numerous former players are involved in various tasks with FIBA, but also with national federations, clubs and leagues around the world.
"For us (players), it's normal to go to the gym and arrive at the arena with everything set up perfectly," Turiaf said. "But they need to understand what it takes."
Transitioning beyond basketball
All players know that eventually, they will have to stop dribbling, shooting and rebounding the ball for a living and do something else.
This can be a daunting task, especially if players do not actively think about the possibilities until the last minute. FIBA's Time-Out Program has helped many players the past several years get degrees that help them enter the next stage of their lives.
Turiaf says that when players are looking to new career paths, it's most important for them to first know what their interests are and to then be able to articulate it to someone like himself, or someone that is willing to offer advice or counsel.
"So many times we want to tell people what to do, or what we think is important," Turiaf said. "But I think you have to start from the individual basis. It almost has to be tailor-made.
"Regardless of how well prepared you were regarding the transition, you take out something in your life that you have done for, let's say on average 40, 50 + hours a week. And what happens in this empty space, something fills it, and usually it's the emotion that we didn't necessarily have time to deal with.
"When you can go and talk about these emotions with like minded people, that's pretty much the most crucial part. Before talking about anything else."
Once players identify the area they want to go in, they need to seek out proper training and education that will help them make the transition.
Foundation work
It helped Turiaf, after his playing career, that he had once had his Heart to Heart Foundation.
Involving himself in something like this forced him to go out and talk to different people, to involve himself in non-basketball related tasks.
He gained and understanding that a lot of worthy foundations are competing for the same thing - money - so they can do important work in society.
This was an important project for him because he launched the foundation in 2009, four years after he'd had a heart scare. Turiaf had just been selected by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2005 NBA Draft when he got the troubling news that he had an issue with his heart.
There were initial fears it might prevent him from playing professionally, yet on the advice of experts, he had surgery and following a speedy recovery, started playing again and reached a top level sooner than everyone had imagined possible.
After a spell with the Yakima Sun Kings in the old CBA, he signed with the Lakers and launched his NBA career.
Turiaf did not start a foundation, he says, until one of his teammate's brothers had a heart related issue.
"We (foundations) are all fighting for the same money. We all want to have a social impact. If we are able to mutualize everybody's skills and resources and everything, the impact can be so much greater."
"I created the foundation in 2009," he said. "I had the foundation for about six years. We donated defibrillators to local high schools. We went to the (US) Supreme Court to speak about making it mandatory to have defibrillators in high schools."
Having a foundation was an education in itself.
"I also understood the limits that I had of donating my own money to the foundation, and raising money," he said.
What Turiaf discovered is that there are plenty of foundations set up for the right reasons yet fundraising is an obstacle for many.
"We are all fighting for the same money," he said. "We all want to have a social impact."
Turiaf says there needs to be better communication between foundations, and that more coalitions must be created "between all of these amazing entities and amazing people that are working to solve issues" for them to have as great an impact as possible.
"I feel like if we are able to mutualize everybody's skills and resources and everything, the impact can be so much greater," he said. "This is my plea. Put this in bold. "Can we just talk to each other?
"This is humbly what I want to contribute to. Because I realize If we just partner, we just talk with each other, the impact can be so much greater."
The Turiaf legacy
Turiaf is so humble and honest that he freely says, "I really and truly do not feel like I left any kind of mark," on basketball.
Yet he does want to leave a legacy.
"... if we take time and sit down and talk to each other, we'd inspire each other."
"I feel like what I'm about, what I'm embarking on, and I call this my third life," he said, "what my third life will be about is if I can be remembered as someone that cared to get everyone on the same page.
"That's really what I care about. I just want people to communicate and talk to each other. I'm saying this as someone who, after his career, went and traveled to meet people that were inspiring to me from all walks of life and realize that if we take time and sit down and talk to each other, we'd inspire each other.
"I'd like to be remembered as a guy that had energy, lived life to the fullest, did whatever he could to the best of his ability, to various degrees of success."
FIBA