Newest Timberwolf Ronny Turiaf on Thursday officially signed with his seventh different team in nine NBA seasons, but he can't help but think how his life has come full circle now.
"I remember eight years ago and you guys had somebody named Fred Hoiberg," Turiaf said Thursday evening in a teleconference call with reporters. "He was almost like a father figure to me, somebody who helped me through the worst time of my life."
In 2005, Hoiberg was a veteran guard on a Wolves team that had reached the Western Conference finals the year before and Turiaf was a rookie out of Gonzaga with the L.A. Lakers.
Hoiberg underwent surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm the same day Turiaf was drafted. A month later, Turiaf needed a surgery very similar to Hoiberg's.
It is a coincidence that will forever bind the two men after Hoiberg watched a pre-surgery interview Turiaf did, saw how scared the young man looked, and reached out to him.
Hoiberg advised Turiaf about the six-hour surgery, told him to expect a 20-pound weight loss and prepared him for a slow recovery.
Eight years later, they remain friends and together helped guide Washington's Etan Thomas through his heart surgery two years after theirs.
"Every time I had a question, every time he had a question, we were there for moral support," Turiaf said. "Of course, we still talk. It is not a one-way ticket for heart surgery, it is a lifetime bond we have. For me, that shows basketball is a game that transcends generations, that transcends colors. To have somebody like Fred Hoiberg and myself become partners in this crazy ordeal, it's a wonderful thing for me."
