The message from the basketball role model was simple.
“Being an Orthodox Jew takes discipline,” Ryan Turell told a crowd of hoops enthusiasts at DJDS.
“Basketball takes discipline, too. You have to put in the work.”
Turell practices what he preaches. Every day in workouts he has a self-mandate to make 350 jump shots from the three-point line.
“That’s up from 300,” Turell told the IJN.
Turell was addressing the basketball fans on Aug. 15 in an event presented by Aish of the Rockies.
Turell, 25, played college basketball at Yeshiva University, where in 2022 he led the nation in scoring, with 27.1 points per game.
He wants to reach the NBA, and he is unwavering in his confidence that he will achieve that milestone.
“The end game for me is to reach my ceiling as a basketball player,” said Turell.
“I didn’t know where basketball was going to take me in middle school. I didn’t know where basketball was going to take me in high school. I didn’t know where basketball was going to take me in college. I certainly don’t know where it’s going to take me now, but I’m going to work hard every day to reach my ceiling.”
After graduating from Yeshiva University, Turell became the first Orthodox Jew to be drafted by the G-League, the NBA’s development league. After playing for the Motor City Cruise, the affiliate of the Detroit Pistons, Turell recently signed to play the coming season with Ironi Nes Ziona of the Israeli Basketball Premier League.
“It’s always been a dream come true for me to play in Israel,” said Turell. “It was a matter of when, not if.
“I’ve always been a proud Jew. Israel is our homeland and I’m super excited to go play in Israel.
It’s like making aliyah without making aliyah.
“Exactly, said Turell.
Playing in Israel will remove some of the rigors of playing professional basketball in the US. With the Cruise, Turell played games on Friday nights and Saturdays, despite the unique logistics he had to navigate Shabbat.
“If we had a road game on a weekend,” Turell explained, “I would have to stay at a hotel as close as possible to the arena. Sometimes it was across the street, sometimes it was up to four miles away.
“I would print a map before Shabbat and study it and know the streets all around so I’d know where I was going and I’d walk to the gym to play those games.
“A lot of times when there was a game on Friday night or Saturday, the team leaves the city after the game. I would wait till after Shabbat is over and then leave the city to go back home.”
Turell will gladly put up with these kinds of inconveniences in the NBA, should he get the chance.
“I definitely think it’s a possibility,” said Turell. “It’s a goal that I can get to.
“I just have to keep working hard every day and perfect some things and keep getting better and eventually, I hope to get there.”
In the meantime, before the joining his new team in Israel, Turell is pouring in those daily jump shots and leading clinics like the one at DJDS. While Turell may not be a household name yet in professional circles, he is at Jewish schools like DJDS.
Young student Solomon Raff recently arrived in Denver from South Africa. The eighth-grader found a friendly mentor at DJDS.
“I was asking him how to shoot, and he showed me,” said a beaming Solomon.
Turell’s notoriety in the Jewish sports community is robust. Three yeshiva students from Brooklyn, NY, were in Denver on vacation when they saw a notice about Turell’s appearance at DJDS. The three hoops junkies raced to meet their cult hero.
“He makes us proud to be Jews,” the student said. “He gives a very good message that a lot of people can relate to.”
Turell was within earshot of those comments.
“It’s a real blessing to have this platform to inspire the next generation and hopefully inspire Jews to be proud of who they are,” said Turell, “especially in today’s world where we see so much hate.
“You see that people hate you for just being Jewish. You hear your grandparents talk about it and you’re like, ‘that was then, this is now, and that can’t happen again.’
“Then you see it does happen again, and you see the hate that comes out of the woodwork. So it’s super important for us as a people to be proud of who we are and not let the haters discourage us from being Jewish and discourage us from being proud Jews.”
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