Turpin Plays Weighing Game for Bullets

The story goes that two years ago, when the Cleveland Cavaliers traded Mel Turpin to the Utah Jazz, he told Salt Lake City writers he weighed 265 pounds. The next day, when players on the team got weighed, he was 282 pounds.

Reason?

“I like airplane food,” he said.

So you may think it’s funny that the Washington Bullets have signed Turpin, a 6-foot-11 free agent center, and you may smirk at the reported $180,000 he has been fined for being overweight during his career.

Or you could have watched him sweat at the University of Maryland this past summer, speed-walking, lifting weights and trying to shed the jokes and the pounds that have burdened him since he was traded from Washington to Cleveland on draft day 1984. And you could have watched him report to camp at 263 pounds, his lowest weight since he was at the University of Kentucky.

“This is the hardest camp I’ve been in,” he said after a Bullets’ morning workout at Mount St. Mary’s. “But it’s good for you. It gets you in better shape. ... I can go out there and play a lot better, last longer, and get more minutes.”

There are two likely spots open on Washington’s roster, and Turpin, Doug Roth and Ed Horton are looking to fill them.

He should be used to the grind. He’s been having two-a-days all summer, working at Maryland with Brad Hatfield, an associate professor with a degree in exercise science. Turpin’s four-man team helped shave 22 pounds from his frame in eight weeks.

But all that work means nothing-and he acknowledges this-if the weight returns.

“I couldn’t come here weighing 286 and doing the stuff we’re doing now,” he said. “I’m happy I’ve got my weight down, and I’m lasting. I’m going through both practices. I feel pretty strong.”

People close to him think this is his last shot, considering what’s happened in his past. That’s included tours in Cleveland, Utah and a one-year stint in Zaragoza, Spain. All have been marred by weight problems, one reason that Turpin, at 28, is trying to make a roster instead of being in the prime of a solid NBA career.

When he left Kentucky, he was probably as good or better a pro prospect as any on a team that included Sam Bowie and Kenny Walker, and he helped the Wildcats reach the Final Four in 1984.

But his problems started there too. He had gone to Lexington at 190 pounds and left at 270. The Wildcats showed him how to put weight on, he said, but couldn’t offer any solutions for how to keep it off.

The Bullets took him with the sixth pick overall. But they were looking for scoring to complement Rick Mahorn and Gus Williams, so a deal with Cleveland was already in the works. Washington got Cliff Robinson, the draft rights to Tim McCormick and cash for Turpin.

Turpin said he was hurt by the trade, but he played pretty well in his first two seasons with the Cavaliers, averaging 12 points a game on 52 percent shooting from the floor. In his second season he set a team record with 54 percent shooting and finished second in rebounding.

But there were problems. Some of them were with then-coach George Karl. Some of them were because of lackadaisical defense and rebounding. His battle with the bulge was close to a standoff, but he gained more than he lost, and the fines began.

By 1987 his minutes had been cut by more than half and in October of that year he was sent to Utah. He again had nights of promise, but the Jazz didn’t weigh him until almost midseason, and they were disappointed when they did. To this day, it’s hard to find anyone in the Utah organization who has a kind word for him.

Utah released him at the end of the year and he went to the Zaragoza team; in return, the Jazz got Jose Ortiz out of the last two years of his contract in Spain and he went to Utah. No one wants to call it a trade, but that’s what it was.

Enter the Bullets, who were interested in Turpin even before the Jazz dealt him.

“We had lengthy discussions,” General Manager Bob Ferry said. “We talked to him. We even got to the point where I think we were negotiating. ... Basically, the scouting report on him is known to everybody. He’s a very good offensive player. He runs the court well. He’s a good athlete.”

Turpin’s contract with the Bullets has no weight clause, but is full of incentives for him to keep his weight reasonable. And like everyone else, he will be weighed every day.

“Some people, everything they eat turns to body fat, and some people burn it off,” Ferry said. “He’s just one of those people (that) to make it and stay in the NBA, he’s probably going to have to continue to diet and train year-round the rest of his career. It’s not hard if you want to do it. You need discipline.”