Turpin Time No Longer Means Dinner Time

Harvey Grant leaned into the crowd surrounding Mel Turpin’s locker and posed this provocative question:

“Do y’all know what time it is?”

Everyone knew.

“Turpin Time,” came the loud and clear answer from his teammates.

Grant liked the group response so much, he tried it again. And so it went, for the 30 minutes or so it takes the Bullets to shower and dress and entertain inquiring sportswriters. That it sounded a lot like a pep rally should be no surprise. The Bullets had beaten Milwaukee, 97-91, to close out a five-game losing streak Tuesday night that might have been six except for the unlikely presence of one Mel Turpin, who used to look more like two Mel Turpins.

There were more cheers out on the floor, too, when the slumbering Cap Centre crowd erupted into a chant of “Mel, Mel, Mel.” That was after Turpin had stuffed Jack Sikma in the closing minutes, his third block of the fourth quarter, to go with three rebounds and five points.

“When the fans responded like that, it gave everybody a lift,” said Mark Alarie. “We kind of went, ‘Wow.’ He blocks Sikma’s shot. He gets big rebounds. It was fun to watch him out there.”

OK, Turpin Time. For most of Mel-Mel-Mel’s life, Turpin Time has been marked by the sound of the dinner bell. If he seemed to be the hungriest player on the court Tuesday night, that’s only because he was. This is a guy who had eaten his way out of the league, forcing him into exile last season in Spain (yeah, he liked the food there, too) and back home for one last chance.

The Bullets, in desperate need of a big man, were not looking for someone quite that big, however. When he came to summer rookie camp, Turpin, who is 6-foot-11, weighed in at 286. And that was before lunch. The Bullets put him on a weight program -- lifting weight, not gaining it.

“I’m 259 now,” he said. “And I feel great.”

The last time he was under 260, he says, was in college.

When asked what year, he smiled. “Come on. This is a new year,” he said.

For the Bullets, actually, it looks a lot like last year. It’s pretty much the same cast, adding rookie Tom Hammonds, who has done little to impress so far, and Turpin. The Bullets play with desire and will and win more games than they should. But, Tuesday night, they were tired. Just home from a six-game, eight-day trip to the Far West, they didn’t figure to be too vital. And as the third quarter came to a close, they were losing ground to a physical Milwaukee team that will wear you down.

Coach Wes Unseld had basically run out of options. He looked down the bench, saw Turpin (could he miss him?) and sent him into the game, Turpin’s first minutes at home. A few of the fans noticed. Maybe the Milwaukee Bucks did, too, but maybe not.

“I was hoping he would maintain for a few minutes until John (Williams) got some rest,” Unseld said. “It was no stroke of genius. I didn’t know what else to do.”

To that point, Turpin had played 24 minutes the entire season and hadn’t exactly worked his way into Unseld’s heart. For Unseld, it was an act of desperation, not an act of faith. But, then, before everyone’s eyes was the new, lean and mean Turpin on the break, getting a hoop. There he was rebounding. He blocked a Ricky Pierce layup, starting a fast break. He took the ball on the wing, faked Sikma into the air, and drove for a dunk. The place went a little nuts.

It was a one-point Bullets lead, at 88-87, when Turpin blocked a Sikma shot for the second time, preserving an advantage the Bullets never lost to put their record at 6-6. Turpin played 13 minutes in a row. Sikma, who scored eight in the third quarter, failed to score in the fourth.

“I wasn’t winded,” Turpin said. “I was sweating, though. The weight has always been my problem, and now I feel like a different person out there.

“I knew I had to stay loose, to be ready to go in whenever Wes called. But I was more loose than I thought I was.”