Landon's legacy

Drive.\nThe word carries so many meanings to former IU forward Landon Turner. Twenty-four summers ago, a drive to Cincinnati left Turner paralyzed. His basketball career was over, feeling below his chest was lost and for all intents and purposes, he had struck a dead end on the road of life.\nBut Sunday Turner found himself back in Assembly Hall. Back on the floor he once dominated. Back in front of thousands of cheering Hoosiers. How did he make it?\nDrive.\nLandon Turner never had a Senior Day. Just one year removed from the 1981 National Championship, Turner spent his senior season in a wheelchair after getting in a car accident near Columbus, Ind., earlier that summer. Turner remained unconscious for five days after the accident.\n"That morning, just before they left, he called here to ask my husband for directions to Cincinnati," said Rita Turner, Landon's mother. "The next time I heard anything was when his good buddy called and said they had an accident."\nLandon's road to recovery started rather symbolically -- with a teammate. Rita Turner vividly recalled the visitor that shifted everything back into gear.\n"Ray Tolbert's voice woke him up," she said. "I remember walking up the hallway and I saw Ray dancing a little jig and shouting, 'I woke him up! I woke him up!'."\nThe inner drive Landon's coach once instilled in him now had far greater significance. Turner spent roughly five more months in the hospital recovering before finally going home. There, Landon spent years adjusting to an entirely new lifestyle -- his immediate family providing the most assistance. \nBut it was Landon's extended IU family that kept him from ever feeling alone in his journey.\n"Once you're a member of the IU basketball family, coach (Bob) Knight would see to it that you are never forgotten," Rita Turner said. \nFlashing forward to Sunday, more than 20 years had passed and Turner's former coach seemed like a distant memory around campus. But Sunday's applause from several thousand IU fans served as proof that Hoosiers don't forget. \n"I usually get standing ovations when I do my motivational speeches and stuff, but it is good to get a standing ovation from the IU fans that really know what I went through," Landon Turner said. \nTwice he brought the Assembly Hall crowd to its feet -- once at halftime and again after the game. \n"I never thought that would happen," Rita Turner said. "I would have thought (he would receive a standing ovation) maybe only as a player, but not under these circumstances. But hey, that's IU faithful. That's how IU fans are."\nMost of IU's roster isn't old enough to remember Landon Turner the player. To them, he's far more inspirational than just another ball player. \n"He means a lot to us," senior guard Marshall Strickland said. "He's a guy that we kind of look up to ... He's an influence and we have a lot of respect for him and everything that he's done."\nTurner's senior day finally came Sunday. In his speech, he said that after 25 years, there were a lot of people to thank. He then unraveled several feet of paper -- proving humor can withstand all obstacles.\nTurner first thanked God, then thanked his coach before removing his earring -- just as Knight had always insisted. He thanked his family, saying "I love you for life," and then he thanked the fans. \nAs Landon wheeled himself off the court, part of his journey finally ended. The place where he once drove through the lane and attacked the basket now represented a far more compelling drive -- from the elation of a championship, to the frustration of an accident, to an ovation from the fans who never left him. \nAs Knight said in November 1992, "You are never going to be driven anywhere worthwhile, but you can sure as hell drive yourself to a lot of great places. It is up to you to drive yourself there." \nSunday afternoon, Landon Turner finally made it. \n"It was 25 years, and I guess 25 years is a long time, but it was very special to me," he said. "I enjoyed that"