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On a team suddenly loaded with superstars it’s easy to overlook the core of role players that do most of their work behind the scenes, or at least in this case, behind the sidelines. Enter Ronny Turiaf. After battling back from a heart surgery that he feels wasn’t as bad as people make it out to be, Turiaf has slowly worked his way into the rotation over the past three seasons with one of the top teams in the NBA.

A self-proclaimed “utility” player, Turiaf has no intention of catching up and stealing minutes from the newly-acquired Pau Gasol, instead he prides himself on his ability to do all of the little things that help make the Lakers such a deadly, and now remarkably deep, team in this league. But if you ask the man himself what makes him, and the rest of the Lakers such an imposing team, it’s not their well-defined roles, their penchant for making YouTube-worthy highlights, or their ability to overcome incredible set backs, it’s their ability to step out on that court and have fun.

HoopsAddict.com: First of all, Mr. Turiaf, let’s set the record straight is it Raw-ney or Row-ney, I’ve heard it both ways?
Ronny Turiaf: To me, it doesn’t really matter. The French way to say it is ‘hrrow-ney’, with a nice ‘hrrow’. With an American accent, you’re going to say Raw-ny. So it really doesn’t matter to me.

HA: Okay, well we’ll start off with some easy ones, which players did you grow up idolizing and which players, if any, did you try to model your game after?
RT: Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan.

HA: If you could add or improve any skill to your game what would it be?
RT: Three point shot. I’ll get better hopefully.

HA: Was basketball always your number one sport, did you play others?
RT: Soccer. Yeah, growing up I played soccer, tennis, handball and swimming, but my favourite of all time was definitely soccer.

HA: When did you make the decision to abandon soccer and go with basketball?
RT: Pretty much my dad made the decision for me.

HA: When was that?
RT: My dad told me that I was too tall to play soccer and that I should definitely play basketball. And ever since that day I have dropped my soccer cleats and put some basketball shoes on.

HA: How old were you then?
RT: 14

HA: How tall were you when you were 14?
RT: I really do not remember, at all

HA: When did you know that you wanted to play basketball professionally?
RT: When I was about 16-17, I moved to Paris to go to high school over there. That’s when I started thinking that I was good enough to play basketball professionally.

HA: As a young kid growing up in France, what is the common perception that people have of the NBA?
RT: It’s the best league in the world, the best athletes. It’s a league of superstars. Everybody dreams about meeting those guys, talking to those guys and being like those guys. So yeah, I think superstardom.

HA: At what age did you start following the NBA?
RT: Ah, good question. When I was about 16-17.

HA: So you were a fairly late bloomer to the NBA?
RT: Yeah, a very late bloomer. Like I told you, I really didn’t think about basketball until I was about 14-15 when my dad talked to me about it. Before that I really couldn’t care less about playing basketball.

HA: Did you have aspirations to maybe play soccer professionally?
RT: When I was growing up I would dream about being the goalkeeper for the French national team.

HA: For the common fan, how would you describe the heart procedure that you under went in 2005?
RT: Not as bad as people think.

HA: How would you summarize it, what did they do exactly?
RT: Basically it was an aortic valve replacement. My aortic valve was about two-times, two-and-a-half-times bigger than usual, so they put a plastic device over it so that basically it doesn’t explode or it doesn’t crack or anything like that. It wasn’t really a big deal.

HA: Did you have any history of heart troubles before then at all?
RT: No sir.

HA: So what went through your head when the doctors told you that you had an enlarged aortic root, how does a 22-year-old on the verge of playing in the NBA deal with that?
RT: Well, my situation was a little different, because from the time I was told that I had the heart condition and the time I had surgery, it probably was maybe 10 days, maybe 12 days maximum. So I really didn’t have time to think about it because at first you don’t think anything is wrong with you. So I thought I was going to be alright all the way till the end and next thing you know I was on the operating table and I was going to have heart surgery.

HA: How has the procedure changed the way you’ve approached the game of basketball?
RT: It hasn’t change it that much, right now I’m just living life to the fullest and trying to put myself in a position to have some more fun. I want to enjoy what I do because it can be taken away at any time.

HA: What about life in general?
RT: If it’s had an effect, I think I’m more crazy than I was before. I’m living my life to the fullest, enjoying myself, enjoying my family, enjoying my friends and the people around me. I surround myself with good people so I try to enjoy them as much as possible.

HA: Are there any precautions that you have to take now to ensure that everything runs smoothly now after the operation?
RT: Basically I have to go for checkups every six months now and stay on top of it, have MRIs done, and echocardiograms and stuff like that. So nothing too unusual.

HA: You have played with the Lakers for three years now, how would you say the team has matured in that span?
RT: We went from being a team that could contend to, now, a definite contender. We added a veteran, a leader at the point guard position and we added a proven all-star in the front court. So when you add those two pieces to the pieces we had before; the youth, and the experience of Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom, I think it makes a pretty good cocktail. So now we’re on our way to make something good happen, we’re definitely going to step it up and make sure everything goes as well as planned.

HA: Now that you guys have proven yourselves to be, what looks like, legit title contenders, what’s the mindset heading into the playoffs? Will anything less than a championship be a disappointment, or is their still a focus on taking baby steps and just making progress each year?
RT: I think we’re definitely trying to take baby steps right now, because right now we’re not thinking about going to the playoffs. Right now we’re thinking about playing our next game. I think if you switch your focus to bigger things too soon, that’s when you lose your focus. But I think we have a great group of guys that just enjoy being around each other, and I think that’s why we work so hard in practice to push ourselves and make ourselves better. So therefore we’re definitely going to try to win the title, but I think you also have to put into perspective that, at the beginning of the season, every single team, tells themselves that they’re going to win the title. That they’re going to go 82-0. You have about 30 teams who are trying to go 82-0, and at the end, if I’m right, only one of them is going to win the title. So it’s a battle and we think the competition is going to be really, really tough.

HA: You’ve been known for your energy on the court and your passion throughout, has this always been… you? I know you said you were a bit crazier after the surgery, but were your little league games growing up this emotional?
RT: I’ve always been like that, my mom taught me at a young age to enjoy myself. And my parents are the same way, they’re really passionate about everything they do. I think that gene carried on to me, and now I just enjoy myself because life is just too short, man. You never know what’s going to happen. So you definitely have to have some fun while you can.

HA: Aside from yourself, who do you think some of the good energy guys are in the NBA?
RT: Mark Madsen’s pretty cool, Kevin Garnett has high energy, Al Horford from the Hawks has pretty good energy, plays hard, Joakim Noah, plays hard. We have some pretty good outgoing guys all around the league, so I think it would take too long to talk about all of them.

HA: Well on behalf of a publication based out of Toronto, how do you feel about Jerome Williams, the Junk Yard Dog?
RT: Jerome Williams is really a neat guy, he has such great energy and positive energy. I had a chance to work with him with a kid named Garylee out of New Mexico, he has a heart issue. So I had a chance to work with him and Jerome last year during the playoffs. Jerome is just so nice and so unbelievable and has good energy, so it was a definite pleasure to work with him for a couple of days. And on the basketball court, every time he stepped out their he definitely pushed himself to exhaustion and played as hard as he could, so you couldn’t take anything away from him?

HA: What about energetic stadiums? Is there a particular crowd that comes to mind that comes close to sharing the passion that you have for basketball? What crowds do you sense the energy from the most?
RT: Well in the NBA, all the arenas are full, but I think the most fun we’ve had this year was Sacramento, it was pretty rowdy down there. The Hawks were pretty tough. Dallas was pretty good. New Orleans was high energy during the whole game. So I mean, all across the board, all the arenas are pretty fun to play because there’s so much energy.

HA: Alright, well I wanted to say congratulations on the dunk of the night on Tuesday over Channing Frye. Did you let him hear it after that?
RT: Not at all, I was just excited to be out on the basketball court. I got the basket off a feed off of Kobe and I made sure I finished strong at the basket, something that I’ve been lacking of doing the last couple weeks. I was fortunate enough to get an and one and I was so excited, so I let a big scream go, but I wasn’t talking to him, at all.

HA: Going on this theme of trash talk, who would you say the best trash talker on the Lakers is? Is that something you joke around with in practice?
RT: No, we don’t really joke around about it, but Lamar Odom is pretty good, Kobe when he gets in the mood is pretty good. But we have a - Jordan [Farmar] is pretty good - we have a great group of trash talkers on the team.

HA: What about the league? Is there anyone who is always giving you guys fits?
RT: I think worldwide it probably has to be Gary Payton and Kevin Garnett.

HA: Going on Kevin Garnett, this is a player you said you grew up idolizing, How was it the first time you played against Garnett?
RT: I was a little star struck a little bit. I was like ‘wow man, that guy is pretty strong, he’s pretty tall and lanky’. My first start was against the Timberwolves so I remember that like it was yesterday, especially to go against one of the best, if not the best, at the position.

HA: Now going back quickly to that dunk you had against Portland, you mentioned it came off a nice dish from Kobe Bryant. Is there any possible way you can summarize what it’s like playing alongside such a competitor?
RT: Every day he pushes you to be a better basketball player, everyday he brings his A game, tries to win every game, everything he does. He definitely really, really, really wants to win. That’s something that’s driven his life ever since he was a little kid. Playing alongside of him is a definite pleasure, an honour. I think playing off him is very good because he attracts so much attention that you get easy buckets, or easy rebounds, you know what I mean?

HA: Yeah, that kind of answers my next question, but I wanted to turn that around and say what kind of things do you and the rest of the Lakers try to do to provide for him on the court?
RT: We don’t necessarily try to provide for him, we try to provide for our teammates, for the team that we have. I think it’s not just ‘okay we’re going to give Kobe the ball’. We have to make sure we run our system, and I think because he’s such a good one-on-one player that at any point or given time he can definitely break the system and go score an easy basket. I think we definitely try to play team basketball and not just watch Kobe doing his things. I think there’s a real big difference in that.

HA: Where when you found out Pau Gasol was coming to the Lakers?I know this kind of surprised a lot of people, was it as big of a surprise to you guys?
RT: It was a very big surprise. I can’t remember where we were, I think we were on the road playing somewhere. I think it was before New Jersey, I think in Washington. But I think it was a real big surprise, I was really close to Kwame Brown, he took me under his wing when I wasn’t playing yet, back when I first started. So he was like a big brother figure to me so I was definitely sad to see him go, but it’s a business you have to know that he can be here today and gone tomorrow.

HA: Well Kwame is a player that has probably gotten some unfair criticism over the past few years, is there anything that, if you had to speak to his game, you would say?
RT: I think that Kwame understood that he could be a real great defensive presence and also effective going to the boards, scoring easy baskets off offensive rebounds. He could be a great presence, but I think the most important thing is that Kwame has to stay healthy, if he stays healthy he’s a pretty good basketball player.

HA: Now leading into the Gasol trade your minutes had been starting to pick up quite a bit but since the trade they’ve kind of panned off. How would you say this has affected your game on a personal level?
RT: You just answered your question, I think my playing time went down because Pau is a proven all-star and does so much good stuff for us out there on the basketball court. I see myself as a utility player, when somebody gets hurt I step in, when somebody gets suspended or whatever, I step in. I can give you some scoring down low, I’m going to give you good passing, some blocked shots, so I’m definitely out there to be a good basketball player and I’m definitely a team player, so whatever I have to do to help the team, that’s what I’m going to do. At the end of the day I can guarantee you that all my teammates will tell you that I try to do whatever I can to help them get better.

HA: How has it been so far with Pau in the locker room? How has that transition gone for him and for you guys?
RT: I’ve known Pau for a couple years now, from playing against him and from overseas, playing on the international teams. He’s fit in great, he’s a great locker room guy, always joking around, so he does fit in like he’s been with us from the get-go. He hasn’t had to take any steps back or anything.

HA: What does he bring to the team that wasn’t there before? Obviously there’s the major things that he brings, like an all-star to the court, but what would you say are the little things?
RT: Once again, you just answered your question, saying that he’s an all-star, that he brings offense. But he brings passing, he definitely bring a presence down low that people have to acknowledge. At any given time he can drop 40 on you.

HA: With a player of your hustle and personality type, I think it’s safe to say that you are maybe one of a few fan favourites on the Lakers. How do you approach this role, interacting with fans and everything?
RT: I don’t approach this role with anything because I’m not trying to do the things that I do on purpose: This is who I am. I play with energy. When my teams are successful out there, doing great things, I have to show them that I acknowledge them, that I appreciate what they do out there. So in my mind I’m not putting on a show for the fans, I’m just being me. It’s nothing fake with me. I definitely appreciate the fan support that I have out here in Los Angeles and I’m very thankful for that, and whenever I step out on the basketball court I try to give 116%.

HA: What would you say the strangest thing a fan has done or said to you, or the strangest sign you’ve seen?
RT: There was a guy, I think in Philadelphia, that sits near the bench that has a white board and he writes different lines on there all the time and he shows it to us. I think that’s pretty original.

HA: What kind of stuff did he write?
RT: Well he wrote bad stuff, but he’s written good stuff. He called me Bin Laden, because I had a beard at the time. And he’s said some pretty funny stuff that I don’t remember, but he’s well known throughout the league.

HA: Are there any other personalities or certain arenas in particular that stand out that you can elaborate on?
RT: Not really, I mean, every arena is pretty rough, especially for the opposing team. But I think the worst is probably Sacramento, Sacramento is pretty rowdy, they’re very, very close to the bench so you can hear them very well. San Antonio is pretty rough too, and Phoenix, but it’s all fun.

HA: Off the court, what kind of things are you doing these days?
RT: Playing with my dogs and just watching TV and hanging out with my mom

HA: What kind of dogs do you have?
RT: Pit bulls

HA: I can kind of label you as a guitar guy though, you play any of that?
RT: I really wish I could man, that’s one of my dreams, to play the guitar and be good at it. That’s pretty romantic *laughs*

HA: Well it’s always great to get in touch with someone as passionate about basketball as you are so I really appreciate you taking the time to answer a few questions for me and Hoops Addict.
RT: Thank you for having me brother.

Oh, and Ronny, merci pour cette entrevue.