Yesterday, after listening to The Ticket and communicating with some people in the biz, I tweeted that it was pretty clear that Dallas media knew the name of the young man who’d been tossed out of Sunday’s Mavs-Suns game over an incident that involved Chris Paul’s mom. Keeping his name out of the public conversation at that point seemed like the prudent move. We needed more details.
Now we’ve got those details, and it’s time to name names. It still isn’t exactly clear what transpired, but the Mavs released a statement that “unruly fans attempted to give unwanted hugs” to Paul’s mother, and they were ejected. One of those ejected fans was Turner Carreker, who turns 19 this month. He was at the game with his aunt Jenna Turner Alexander. His mother is Amy Turner. Jenna and Amy’s father is Jim Turner, the guy who made a fortune with the sale of the Dr Pepper/Seven Up Bottling Group.
In other words, this is one of the most prominent families in Dallas. Far as I can tell, a small outlet called Total Pro Sports is the only place outside of social media that Turner Carreker’s name has surfaced. So my guess: the national media don’t know the Turner family name, and the local media are still struggling with a sensitive issue.
The guy isn’t a kid. He did something bad enough that the Mavs kicked him out and banned him for seven months. His name is Turner Carreker. That’s what we know.
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