“She knows that she stands for something much bigger than herself, and I think she operates in a very mindful way because of that,” said Harvard women’s basketball coach Kathey Delaney-Smith, describing one of the major reasons Harmoni Turner plays so well. Despite having gone through the adversity of physical and emotional abuse from her birth mother as a small child, Turner didn’t let her love for the game fade away.

She began playing basketball at the elite competitive level when she was 8 years old. Since then, basketball has been the only thing that has revolved around her. Let’s learn more about her dribbling journey and how the personal aspects of her life have been fueling her game on the court.

Harmoni Turner’s time at Mansfield Legacy

“I’m dedicated because at an early age, I knew that God gave me a gift. Since then I’ve just wanted to take that gift and run with it and see how far I could go. I ended up falling in love with it,” said Harmoni Turner describing her passion for the game. And she stood by her words.

In high school, she would start her day by waking up at 4:30 in the morning just to go for a run. During lunch-time, she shot hoops and didn’t leave the school until she completed 1000 shots. After that, she would head home, do her homework, and would go to the gym again. However, she did take a break on Sundays.

Besides being a starter for her varsity team, Turner also became a 4-year letter-winner and served as captain of the basketball team. During her days in high school, Turner achieved a lot. She was named to the All-State, All-Region, and All-District First Team. Similarly, she was named the team MVP and both Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year.

Amidst all this, she took her talents to the international stage and qualified for the U16 and U17 Junior Olympic Trials. Moving on, she held 14 school records that included the most points, rebounds and assists in a career. Eventually, she became a member of the 2000 career points club and played AAU for DFW Elite.

Academically too things looked up for Turner as she was named to the Academic All-District and All-State Team. Turner attained a 4-year letter in Cross Country and Track at Mansfield Legacy. Besides, she is one of the members of the National Honor Society, Member of the Key, Debate DECA, and Ladies of Legacy clubs, and graduated Magna Cum Laude.

Fortunately, Turner’s hard work had caught the attention of many, thus recognized.

Turner growing the community by spreading the knowledge

It was common knowledge that Turner’s work was being noticed by several organizations that recognized her work probably since the day she started playing competitively for the first time. Being a 3x USA Trials invitee, she was nationally ranked by ESPN.

Soaking in all the basketball wisdom, Turner wanted to give it back. Hence, she founded a non-profit called Harmoni Hoops Academy. Through this, Turner provided one-on-one training to the young kids who could not afford high-end trainers.

Simply put, when she wasn’t working on her own game, she was helping those children in need. “I was blessed enough to receive that training, but I want to give other kids who weren’t fortunate enough that same opportunity,” Turner expressed the idea behind this initiative.

As a result, programs like Harvard, Princeton, Notre Dame, University of Texas, Texas Tech, and Pennsylvania State started contacting Turner and expressed their interest in recruiting her in her sophomore year only. By the time she became a senior, Turner had already narrowed down her options to Texas Tech and Harvard.

That season, Turner’s high school coach Michelle Morris hoped to have Turner lead the team to a successful season. However, while playing at a summer tournament, Turner took a fall and landed on her knee.

She continued playing despite the pain. “The reason why I went back in is because deep down inside I was still scared, so I wanted to face my fears and do the best that I could. I was scared of the opportunities that were given to me and I was scared that they were going to be taken away from me due to my injury,” she reasoned.

But this attempt didn’t last long as her knee kept shifting every moment. Her season finally ended after she was diagnosed and the results said that she had torn her ACL and meniscus, sprained her MCL, and had internal bruising on her knee.

Devasted by the pain, Turner’s joy of playing basketball and training turned into a monotonous routine of waking up, going to school, coming back home, repeat. But wasn’t all gloomy. “I just think that’s it’s a blessing in disguise. I mean no one ever wants to get hurt, but at the same time you gotta look at the bright side of things,” said Turner.

Turner committed to play at Harvard

In December 2019, Harmoni Turner signed with Harvard to attend the program in the fall of 2020. Starting her collegiate journey in the Ivy League program, Turner averaged 15.9 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 2.4 steals per game. As a result, she was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Year and was named to the All-Ivy Second Team.

Leading the conference in free throw percentage (.821), Turner averaged 16.3 points, 6.2 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 2.3 steals per game as a sophomore. She earned First Team All-Ivy distinction for the 2022-23 season while she concluded her second year at the program with a team-leading 23 points, 4 rebounds, and 7 assists against Columbia.

In her junior year, Turner led the conference with 2.2 steals along with 19.3 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game. Hence, she led the Crimson in points per game, assists, and steals while she ranked 10th in the Ivy League in rebounds per game.

Now, playing her senior season at the program, Turner is headed to write history at the highest collegiate level, averaging 18.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, 4 assists, and the Ivy League-leading 5.5 steals per game through 2 games. With the season still young, there are several milestones left for Turner to achieve.