Although LeBron James has been endlessly analyzed for his terrible summer, there’s a much lesser known NBA player who arguably had an awful few months of his own; Hedo Turkoglu. The star forward helped take the Orlando Magic to the NBA Finals in 2009 against the Los Angeles Lakers and seemed poised to capitalize off his strong playoff performances with a new contract and a shiny reputation.
Unfortunately for him, he ended up doing it wrong.
First he left the Magic and their great young core just one year after almost winning it all. He seemed ready to join another young, rising team in Portland but then shocked everyone and killed the deal at the 25th hour to go to the . . . Toronto Raptors for five years and $53 million.
You’d think he had 53 million reasons to do good in Toronto, but instead he basically mailed it in, drastically underperformed and even got sick enough at one point to miss a game, err, go clubbing.
As you can imagine, the fans in Toronto didn’t exactly love the guy and he was eventually traded to the Phoenix Suns for this upcoming season. The Suns played the Raptors in a preseason game today in Toronto and he was heavily booed. It didn’t stop there though, as seen in the video below, spotted at Bill Simmons Twitter page.
In case you couldn’t here, the money quote is below.
Fan: “Hedo…you have zero work ethic! You’re pathetic!”
According to a report after the game, Hedo booed back at the fans at one point.
“Turkoglu, traded from Toronto to Phoenix this summer after one disappointing season with the Raptors, was booed during pregame introductions and every time he touched the ball. Turkoglu, who scored five points, jokingly booed fans sitting courtside as he checked in at the scorer’s table during the second quarter.”
Toronto fans ended up getting the last laugh as they got to see the Raptors defeat Phoenix and watched Hedo only score five points in 20 minutes of game time. No word on whether Hedo hit up any clubs after that game though.
-Will.
Will R. is a journalist/writer who covers sports, news and music for several websites. His music work can be found on www.WestCoastRydaz.com
