How Turkish maestro Turkoglu is still working his basketball magic

FAN NEWS (Utku Ertan, Sportingo) -  Hidayet Turkoglu has been a revelation since becoming the first Turk to be drafted in the NBA, but he has had a chequered career with the national coach.

Hidayet Turkoglu played basketball for Istanbul side Efes Pilsen from 1997 (when he was 18) till 2000. He made great contributions to the team, taking them to a record third-place finish in the Euroleague Final Four.

He was also the top scorer of the tournament when Turkey finished second in the EuroBasket in 2001.

Turkoglu was the first Turkish player to join the NBA. He was drafted 16th overall by the Sacramento Kings in 2000. In 2003, he moved to the San Antonio Spurs.

In 2004, he signed a six-year contract with Orlando Magic. He had a  13.3 points per game average for Orlando this year and has a 10 points per game average in his total career in NBA.

He had had problems with Turkish coach Bogdan Tanjevic before the 2006 FIBA World Championships because he was newly married and wanted to join the squad preparations late.

However, this was not accepted by Tanjevic and he was left out of the national squad.

This caused a lot of controversy in the media and he came in for a gtreat deal of criticism. However, when Turkey were successful in the FIBA World Championships in Japan in 2006, all the fuss was forgotten and he was invited to the national squad once again for the Eurobasket.

During a press conference he was asked about distancing himself from the media during Eurobasket and explained: “Because of some speculation - I go to games separate from the team - I am not supposed to answer these questions. But if it seemed I kept away from the press that was not the case."

Hidayet went on to say: “I’m sorry if I hurt anyone. It was not intentional. It was because of the bad mood during the tournament. We had an unlucky tournament. Our mood as a team was not good.”

Questioned about being third top scorer in Eurobasket, Hedo says “I can’t say I’m happy. If your team doesn’t win, it doesn’t matter if you score 50 or 60 points. However, I’m happy I tried to give my best both mentally and physically. It is an honour to be able to wear this jersey once again."

After a question about the playmaker problem in the team and Kerem Tunçeri not being invited to the national squad, Hidayet said: “Kerem is a good friend of mine but we have a coach who builds the team and we have to respect him. He went to the tournament with these players because these young players performed well in the 2006 World Championships. He preferred to continue with them."


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* This article is written by a basketball fan and is based on personnal opinions that does not reflect the views of FIBA. Fan articles are part of the Sportingo Network and are brought to you for discussion & opinion matters.