Hedo Turkoglu Sick, then is Caught Clubbing

Hedo Turkoglu(notes) has been a bit of a disappointment to Raptor fans this season. And by “a bit” I mean “colossally huge,” of course. A five-year, $53 million contract and not a lot of production will do that. Oh well, sometimes players struggle. Have some pizza, I guess.

But things took a turn for the worse this weekend. Turkoglu sat out Friday night’s game against the Nuggets with a stomach virus. No big deal, people get sick. Except that after that game he missed, he hit the clubs in T.O. There were consequences and repercussions — a fine and a benching for Sunday’s game with the Heat.

How’d he get busted? This little thing you might have heard of called “the Internet.”

From the Globe and Mail:

The benching came in the wake of reports that Turkoglu was out in Toronto’s trendy Yorkville district after the Raptors’ crushing loss to the Denver Nuggets on Friday night, a game he didn’t play because of a stomach virus that caused him to leave at halftime of the Raptors loss’ to the Utah Jazz last Wednesday.

When pressed, Raptors president Bryan Colangelo said that word of Turkoglu’s night out had reached the team — apparently fans had spotted him and sent e-mails to team officials and some media — and the matter had been dealt with “internally,” the implication being that the Turkish small forward had been fined.

Ooooooh, busted. Maybe it’s not the best idea to sing “The World’s Greatest” at XO Karaoke right after you miss a game with illness, especially if fans are already unhappy with you.

As you can imagine, Hedo isn’t terribly happy that fans are keeping tabs on his movements around the city.

“It’s all good, man,” Turkoglu said. “I’ve been dealing with this [stuff] the whole year. They’ve been on me on this [going out] the whole year long. If I wasn’t out, sick or healthy, they [the fans] would still say something. I don’t say anything. Ten games left of the season, all I try {to do is] finish strong.”

The fans are mad at Hedo for underperforming and going out, so Turkoglu goes out then gets mad at the fans. Interesting choice. Sounds like a very fun situation for all involved.

But Torontonians need to be careful — there’s another guy running around the city, looking like Turkoglu, and he loves clubbin’. Don’t take it out on Hedo that Tas Melas spends so much time chillin’ at Lobby.

From: sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Hedo-Turkoglu-just-wants-to-party?urn=nba,230813