Hedo Turkoglu Retires

It was announced on Friday that Hedo Turkoglu had retired from professional basketball. His career spanned 15 years and 6 teams. In this long and illustrious career, Hedo may be most remembered for his time with the Orlando Magic. His days there were Turkoglu's 4 best years in the NBA and provided great moments like:

Hedo was also very clutch during Game 2 of the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals. Alas, the Magic in that game could not overcome the magic of LeBron James and Hedo's clutch shots are not as well remembered as some others.

His last 2 years were with the Los Angeles Clippers. His time in LA will not be remembered for too much production. Turkoglu was clearly in the twilight years of his career and garnered playing time more because of necessity (if not desperation) than because of "strong play". He totaled 90 games with the Clippers, but only a little over 12 minutes per game. His main contributions instead came as being a veteran leader. As Doc Rivers recalled back in 2014:

"The first game [Turkoglu] dressed D.J. (DeAndre Jordan) came out and lost his mind about some play and before I got to him, Hedo ran out on the floor and grabbed him and told him that he was wrong and said, 'Next play, let's move on," Rivers said. 'I was looking at him like, that's a stranger talking to him right now. They listen because they know he's been around."

So long Turkoglu. Hope retirement is a blast, but do not become a stranger to the basketball community.