"HE-DON'T" - Turkoglu Spurns Blazers and Joins Toronto Raptors

Wow.  That's really all I can type at this point.  I head out of town for the weekend with a Hedo Turkoglu deal basically in place for "your" Portland Trail Blazers, have that deal confirmed once I reach my destination, and then jump on the Blackberry right before bed and find a tweet from Miss Marissa calling out some unbelievable news.

marissaivana  Dang! It was HE-DO and now it's HE-DONT.  @blazeoflove

As John Hollinger so graciously pointed out, it was sort of weird to have Hedo show up in Portland without his wife who was rumored to be a HUGE fan of Toronto.

Turkoglu came alone, amid rumors that his wife very strongly preferred to be in Toronto, and I remember thinking at that very moment that the Blazers recruiting pitch was doomed to failure. It was going to be tough to sell her on the charms of Portland if she wasn't there.

And here is the ESPN report which has the Blazers fuming...

Free agent forward Hedo Turkoglu changed his mind Friday and decided not to join the Portland Trail Blazers, opting instead to accept a five-year $53 million offer from the Toronto Raptors, sources told ESPN.com.

The decision left the Blazers livid and was a huge coup for the Raptors, who have promised Turkoglu all of the salary-cap space they will have from renouncing their rights to Shawn Marion, Anthony Parker and Carlos Delfino, which will likely add up to a starting salary in the $10.1 million range, with eight percent annual raises.

The one thing I will say as this news all rolls in, is that my buddy Cuzzy over at Cuzoogle said to me 2 days ago that Toronto has a huge Turkish community and he wouldn't be surprised if he loved the international and east coast feel of Toronto over Portland.  Sure enough, he was right.

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