Hidayet Türkoğlu

Hidayet Türkoğlu — Biography

Hidayet "Hedo" Türkoğlu was born 19 March 1979 in the Bayrampaşa district of Istanbul and, standing 2.08 m tall, built a 15-season NBA career as a forward before becoming a basketball executive; he currently serves as president of the Turkish Basketball Federation. He moved from Efes Pilsen to the Sacramento Kings at the end of the 1999–2000 season, spent a year with the San Antonio Spurs, then played for Orlando Magic from 2004 to 2009, where he was named the NBA's Most Improved Player for 2007–08 and helped the Magic reach the 2009 NBA Finals, which they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers. He went on to play for the Toronto Raptors and Phoenix Suns before retiring from the NBA in 2015.

Capped 269 times for Turkey's national team since 1998, he won silver medals at EuroBasket 2001 and the 2010 FIBA World Championship. After retiring as a player in 2015 he became CEO of the Turkish Basketball Federation the same year, and was elected federation president at its General Assembly in October 2016, a post he still holds. In April 2026 he was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame in a ceremony in Berlin, and in July 2026 he received an honorary doctorate.