Report: Rudy Fernandez ‘infuriated’ by Blazers pursuit of Turkoglu
By SJ
Bombshell of the day material and it is coming right out of left field. Chris Sheridan over at ESPN.com reports that Portland’s pursuit of Hedo Turkoglu has ‘infuriated’ Rudy Fernandez.
That’s right. According to this report, if Rudy was a smiley face he’d definitely be the one en fuego right now. According to Sheridan, he’s not just mad….he may bolt:
"“Portland’s pursuit of a certain player from Turkey has infuriated the Trail Blazers’ lone remaining Spanish player, Rudy Fernandez, to the point where he’d prefer to play in Greece, Russia or even Spain again, ESPN.com learned Tuesday.A league source told ESPN.com that Fernandez has already been courted informally by European powerhouses Olympiacos, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and CSKA Moscow.”"
To be honest with you, I’m not sure what to make of this. My gut reaction is ‘Huh?’ followed by “Hmm” and then jus confusion. I mean, obviously there must be some sort of level of credibility to this source considering it’s currently linked on the front page of ESPN.com. However, at the same time, I’m putting this with the rest of the off-season rumors that start popping up around the first few days of the free agency period. If there is one thing we Blazer fans have learned is that Spanish guards have aggressive agents who like to pop off at the mouth. And this reeks of something an agent would do. Who knows, maybe Sergio’s agent did it for fun. I mean, lets just think about this logically. Rudy played 25.6 minutes a game which was the 5th most on the team. How does he complain about that? During the season it never once seemed like he was anything but satisfied in Portland. I mean, color me blind, but I couldn’t have been the only person who never sniffed a hint of unhappiness from Rudy Fernandez, right? I’m sure it was an adjustment for him, but it never once seemed like he was unhappy with what was going on. Time after time it seemed as if Rudy would always point out how satisfied he was with Portland and the team and the fans. Even at times when as a fan you wonder if he should be frustrated he never gave off any vibes. That’s why it’s just a bit hard to imagine him going from content to ‘infuriated’ in a matter of hours. Logically, if Rudy has so unhappy this whole season with the organization than why are Casey Holdahl and co. even over there? Unless he’s the world’s greatest actor there’s no way this wouldn’t have been sniffed by now.
Also, if anyone should be infuriated about Portland going after Hedo it’s Travis Outlaw, followed by Martell Webster with a hint of worry from Nic Batum. Because Turkoglu’s arrival means one or two of them are on their way out shortly. Turkoglu at the 3 should not affect Rudy’s PT at all. You’re potentially looking at a crunch-time lineup of Roy/Rudy/Turkoglu/LMA/Oden, which should only make him happy. We know he can create his own shot but he’ll have three offensive weapons taking pressure off of him and two guys who can make his life a ton easier.
Maybe they have some sort of super-secret beef that no one knows about? Who knows. I still can’t truly wrap my brain around this one, but for now I’m going to place myself in the ‘highly skeptical’ category until I hear something with a bit more bite to it. It just sniffs like Spanish gossip if you ask me. I’ve been wrong before and I’ll be wrong again but the timing is just a bit odd. It’s just a little too expensive for me to buy in this economy.