Call to All-Stars surprises Okur
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By Tim Buckley[/FONT]
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Deseret Morning News[/FONT]
Mehmet Okur was driving when the call came.
"I saw the number — Salt Lake number," said Okur, the Jazz's 27-year-old big man. "And my heart, like, ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta. It got fast, fast, fast — you know, like, 'OK, something's going on, I need to answer this."'
So he did.
Kevin O'Connor, the Jazz's basketball operations senior vice president, was on the line.
"Man," Okur said, "I started to sweat then."
It wasn't, however, a call saying the baby is on its way. That comes next month. Rather, it was that other call — the one he's hoped to receive since he was a teenager back home in Turkey.
And when O'Connor spoke — Okur had just been named an NBA All-Star, tapped by commissioner David Stern as a replacement along with Seattle shooting guard Ray Allen for injured Western Conference guards Steve Nash of Phoenix (sore shoulder) and Allen Iverson of Denver (sprained ankle) — the big Turk couldn't believe it.
"It was cute," O'Connor said.
"He thought I was fooling around with him," the Jazz's basketball boss added, "and I said, 'Memo, I wouldn't.' ... (He said), 'I wouldn't do that to you.' And I said, 'Well, I'm not doing it to you. Congratulations."'
Okur accepted the kudos, then tried to focus on steering straight.
"I'm so glad I didn't hit somewhere," said the 6-foot-11 Okur, perhaps best known this season for knocking down a team-high 92 3-pointers.
Fortunately for Okur — and especially Stern, who has had to replace four original Western Conference picks because of injury, including Jazz power forward Carlos Boozer and Houston center Yao Ming — there was no wreck.
Nor was the selection any accident.
Okur and Allen (who is averaging 26.9 points per game) were chosen over candidates including Jazz point guard Deron Williams, the league's No. 2 assists leader this season behind two-time NBA MVP Nash ("It's tough, man," Okur said. "I think he deserves it too."); Los Angeles Clippers power forward Elton Brand, who is averaging about 2 1/2 more points per game than Okur; and Portland power forward Zach Randolph, who is averaging 24-plus points per game but whose team's 22-31 record is not nearly as impressive of a record as the Jazz's 34-17, third-best-in-the-NBA mark.
Clearly, Stern was swayed at least partly by Utah's success this season — and that, with Boozer out, the Jazz might not have had a representative on the floor for Sunday's showcase game in Las Vegas.
But Okur's big-shot play played a role as well, especially with the Jazz — who play Cleveland tonight — having won five straight.
"He's won a lot of games for us this year," teammate Matt Harpring said of Okur, who is averaging a career-high 18.2 points per game and has hit 28 game-tying or game-leading field goals in the fourth quarter or overtime this season, including game-winners in the final 40 seconds vs. Seattle, Memphis, San Antonio and Memphis.
"He's earned it, as hard as he's worked since he came here," added O'Connor, who signed Okur to a six-year, $50 million contract in 2004 as a free agent from Detroit, where he was a reserve on the Pistons '04 NBA title team. "He gotten better every year, and he's being rewarded for it."
Okur's immediate thought after O'Connor confirmed he wasn't kidding was to inform his wife, Yeliz, who is eight months pregnant with the couple's first child, a girl.
He called the former Miss Turkey on the phone.
"I told her, 'I made it,' " Okur said. "She told me she couldn't talk. ... She started to cry."
Okur, home by now, tried to calm Yeliz, telling her, "Just come back here. Just come right away. I just want to see you."
It really is that big of a deal to Okur, also a 2004 Olympian.
"It's a great honor, to Okur family and my country. ... I think they're gonna go crazy (in Turkey)," he said, deeming the achievement even greater than winning a ring with the Pistons because he didn't play a particularly prominent role in Detroit's title run. "Definitely a dream come true."
After finishing talking to his wife, Okur phoned his parents in Turkey, where the midnight hour was fast-approaching.
"They started crying," he said. "I mean, they were so excited."
A lot of criers, it seems, in the clan.
"They're so sensitive," the happy-go-lucky Okur said. "I don't know why. Not me."
Truth be told, though, Okur does have a soft side.
One of his immediate concerns was getting his wife to Vegas this weekend.
"This is tough," he said. "I'm gonna call her doctor. We're gonna ask if she's (okay) to fly. If not, she's gonna drive with somebody."
Devising a plan is just one small part of what's becoming a rather dizzying time for Okur.
"I'm having baby, little girl. I'm on the All-Star team," he said. "We're doing great out there; we are one of the best teams in the league. I mean, this is big. This is fun."
Almost enough to make a grown man cry.
Which Okur refuses to do.
At least until sometime next month, when something even bigger than the news O'Connor had is delivered.
"Oh yeah. Definitely," Okur said when asked he'll shed tears when the baby arrives. "I mean, (that) is different level."
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