Hi Pals,
I will try to give information about a talented turkish Power Forward/ Center, who plays for Utah Jazz in NBA.
I had always been a great fan of Okur, because he was always ready to dive into the ground to pick up a loose ball, dunk strongly or reject a shot. These were his qualities, which enabled him to play for our NT and finally to be drafted by NBA, where he is doing a fine job, especially this season.
here is his player file page at http://www.nba.com/playerfile/mehmet_okur/index.html

YEAR TEAM G GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% OFF DEF RPG APG SPG BPG TO PF PPG
02-03 DET 72 9 19.0 .426 .339 .733 1.6 3.0 4.7 1.0 .35 .54 .92 2.30 6.9
03-04 DET 71 33 22.3 .463 .375 .775 2.3 3.7 5.9 1.0 .51 .89 1.42 1.90 9.6
04-05 UTA 82 25 28.1 .468 .270 .850 2.4 5.1 7.5 2.0 .39 .83 1.72 2.80 12.9
05-06 UTA 45 45 35.6 .451 .369 .804 3.0 6.5 9.5 2.6 .58 .98 1.96 3.50 17.6
Career 270 112 25.4 .455 .342 .807 2.2 4.4 6.7 1.6 .44 .70 1.47 2.60 11.2
Playoff 39 0 14.7 .452 .500 .603 1.0 2.3 3.4 .5 .44 .54 .74 1.50 4.5

This summer, Memo hired a private fitness trainer, so that he could cope with the monstrous centres of NBA teams. This was unfortunately before the start of the european championship, where Okur failed to play even decent bball. I remember vividly that the official website of the championship even hinted that he might be the best Center of the tournament. However, he did not show up at all, and the turkish fans were justifiably pissed off. They were counting on a sort of Nowitzkian performance from their talented big guy. Well that was not to be. Okur lated claimed that his having overtrained to attain an NBA kind of fitness, exhausted him beyond his plans, and finally causing his awful performance.
That said, Memo started playing a great season for the Jazz. He is a popular figure among fans, because his private training-sessions paid off huge for the Jazz organization, if not for us.
here is new Okur after training.


Memo of the past, in Detroit's championship parade