Currently there are 4 Turkish players in the NBA.
Enes Kanter is a very good offensive player, Cedi Osman can ball although he is a defender
as well.
Furkan Korkmaz is hitting some threes for the 76ers and so is Ersan Ilyasova for the
Bucks.
But there is one guy who did that all before them.
One of the first 3 point shooting big men, the first Turkish All-Star and an NBA Champion.
What’s up guys.
PRPLPRNCH here and today we’re looking at Mehmet Okur and his career.
Before we start I wanted you to take a quick look at this game.
Jolly Bat is a really cool 2D game where your main goal is to safely fly your bat to the
finish line.
Get into practice mode to figure out the physics of the game.
There are 10 seasons, 200+ levels to complete and you can also try to get the highest score
in the game by competing in the score mode where you’ll be ranked against other players
around the world in the leaderboards.
It’s available on Android and iOS so get it now and try it out!
I’ll post links down below.
Ok.
Back to basketball.
Okur started his professional career in 1997 when he was a member of Oyak Renault team
in Turkish Basketball League.
A season there, one season in Tofas and in 2000 he was transferred to one of the better
known Turkish teams - Efes Pilsen.
Mehmet Okur was drafted with the 37th pick in the 2002 NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons,
but instead of moving to America right away Okur stayed one more season in Turkey.
That was quite a successful decisions as Okur won the Turkish Basketball League championship
in 2002.
He averaged 13.5 points per game during his last season in Turkey.
Okur joined the Detroit Pistons for the 2002-03 NBA season.
Mostly coming off the bench Okur played in 72 games, averaged 19 minutes, 6.9 points
and 4.7 rebounds.
In his second season with the team, Okur already averaged 9.6 points and 5.9 rebounds and by
each game he was becoming more and more comfortable in the NBA.
His lack of experience in big games relegated him to bench duties during the Pistons 2004
playoff run, but nevertheless he had some solid games along the way and he was with
the team when the Pistons won the 2004 NBA Championship, so just 2 years into his NBA
Career, Okur was an NBA champion.
Due to salary cap limitations the Pistons weren’t able to pay a top-level salary for
Okur, so instead he signed a 6 year, $50 million contract with the Utah Jazz.
That was the best decision of his career.
In Utah Okur was one of the highlights.
Already in his first season Okur played 28.1 minutes per game and rewarded the team with
12.9 points and 7.5 rebounds.
For his second season he came back with a 3-point shot.
He started attempting 3 3-point shots per game which for this day and age seems laughable,
but back then, it was insane for a big guy.
And.
He converted 34.2% of those 3pt shots.
2005-2006 season was Okurs best year.
He played all 82 games, averaged career high 18 points and 9.1 rebounds.
He continued his strong performance next year by averaging 17.6 points and 7.2 rebounds
and making the NBA All-Star game.
Okur was the first Turkish player ever to be selected in the NBA All-star game.
Even though his point totals went down a bit he was now attempting 4.2 three pointers per
game and making them at 38.4% rate.
It was clear now that Okur is a serious threat from deep and that’s why his rebounds went
down as he was shooting more from distance not under the basket.
The Utah jazz finished the 2006-07 season as the 4th seed in the Western Conference
and went all the way to the Western Conference finals where they lost to eventual champions
- the San Antonio Spurs.
Next season, With the emergence of Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams and Andrei Kirilenko
Okur was now featured less on offense but still averaged a solid 14.5 points per game.
He averaged 17 points per game again for the 2008-09 season and
On January 12th, 2009 Okur even established a new career high in points by scoring 43
points against the Indiana Pacers.
Okur also had a good 2009-10 season for the Jazz, but unfortunately in the first game
of the 2010 playoffs against the Denver Nuggets, Okur was driving to the basket and ruptured
his achilles tendon.
He had been dealing with Achilles tendinitis for about 2 weeks at that point and played
through painkillers.
It was especially devastating because Okur now also had to miss the World Basketball
Championships in his native Turkey.
The achilles injury effectively ended his career.
Okur made his on-court return on December 17, 2010 and scored just 2 points against
the Hornets.
But the rest of the season was injury-riddled and in total he played just 13 games.
During the NBA lockout Okur signed a contract with Turk Telekom and played there until the
NBA lockout ended.
And when it did, the Jazz didn’t need him anymore.
Once one of the most prolific shooting big men in the game was now just an injury riddled
former self.
Okur was traded to the New Jersey Nets but ended up playing just 17 games there.
In March, 2012 he was once again traded.
This time to the Portland Trail Blazers.
He was waived just a week later.
Injuries had finally caught up on him and later in 2012 Okur retired from basketball.
Mehmet Okur retired from the game of basketball at just 33 years of age.
He finished his NBA career with 634 games played and averages of 29.1 minutes, 13.5
points and 7 rebounds.
He was a 1x NBA Champion and a 1x NBA All-Star.
For his career, Okur shot 37.5% from the 3-point range and in total made 596 three pointers.
One of the finest shooting big men of the mid 2000-s and the pride of Turkey.
Okur returned to the NBA in 2016 to work for the Phoenix Suns player development, but was
fired after just 1 season.
Thanks for watching the video guys.
How do you remember Mehmet Okur?
Could he have become a multiple time All-Star or he was already declining before the injuries?
Leave your comment down below.
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This was PRPLPRNCH, and I’m out!