Mehmet Okur is citing a back injury as the reason he wants to be excused from playing for his native Turkey in this summer's FIBA World Championships, Jazz basketball boss Kevin O'Connor said Tuesday.
O'Connor maintains the ailment adversely affected Okur late in the season that ended for Utah in April, even though the 6-foot-11 power forward did not miss any games because of it.
"The last 25 games, his back was bothering him," the Jazz's basketball operations senior vice president said. "We did the stretching with him, we did the ice with him, we did everything.
"The last 25 games," O'Connor added, "he had some games that were stinkers — but he wanted to play anyway."
According to a story posted Monday on the official Web site for FIBA, basketball's international governing body, Okur — who has not sat out a game during his two seasons in Utah — brought a medical report with him from the United States to back his claim for Turkish basketball officials that desperately want the nation's top star to play.
It's true that Okur did have an MRI scan performed before he returned home to Turkey earlier this offseason, O'Connor said.
The exam, he added, "showed some bulging in the disc."
A bulging disc — a term some use to describe when one of the shock-absorbing discs between the vertebrae protrudes in a non-ruptured fashion into the spinal canal, sometimes pressing against one of the nerves forming the sciatic nerve — is an injury common to athletes and non-athletes alike.
"The doctor," O'Connor said, "recommended he stay away from all jumping for a time, and strengthen his back muscles."
O'Connor said the Jazz would not stand in Okur's way if he really wanted to play at the World tourney in Japan, but also suggested that the franchise wants its leading scorer and rebounder from the 2005-06 season to be fully healthy when the '06-07 season gets under way.
Okur, evidently seeking a break from international play during the NBA offseason, played for Turkey at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
The 27-year-old had a Jazz-leading 35 double-doubles in the recently completed season, but failed to reach double-digit rebounds in Utah's final four games. In four other games among the Jazz's last 25, Okur failed to score more than seven points — including a seven-point, one-board effort March 6 vs. Orlando.
Turkey's coach, Bogdan Tanjevic, apparently is holding out hope that Okur will change his mind and join the national team in Japan.
SCRATCH SHELDEN? Unless they can trade up from No. 14, it's looking more and more like Duke power forward Shelden Williams — who worked out for Utah late last month — can be scratched from the list of possible picks for the Jazz in the June 28 NBA Draft.
According to a blog posting earlier this week by ESPN.com's Andy Katz, Williams "has a first-round promise" and is "confident he will be selected in the lottery and, according to multiple sources, within the top 10."
Besides Utah, Williams has auditioned for Boston (which owns the No. 7 pick), Houston (8), Golden State (9), Seattle (10) and New Orleans/Oklahoma City (12).
HMMM: According to a short note in a recent column by the Minneapolis Star Tribune's Sid Hartman, ex-Jazz forward Kris Humphries "never had a good relationship with coach Jerry Sloan."
The Jazz traded 2004 first-round draft pick Humphries, a former University of Minnesota star, and Robert Whaley to Toronto last Thursday for BYU product Rafael Araujo.
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com