He's baaaaaack!

Boy, time flies when you’re having fun adjusting to life with a newborn. Anyway, many thanks to Tim Buckley for flying solo here for the past few weeks as I tried to be a helpful new (for the third time) papa. I’m excited to be back on the blogosphere for the home stretch, which, unfortunately for the Jazz, does not include a whole lot of home games.

Speaking of “He’s baaaaaack!” Mehmet Okur was back at practice with the Jazz this morning and was in a very jovial mood. A couple of days after being poked in the eye by Oklahoma City’s Chucky Atkins, Okur was teased – and did some teasing – about his shiner and not being able to see.

When reporters first approached Okur, he was hucking a basketball high underhanded up in the air and smacking one of the coach’s second-level windows. The hoop was at his back, so at first it appeared his eyesight was REALLY BAD and he was having some orientation and aiming problems. He assured us that wasn’t the case, saying he’s “almost 100 percent right now” after experiencing swelling and double-vision on Friday night.

After we got done with our interview and moved on to Jazz coach Jerry Sloan at today’s morning practice, Okur continued to pound the window with the ball. That prompted the coach to give him a hard time while he answered a question about how the center bounced back so soon.

“He’s not going to bounce back too quick if he keeps hitting that damn window,” Sloan joked. He then yelled a version of that at Okur, who laughed.

Memo later purposely missed some shots while a TV camera rolled tape, and then he joked around with assistant coach Phil Johnson as he approached the practice floor.

“Is that you, Phil? I can’t see you. It sounds like Phil.”

Okur also got razzed by Andrei Kirilenko, who joked about which of the baskets the Turkish big man should aim for.

It remains to be seen, so to speak, whether or not Okur will start seeing the 3-point line and stop putting the tip of his toenail on the stripe while shooting from long distance during games.

Anywho, it’s good to be back.

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Gotta give some props to the national champion Salt Lake Community College men’s basketball team. We followed their game online last night at the office, and that was a tremendous comeback for the Bruins. They went on a massive 22-1 run to erase a 15-point deficit en route to their first-place finish.

Speaking of SLCC and its first-ever NJCAA title, there is one particular note of interest for fans of the school that has produced two of the best power forwards in the history of the Utah Jazz. SLCC freshman D.J. Wright originally signed with Louisiana Tech before a series of events led the Toronto standout to the Bruins’ front door last spring.

The 6-7, 225-pound forward is apparently still heading to eventually play for the alma mater of Karl Malone and Paul Millsap, and it appears he could be a star in the making. Wright nearly averaged a double-double of 18.6 points and 9.5 rebounds during the season, and then was named MVP of the Region 18 Tournament and the NJCAA Tournament while helping the Bruins learn the words to that “We are the champions, my friend” song.