East Rutherford, N.J. » Neighbors at home in Salt Lake City while playing for the Jazz, Andrei Kirilenko and Mehmet Okur could meet on the court this summer in Turkey at the FIBA world championships.
Kirilenko and Okur traded text messages Tuesday after the draw for the tournament was announced, with Russia and Turkey in Group C (along with Greece, China, Puerto Rico and Ivory Coast) and set to play Aug. 29 in Ankara.
Kirilenko is committed to play for Russia after taking off last summer to complete the adoption of his baby daughter. Okur, however, is not guaranteed to play for Turkey, even as one of the host country's biggest NBA stars.
"I would love to play, but they've been playing with the young kids the last couple years," Okur said. "Maybe I'm too old for them, so who knows what's going to happen?"
Okur said he planned to meet with Turkish basketball officials -- possibly not until after the Jazz's season -- about the possibility of playing. He last played for the national team at the 2007 European championships.
He has skipped national team play in recent summers, however, and was quoted on his Web site last summer as saying, "The federation has never stuck up for me," in addition to other comments interpreted critically.
Okur said he was simply trying to discuss his role on the team and the desire by Turkish officials for him to play as a more traditional low-post center instead of a perimeter shooter.
"Everybody got mad about that, because they thought I was saying something wrong," Okur said. "I wanted to say the system's not really helping me out out there. My basketball is getting worse and worse when I play classic No. 5."
Kirilenko and Okur could see another teammate in group play if Kosta Koufos returns to the Greek national team for a second summer. Koufos was part of Greece's bronze-medal winning team at last summer's European championships.
Deron Williams is committed to playing for USA Basketball -- which opens Aug. 28 against Croatia and is in the same group as Brazil and Slovenia -- while Carlos Boozer has said he would play again if asked.
Briefly
With the Jazz in Atlanta today, Williams will make an in-studio appearance with Charles Barkley and Co. tonight as part of TNT's doubleheader. ... Matt Harpring will join the Jazz's broadcast crew for Friday's game against the Hawks. ... To promote his All-Star candidacy, Williams' representatives created a spoof of the Coors Light/NFL coach press conference ads featuring Williams. The video is at deronwilliams.com. ... In his second game back from knee surgery, Kyle Korver had seven points and hit a three-pointer in 11 minutes off the bench. ... Okur struggled with foul trouble and finished with eight points and six rebounds. He has scored 20 points or more just once in 21 games this season.
