Okur not centered on 5 spot

CLEVELAND — Mehmet Okur, center.

It says it right in the Jazz media guide. It says it right on the NBA All-Star Game ballot. It may as well say it right on his license plate.

CENTER.

Why?

Even Okur isn't sure.

"I don't know why they call me 'center,' " he said.

The big Turk is not alone.

"He's just a basketball player is the only way I look at it," Jerry Sloan said.

"Categorization," the Jazz coach added, "sometimes gets you in trouble."

So why do they — whomever "they" are — do it?

Blame Okur's 6-foot-11 frame.

Blame the name game.

What the heck — blame Carlos Boozer, who gets blamed for everything from stealing money (in the figurative sense) from a blind man (quite literally) to bailing on Cleveland (quite understandable) to stealing money from Larry H. Miller (again, figuratively speaking) to having more bathrooms in his home (13) than any man with a healthy bladder should.

Size speaks for itself. So does the need to call Okur something besides "really big dude." But Boozer? Here is why he can be blamed:

On the very same 2004 offseason day in which Boozer signed an offer sheet from Utah — getting then-Cavaliers owner Gordon Gund (he indeed is blind) to let him out of the second year of his first NBA contract with Cleveland, then using the escape opportunity to land a six-year, $68 million deal from the Jazz rather than re-sign with the Cavs — Okur signed one as well.

The Jazz had their power forward of the future in Boozer, billed as the perfect fill for Karl Malone's vacant shoes.

Okur, who signed for $50 million over six years to leave Detroit for Utah, was the second half of one-two punch team officials envisioned joining then All-Star small forward Andrei Kirilenko in a downright dreamy frontcourt.

And if Boozer indeed was to be the power forward, Okur was, well — he had to be the center.

But Boozer, because of injuries, has not played a game since last Feb. 14 — prompting some in Utah to feel Jazz owner Miller is not getting fair value for those hefty checks he has been signing.