Call to All-Stars surprises Okur

Mehmet Okur was driving when the call came.

"I saw the number — Salt Lake number," said Okur, the Jazz's 27-year-old big man. "And my heart, like, ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta. It got fast, fast, fast — you know, like, 'OK, something's going on, I need to answer this.'"

So he did.

Kevin O'Connor, the Jazz's basketball operations senior vice president, was on the line.

"Man," Okur said, "I started to sweat then."

It wasn't, however, a call saying the baby is on its way. That comes next month. Rather, it was that other call — the one he's hoped to receive since he was a teenager back home in Turkey.

And when O'Connor spoke — Okur had just been named an NBA All-Star, tapped by commissioner David Stern as a replacement along with Seattle shooting guard Ray Allen for injured Western Conference guards Steve Nash of Phoenix (sore shoulder) and Allen Iverson of Denver (sprained ankle) — the big Turk couldn't believe it.

"It was cute," O'Connor said.

"He thought I was fooling around with him," the Jazz's basketball boss added, "and I said, 'Memo, I wouldn't.' ... (He said), 'I wouldn't do that to you.' And I said, 'Well, I'm not doing it to you. Congratulations."'

Okur accepted the kudos, then tried to focus on steering straight.

"I'm so glad I didn't hit somewhere," said the 6-foot-11 Okur, perhaps best known this season for knocking down a team-high 92 3-pointers.

Fortunately for Okur — and especially Stern, who has had to replace four original Western Conference picks because of injury, including Jazz power forward Carlos Boozer and Houston center Yao Ming — there was no wreck.

Nor was the selection any accident.

Okur and Allen (who is averaging 26.9 points per game) were chosen over candidates including Jazz point guard Deron Williams, the league's No. 2 assists leader this season behind two-time NBA MVP Nash ("It's tough, man," Okur said. "I think he deserves it too."); Los Angeles Clippers power forward Elton Brand, who is averaging about 2 1/2 more points per game than Okur; and Portland power forward Zach Randolph, who is averaging 24-plus points per game but whose team's 22-31 record is not nearly as impressive of a record as the Jazz's 34-17, third-best-in-the-NBA mark.