Okur feeling the baby blues

LOS ANGELES — Mehmet Okur really doesn't want to be here.

But the Jazz's starting center came anyway, leaving behind in Utah a newborn girl and a wife, former Miss Turkey Yeliz Caliska, still recovering in a hospital following C-section delivery.

Melisa Okur checked in about 6 p.m. Wednesday at 21.5 inches and weighing 9.5 pounds.

"This is tough," said Okur, who caught the Jazz's charter-plane flight Thursday for their visit tonight with the Los Angeles Clippers.

"My wife, she still feels not 100 percent. First baby, first day — and I have to leave the hospital and go play. And how much I can play? That's the point, you know — because I couldn't sleep two days."

Eventually, though, it was decided that Okur would make the one-game trip.

"I'll try to do the best I could out there," he said. "It could be five minutes, it could be 45 minutes."

Jerry Sloan hopes it's closer to the latter.

"I doubt he would want to come in and just play sparingly," the Jazz coach said.

After experiencing what he did this week, Okur isn't sure what he'll have to offer.

"I'm concerned about it, because he spent ... a great deal of time with his wife," Sloan said. "What kind of rest do you get with that?"

Not much, it turns out.

Hospital-room sofas, it seems, aren't exactly suited to 6-foot-11 NBA players.

"Little couch," Okur said. "I tried to sleep a couple hours, but I couldn't because my mind was with my wife ... I didn't leave the room. I was with her, I tried to support her. I think she did great."

Okur actually exited the Jazz's win over Golden State on Tuesday night late in the fourth quarter, immediately upon hearing his wife needed to go to the hospital.

He did not hesitate, having no idea at the time that it would be almost 24 hours later before Melisa actually made her debut.

"I just took off," Okur said. "I felt like I needed to go."

Sloan understood.

"Anytime that stuff comes up," he said, "you go do what you've got to do."

Besides, Sloan added, "When your head's somewhere else, it's pretty hard to play this game."