Travis Hansen's memo to Mehmet Okur: It will be OK

Since this is Monster Medical Month for the Utah Jazz, sidelined Mehmet Okur can receive solace that a fan living in Spain can relate.

Former Atlanta Hawk and BYU guard Travis Hansen feels Okur's pain. Hansen knows what it's like to have the Achilles tendon explode and have the body hit the floor like a sack of potatoes.

He knows how the calf muscle absorbs the shock and the lock-up that follows.

Hansen knows the worries, the concern of making it back, questioning if he'll ever be the same, if he'll be able to continue as an elite athlete, playing at the highest level.

Okur had surgery to repair his Achilles tendon on Tuesday after crumpling to a heap on the floor of the Pepsi Center last Saturday at Denver during Game 1 of the first round of the Jazz's NBA playoff series with the Nuggets.

The surgery was performed by Dr. Charles Saltzman, the chairman of the University of Utah's Department of Orthopedics.

Like Hansen, by all accounts the Jazz center is in good hands, and he should make a full recovery.

The bottom line: Take it easy and slow, nurse it back carefully, and Okur should be fine. He'll hopefully be able to get back to hitting big 3-pointers and his slow-developing power drive, along with his disco moves at clubs.

Hansen's injury occurred the first week of February in 2007. After a careful, slow and deliberate rehabilitation, he made it back by September, nearly eight months later.

Some experts say six months, but depending upon the procedure and extent of the tear, it could be eight.

"It took all of that eight months before Travis felt he could go 90 to 100 percent," said his father, Scott. Hansen then continued his successful and lucrative career playing in Europe and has excelled three years since the surgery.

Hansen was 27 years old and playing the first year of his contract for Dynamo Moscow when he blew out his Achilles tendon falling back to defend the post. He felt his left calf muscle explode as if shot by a rifle.

"I fell like a rock. I went down," Hansen said.