"Mehmet Okur became someone else and a player when he shots a little bit in the NBA. He escaped the harshness, wanted to play outside. Ibrahim Kutluay shoots better than you until he dies. If he misses, you will get that rebound. What if you miss, who will get the rebound?"
These words are a fragment from the interview with Bogdan Tanjevic made in January and published in Socrates magazine which one of the Turkey's leading sports magazine. FYI, Bojdan Tanjevic was the coach of Turkey's National Basketball team between 2003 - 2014.
Tanjevic
First of all, I want to talk about the thing that attracted my attention the most in the interview. "When he shots a little bit in the NBA..." A little??? We have to ask that little bit to Utah Jazz. Memo is one of two or three players with the best shots in the NBA among players with 2.10 and above. I'm talking about all times, not just when he was playing. At the same time, Tanjevic probably never saw him holding the great centers of the era (Shaq, Yao Ming, Tim Duncan) with an enormous defensive effort with a teammate who did not defend at all (like Carlos Boozer) while he was playing for the Utah Jazz.
I would like to remind you one more thing. People did not make up "The Money Man" nickname. If you type Mehmet Okur on google and search, you will see dozens of videos full of his last second baskets.
In today's basketball, no matter which coach you ask, Do you want to see a player who can hit 40 threes above 2.10, get 7.5 rebounds and can keep the molded pivot in front of him. I don't need to write what their answers will be. American sports commentator and analyst Bill Simmons redrafted Mehmet Okur's draft class from 2001 in this video (https://youtu.be/ofGV1onLOZs?t=1875) and put Mehmet Okur in 10th place. And he said, Memo was one of the players whose value was not understood at the time, because at that time, the value of the three-pointer pivot was unknown. Tanjevic did not know and appreciate the value of Memo, as Bill Simmons said. It looks like he still couldn't get it. It is understood that he is a basketball person who is unaware of spacing, does not follow today's basketball, and does not say what a tremendous three-pointer I had in my hand.
I am very upset when I see the coaches like Tanjevic who have remained in the structure of Old Yugoslavian basketball, which is currently in the Euroleague, and who make the painted area like public transport. But contrary to all that we have heard, I and those who agree with my writing will always remember Memo like this. THE MONEY MAN
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