Memo's dad is in the ICU; Deron may make a go of it tonight

We've all heard by now that Mehmet Okur has been excused by the Jazz brass, and has flown to Turkey to take care of a family crisis. It doesn't take much interneting skill to figure out what happened. One only has to go to Memo's official website to get the straight dope:

"Utah Jazz center Mehmet Okur's father Abdullah Okur has been sick for a long time now. His condition got worse about two weeks ago as he was taken into intensive care.  However a few days ago he showed strong enough signs of recovering and that the doctors moved him to a normal hospital room. Yesterday his condition all of a sudden deteriorated and he was immediately taken back into intensive care once again. Memo was informed of his condition and today spoke with both coach Jerry Sloan and general manager Kevin O'Connor both of whom said that he should immediately go to be with his family. Memo is going to be on the first flight to Istanbul. " (via MEMO13.com, 2008)

This is saddening news, and I hope that the Okur family is able to have the peace and time needed to properly resolve this situation -- family IS bigger than work. And I wish that Mehmet comes back to the USA soon, but only after he knows it's the right time to do so. (e.g. Don't leave your dad in the ICU to go and rush back to play against the Charlotte Bobcats or Sacramento Kings or anything silly like that.)

It's easy to be selfish as a Jazz fan and be upset that another one of your starters can't play every game, the prospect of being down two is bad enough. Compounding things, Kyrylo Fesenko has VISA issues that needed to be resolved (somehow, in Toronto), so he's not going to be there to bang against Dalembert and Brand either. Collins is still hurt as well. [Better hope that Kosta is a big fan of Disney movies, because he has his perfect Disney movie chance now to shine!]

As a result of this new development, or by some magical hotel rest, 1320 KFan has reported (and it was confirmed by the Deseret News here; and the Salt Lake Tribune here) that Deron Williams is expected to play tonight.

Now I just check SLC Dunk and see that I had no reason to blog any of this has Basketball John already explained everything! (Early bird gets the worm I guess)