Okur's eye sharp as his humor News Utah Jazz

Two days after his right eye was nearly swollen shut, Mehmet Okur stood by the free-throw line and launched the Basketball toward the hoop at the Jazz's training facility Sunday morning. The result? Nothing but ? backboard.

Fortunately for the Jazz and their starting center, Okur was joking around as curious onlookers watched and TV footage of him shooting was shot. Though his eye had black-and-blue evidence of being unintentionally whacked in the face by Oklahoma City's Chucky Atkins on Friday night, the Turkish veteran's vision was as good as his comedic timing and his spirits at the team's first practice since the painful eye-closing incident. His aim ? as he displayed while swishing several long shots in a row on multiple occasions during warm-ups ? was fine again, too. Okur and the Jazz weren't quite so sure that would be the case when he was poked in the eyeball by the Thunder guard in the first half Friday. But Okur repeated what he pointed out in an interview after Utah's road win when he looked like he'd just gone 12 rounds with Muhammad Ali. Okur simply reiterated that "stuff like that happens" and added that he's grateful the injury wasn't as bad as what happened to Phoenix star Amare Stoudemire. The Suns' center had to have season-ending surgery because of a partially torn retina ? an injury Okur first worried he might have suffered. While there is some swelling, bruising and visible blood in the white of his eye, no lasting damage occurred. He's back to seeing mostly normal and doesn't ? as some teased ? need to aim for the rim in the middle. "It feels almost 100 percent right now," Okur said. Okur plans on playing in Tuesday night's important TNT-televised matchup against the Houston Rockets. He even felt like returning to last Friday's game, but didn't. "It's weird feeling," Okur recalled. "I wanted to go back and play second half, but I wasn't able to see clearly and I was really having a tough time to see." Okur had a good laugh at his 2-year-old daughter's reaction when he returned home with a shiner for a souvenir. "She was like, next morning, 'Daddy, daddy. Oof, oof,' (which) means like somebody hurt me and stuff," Okur said. "It was fun." Okur and the Jazz were happy they had a break in the schedule to allow him to fully heal before the crucial stretch run. Coach Jerry Sloan, who's used 17 different lineups as his players have missed 142 man-games to injuries this season, admitted he thought, "Hopefully, he'll get better when we play on Tuesday night." Okur doesn't plan on wearing goggles or a mask like his former Detroit teammate, Rip Hamilton. By the way, this black eye doesn't even rank No. 1 on his list. His nastiest shiner happened during his first training camp in Utah in 2004. "(Carlos) Boozer got me one day at the preseason. He caught my eye," Okur said. "? This is nothing. I had even worse before." Andrei Kirilenko was among those giving Okur some good-natured grief on Sunday. The Russian forward smiled and said he isn't surprised Okur was back to work less than 48 hours after the injury. "He's a tough guy, tough," Kirilenko said. "Look at him. Seven feet tall, 250 pounds." Not to mention one tough-looking shiner. E-mail: jody@desnews.com