Utah Jazz: Okur agrees on 2-year contract extension News Utah Jazz

More money, and more seasons in Utah, are in the bag for Mehmet Okur. The Jazz on Thursday night said they have agreed to a two-contract extension with Okur, their starting center and an NBA All-Star in 2007. The extension begins with the 2010-11 season and runs through the 2011-12 season, team spokesman Jonathan Rinehart said. ESPN.com reported its value to be $20.8 million over the two years.

One day after the Jazz's 2008-09 season ended in late April with a first-round playoff loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, Okur ? a 30-year-old native of Turkey ? expressed a desire to remain in Utah and extend his original six-year, $50 million contract. Extension possibilities were discussed by Jazz management and Okur's agent, Marc Fleisher, in late June, but rather than agree to a deal then Okur decided on the last day of the month ? his deadline at the time to opt out of the final season of his current contract with the Jazz ? to simply return next season at $9 million. Having agreed to an extension now, he forfeits his right to enter the NBA's 2010 summer shopping market as an unrestricted free agent. But Okur will become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2012, the same offseason in which point guard Deron Williams must decide whether or not to exercise the $17,779,458 fourth-season option on his current rookie contract extension. Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor did not return a phone call seeking comment on renewed talks about the extension, which quietly have been ongoing since at least the middle of last week. Okur ? a strong outside shooter who prefers to play on the perimeter ? averaged 17.0 points and 7.7 rebounds per game last season, his fifth with the Jazz . He came to Utah in 2004 from Detroit, where in his second NBA season he was a reserve big man on the Pistons' title team. e-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com