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Utah Jazz center Memo Okur will not sign with Fenerbahce Ulker, an Istanbul-based professional club in his native Turkey.

The team’s general manager denied reports Saturday that his club was pursuing Okur.

Aydin Ors told Salsabasket.net, a basketball website in Turkey, that Fenerbahce Ulker wasn’t planning to sign any new players.

Hours earlier, website MixBasket reported that Fenerbahce Ulker and Okur were negotiating a one-year contract, which would have included an opt-out clause in case the NBA lockout is settled.

Attempts to contact Okur’s agent, Marc Fleisher, were unsuccessful Saturday.

Since being taken in the second round of the 2001 draft by Detroit, Okur has played nine NBA seasons, including the past seven in Utah.

A native of Yalova, Turkey, Okur has averaged 13.7 points and 7.1 points in 617 games during his career.

He played on the Pistons’ NBA championship team in 2004 and represented the Jazz in the 2007 All-Star Game.

Okur, who turned 32 in May, played only 13 games last season after rupturing his Achilles tendon in the first round of the 2010 playoffs against Denver.

He has one year and $10.9 million remaining on his contract with the Jazz.

Steve Luhm

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When high school principal Lory Curtis began his search for a commencement speaker, a colleague suggested former Utah Jazz coach, general manager and team president Frank Layden.

Curtis loved the idea, but he wondered if Layden was “too big” to consider the job of addressing the 378 students who made up his Class of 2011.

After all, Curtis doesn’t run a typical football-on-Friday-night school.

His recent graduates are also inmates at Utah State Prison who use the educational opportunities provided by Canyon School District as preparation for their futures.

Finally convincing himself there was nothing to lose, Curtis called the Jazz and left a message for Layden, who returned it almost immediately.

“He said he would love to do it,” Curtis recalled this week. “Then he gave a fantastic speech. The people around here are still beaming about it.

“I didn’t expect he’d come. I thought he might be busy or out of town, and maybe he was. But he made time for us.”

So what else is new?

Story continues below

Speeding toward his 77th birthday, Layden is more active than most men half his age.

His post-basketball life revolves around his wife, their three children and 11 grandchildren who range in age from 5 to 25.

“Ten girls,” says his wife, Barbara, “and one boy.”

Beyond family, the fame Frank Layden gained while running the Jazz through their formative years in the 1980s continues to make him one of Utah’s most recognizable faces.

Unlike many others, however, Layden embraces nearly every opportunity to lend his name and support to any charitable or public-service effort that comes along.

For 20 years, he has served as honorary chairman of the Rotary Club of Sugar House’s Chili Open. The wintertime golf tournament has raised $3.5 million for local charities.

But Layden’s philanthropy runs the entire spectrum.

Cancer awareness and crime prevention.

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That’s all for today guys, i’ll be back to blog you tomorrow.