Okur said, "As a sportsman who represented my Türkiye in the best way at highest level for years, as a result of back to back injuries I suffered especially last 3 consecutive years, and after all of my tries to come back, I now understood that I will never be old Mehmet Okur again. While I was practicing with my private trainer, I recieved offers from countless NBA teams and elite teams of Europe. Despite, especially if a player's body who passed a treshold would not allow the player to be the same as his old self, it's time for him to say goodbye to the sport he's long loved and become a part of his life, and this moment has come for Mehmet Okur"