CHICAGO (SportsRadio 610)- There's only been one Turkish player ever selected to an NBA All-Star team, and Alperen Sengun interrupts me before I say his name.
"Mehmet Okur, yeah," Sengun said with a nod and a smile.
Okur played 10 seasons in the NBA as a sharpshooting center for the Detroit Pistons, Utah Jazz and New Jersey Nets from 2002-2012, making the Western Conference All-Star team in 2007.
"Mehmet Okur is like my brother, my big brother," Sengun told SportsRadio 610 after Wednesday's shootaround in Chicago. "He texted me when I was 16-years old when I was on the (Turkish) national team. He said, 'You're gonna be a big player'. He saw it at that time."
In his third NBA season, Sengun has put himself in position to put his name next to Okur's in Turkish basketball lore. He leads the Rockets in scoring (21.4) and rebounding (9.0) while shooting 54 percent, to go with 5 assists, and became the first Rocket to be named Western Conference Player of the Week since James Harden in November 2019.
"I would say I saw he was locked in from the time the season last year ended," Rockets forward Jae'Sean Tate said after Wednesday's overtime loss in Chicago that saw Sengun score 25 points after a scoreless first half. "Every year he's been here he's improved, and he's gonna continue to do that because he wants to be great."
Back in March, as the Rockets were headed towards another 60-loss season, Sengun understood the importance of his third NBA season.
"These first two seasons were about learning," Sengun told SportsRadio 610 on March 31. "Next season has to be good for me, and I need to work hard, and I'm going to work hard, and I'm going to come to camp and be focused on my body and my shooting."
The 21-year old backed up that talk. He spent the summer working Djordje Sijan, a Serbian coach who he has known was a teenager, on his outside shot and fundamentals, which included crossovers, footwork, ball handling, and making quick decisions.
"He's a disciplined guy, which I love," Sengun said. "I just knew I needed to work hard and do everything for this season and on the court do what I can do best for my teammates and my team."
Sengun said his focus during the offseason was squarely on basketball, even when his family joined him for a week in Santa Barbara, which he says was his only vacation of the summer.
"I know I need to work if I want to be a winning player. We didn't have good first two seasons, but at some point, you gotta win."
With Sengun leading the way, the Rockets are winning at a much higher clip than the previous two seasons. They've won half of their 36 games after winning 20 and 22 games in Sengun's first two NBA seasons, and he is a big reason for the jump.
"He's been great for us," Tate said. "He's an All-Star caliber player."
