Mehmet Okur's hopes of representing Turkey at the FIBA World Championship in Ankara appear to be over with the Utah Jazz center having ruptured his Achilles tendon.

The 6ft 11in star suffered the injury in the second quarter of Utah's loss at the Denver Nuggets on Saturday.

The 30-year-old will have surgery and not begin his rehabilitation for at least three months.

The FIBA World Championship tips off on August 28.

Okur had been extremely confident going into the play-offs and looked forward to playing for the world title later this year with Turkey.

"How things change so quickly," Okur said on his website, memo13.com.

"If someone asked me 10 days ago what do you think, I would have said at least a Western Conference final.

"But now I just wish my teammates the best."

One of Okur's teammates, USA international Carlos Boozer, talked about the Turkey national team big man.

"For it to end like this is horrible," Boozer said.

"He had tears in his eyes last night (Saturday)."

Müller Magic

Malik Müller provided additional evidence that Germany have a very bright future in senior national team competitions by turning on the style in the international game at the Jordan Brand Classic on Saturday in New York.

Müller, a 1.85m guard that was a member of Germany's third-place winning side at the recent Albert Schweitzer tournament in Mannheim, travelled to America and dazzled onlookers in Madison Square Garden by pouring in 21 points and grabbing five rebounds.

Germany has been buzzing about the years ahead since last summer when Dirk Bauermann took a young side to Poland for the EuroBasket and led the side to a surprise 11^th place finish.

Elias Harris, 20, was in that team in Poland and he went on to become one of the big hits in American college basketball this year at Gonzaga University.

The 2.01m small forward averaged 14.9 points and 7.1 rebounds for the Zags as they reached the NCAA Tournament.

Another member of Germany's EuroBasket 2009 squad, Tibor Pleiß, was last week named Rookie of the Year in Germany's Beko BBL.

Pleiß, a 2.15m center, plays for Brose Baskets Bamberg.