NBA fires social media vendor after Enes Kanter scrubbed from posts
Enes Kanter is wanted in Turkey, his home country, for aligning with Muslim cleric and conservative political figure, Fethullah Gulen. By Jacob Bogage Jacob Bogage National sports writer and blogger Email Bio Follow May 2 at 8:19 PM Portland Trail Blazers center Enes Kanter is the only Turkish player with a significant role in the NBA playoffs, but fans in his home country can’t see much news about him.
Kanter scored 26 points and grabbed seven rebounds in Portland’s loss to the Denver Nuggets in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals, then had 15 points and nine rebounds in a Game 2 win. But the league’s Turkish Twitter account did not post any of his statistics or highlights. Kanter, 26, has emerged as one of Erdogan’s top critics. The eight-year NBA veteran refers to the president as a dictator and called him “the Hitler of our century.” In turn, Erdogan asked international law enforcement agencies in January to detain Kanter and remand him to Turkish authorities. Turkish media hardly ever mentions Kanter, but when it does, he’s called a terrorist and traitor. Praise of Kanter is enough to land Turkish nationals in deep trouble.
Mark Tatum, the NBA’s deputy commissioner and chief operating officer, said the account was managed by a local vendor and the league is terminating the relationship. This was not the first time the NBA omitted Kanter from its social media accounts. In December, the NBA Europe Instagram account posted an image and asked users to name the best active Turkish player, but mentioned only Cedi Osman, Furkan Korkmaz and Ersan Ilyasova.
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