Enes Kanter Is A Great American

A lot of us could learn from the Turkish icon.

We’ve followed the saga of Boston Celtic Enes Kanter, who has drawn the ire of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, for a while now.

Erdoğan, it’s safe to say, does not take criticism well and has made life as miserable for Kanter as possible. He’s threatened his family, yanked his passport and the government has harassed him consistently. The Celtics took a European trip recently and Kanter did not go, because he thought that he might be arrested and sent back to Turkey.

Despite it all, Kanter, who has publicly disagreed with Erdoğan on multiple occasions, will not back down and on Friday, he did what most Muslims do and went to mosque for prayers, taking rookie teammate Tacko Fall along with him.

At the mosque, he was waiting for an Uber (given Fall’s immense size at 7-6 it must have been a really big Uber) when a couple of guys started hassling him.

He filmed them, they filmed him, and it didn’t get ugly but it might have. On the other hand, they were going after two guys who are 6-11 and 7-6 and strong as Oxen. Picking those fights is just asking for trouble and while those guys barked, they had the sense not to bite.

Kanter says he’s going to hire his own security now and who can blame him?

We’d like to make a half-serious suggestion. Since Fall is not yet on the team - he’s on an Exhibit 10 contract and his Celtics future is uncertain - why not hire him as security? He’s already causing havoc in practice accidentally. No one in their right mind is going to come after a 7-6 guy who is a physical powerhouse. Kanter should feel totally safe with Fall as a bodyguard.

And on another note, Kanter has been absolutely resolute in his determination to practice and preserve his free speech and his freedom of religion. He’s as natural an American as you could hope for. Despite our headline, he is not a citizen but he should be and we hope he becomes one. We know there’s a process but if it were up to us we’d swear him in tomorrow. Some of us could use a new role model.