Enes Kanter gets an apology and is added to list of Turkey players
The Knicks' Enes Kanter dribbles the ball during the second quarter of a game at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 20. Credit: Getty Images/Sarah Stier
It seemed innocent enough when NBAEurope put up a social media post with a compilation of three Turkish players, asking which was having the best season. But the player from Turkey who was left out — Enes Kanter — took offense.
Kanter retweeted it twice, first commenting, “Wow! Scared to put my name up there lol U scared little rats. Turkish #DictatorErdogan affects” He then added, “The Association is supposed to stand up for inclusion and human rights. Stop freaking [being] scared of a #Dictator and do what is right. I hope you learned from this lesson.”
The NBA apparently did, because it revamped the photo collage to add Kanter alongside Cedi Osman, Furkan Korkmaz and Ersan Ilyasova and noted, “A must correction. Of course Enes Kanter should be included. Apologies. Turnover.”
Kanter retweeted the amended post with “Apology accepted.”
Said Kanter, “They called our PR guys with an apology. I don’t know who did it. But I accept the apology. I’m going to be the bigger man. At first I felt disrespected definitely, but then I talked to our PR guys and they said they had an apology. I said OK.”
Asked if he thought it could have been a slight because of his vocal opposition to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğgan, he said, “I mean, it’s Europe, man. It’s Europe. Anything can happen, man. I don’t want to say anything can happen, but I accept the apology. I’ll be the bigger man. But I’m not going to lie, in the beginning, I felt very disrespected.”
Injured Burke feared worst
Trey Burke limped off the floor Saturday unsure of how badly he had hurt his right knee, but he feared the worst.
“At the time I did,’’ he said. “I didn’t want to think the worst-case scenario, obviously. My first reaction was to get up and get back on defense. But then I felt injured at the time.”
He breathed a sigh of relief when X-rays revealed no significant damage. The diagnosis was a grade 1 MCL sprain.
He sat out Monday night’s game against the Wizards and hopes he won’t be sidelined much longer than that.
“I feel much better,” Burke said. “I don’t have a real update. I think by this weekend we’ll have a better understanding of when I’ll come back. Honestly, I feel really good. I’m walking way better. [Sunday] it was one of those days where I woke up in the morning and it was very sore. But today, I don’t even feel that soreness as much.
"Obviously, I still got to be cautious with it and take it day by day. I’ve been doing a lot of rehab on it. A lot of cold contrast, ice tub, cold tub. I think that’s made any inflammation or any swelling go down. I’m feeling good as far as where I am right now.”
