New Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter has some history with critics who have been skeptical about his impact in the most important games.

Kanter, 27, has spent eight seasons in the NBA, playing most recently for the New York Knicks and Portland Trail Blazers this past season. Before that, Kanter spent three-plus years with the Utah Jazz and two-odd years with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

During the 2017 postseason with the Thunder, a clip where viewers could mouth-read OKC head coach Billy Donovan saying “can't play Kanter” went viral, further inoculating that Kanter was a negative player on the court. After Kanter signed with Portland following being waived by New York, he had a few standout performances in the playoffs for the Blazers, contributing to the team's first conference finals appearance since 2000.

After beating Donovan and the Thunder in the first round, Kanter responded to that viral moment:

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Kanter talked to Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype about his decision to send that tweet:

There was this video where [Donovan] says, “Can’t play Kanter,” so I just wanted to go out there and prove everybody wrong. I wanted to go show the whole world, yes, I can play. Yes, you can play Kanter. My focus was just going out there and playing for my team and just winning. With the leadership of Dame [Lillard] and CJ [McCollum], the game just comes so easily and we were able to win that series.

Enes Kanter, a 6-foot-11 center from Turkey, went on to say Portland was “definitely one of the best stops” in his career.

The defensively challenged big man, who's often in the press for beefing with Turkey's president, averaged 13.7 points and 9.8 rebounds in 67 appearances between the Blazers and Knicks, shooting 54.9% from the floor.