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Besides being a talented NBA player, and a regular social media troll, Enes Kanter is a social activist. The New York Knicks center hails from Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan currently reigns.
Kanter and Erdogan have not gotten along, and the former has been voicing out his displeasure with the Turkish President on social media for a long time. Erdogan responded by threatening him and his family with jail time. Kanter has still remained adamant about voicing his disapproval with Erdogan's regime, even if it means that Kanter won't be able to see his family again.
His family resides in Turkey, where Kanter has been declared an enemy of the state. The Knicks big man cannot return to Turkey without getting arrested. President Erdogan also made an edict to ban Knicks games from broadcast, while almost making it impossible to contact his family.
Still, even after all of this, Kanter remains true to his values even if it jeopardizes his communication with his family, per Yaron Weitzman of Bleacher Report.
“I didn't know it was going to be that,” Kanter says. “But then I thought about it: If I know that I cannot ever go back to Turkey, that I can never see my family again, I'd still do what I'm doing right now. I have no regrets,” he says. “That's why I love New York. I'm trying to be the voice of all these innocent people and there's no bigger stage that I can have to say more stuff about Turkey to show people what's really going on there.”
Although it's unfortunate that Kanter may not be able to see his family again in the near future, at least he is satisfied with making his voice heard.
