When Enes Kanter went to the United States to hone his basketball talents, he wasn't well-versed in speaking English. Recently, the New York Knicks center admitted that he watched SpongeBob to learn the language. And the show's Twitter account reacted to the news.

Kanter moved to the United States in 2009 to play ball and hopefully, inch closer to his NBA dreams. He suited up for theĀ Stoneridge Preparatory School in Simi Valley, California andĀ then for the University of Kentucky.

Per CBS New York, the 26-year-old recalled his first few days in a foreign land with a language he wasn't well-versed in. He turned to the cartoon SpongeBob because he wanted to learn the street language:

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ā€œThat cartoon is where I got my English from. In college, I couldnā€™t play and I sat down and watched two shows: SpongeBob and Jersey Shore. I wanted to learn the street language and not the normal language. It helped my English a lot.ā€

One of basketball's most critical element is effective communication. Players don't just dribble, throw hand signs to signify the play, and shoot. Effective verbal engagement, too, is part of their everyday work.

And given Kanter's confession, apart from countless hours at the gym and numerous basketball drills and scrimmages, the hours that he spent in front of the television watching SpongeBob and his friends converse have shaped him as the player he is today.