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The NBA reacted in favor of Portland's Enes Kanter on Thursday, shortly after the league's Twitter account focused on Turkey failed to mention Kanter's efforts in the Trail Blazers' win over Denver in the second game of the series. semifinal of the Western Conference of the teams.
The league has also fired the Turkish company responsible for operating this account.
Kanter – who is a stranger to Turkey, his home country for at least two years and a longtime critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – had 15 points and nine rebounds in Portland's 97-90 win on Wednesday night. After the match, the NBA tweeted a list of statistics leaders and included Kanter; the Turkish account @NBATurkiye makes no mention of Kanter.
"It's hurtful": Enes Kanter responds to the abusive fan of the Nuggets who shouted, "go back to Turkey, oh, wait, you can not"
The starting point of the Trail Blazers said to have been hurt by the remarks of a fan who had said: "Go back to Turkey, oh, wait, you can not" during the victory of the Blazers match 2.
This is the last turning point in a long saga, the one in which the Turkish government has demanded Kanter's arrest, including the fact that the government was censoring him and forbidding the broadcast of Portland games in the country. The NBA said that Turkish fans could still see all matches via its different platforms.
"Fans in Turkey can watch all the playoff matches with Enes Kanter and the Portland Trail Blazers on NBA League Pass and NBA TV International," said Mark Tatum, deputy commissioner and chief operating officer of the NBA. "The NBA Turkey Twitter account has been managed by a local supplier and we are ending this relationship."
The National Basketball Players Association also told Kanter on Thursday that it "fully supports players who use their platforms to defend their beliefs and the principles that they defend." We support Enes and, like all of our players will ensure that he is treated fairly and with respect. "
Kanter previously stated that he would apply for an American passport; his Turkish version was canceled in 2017. Citing security concerns and a fear of being arrested, Kanter chose to miss two matches outside of the United States in 2019 – when he was with the Knicks of New York, he did not accompany them for a match. London in January, and he did not travel with Portland for a game in Toronto on March 1st.
His reluctance to leave the United States coincides with the Turkish authorities who were seeking a "red light" via Interpol and who had been pursuing Kanter's arrest since January, claiming that he was supporting the exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and provided financial support to his group. Gulen was blamed for a failed coup d'état against the Erdogan government in 2016; Kanter called this a "false coup d'etat" staged by Erdogan.
– The Associated Press
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