By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The official NBA Europe Instagram account posted a picture with Ersan Ilyasova, Cedi Osman, and Furkan Korkmaz while posing the following question: “Celebrating the best Turkish talent in the NBA, which player do you think has had the best season so far?”
Many followers worldwide noticed the absence of Enes Kanter from the chosen group and so did the player himself. As a result, Kanter reacted on Twitter and accused the Association of “not standing up for inclusion and human rights” as well as being “scared of dictator Erdogan” (Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkish President).
The Association is supposed to stand up for inclusion and human rights.
Stop freaking scared of a #Dictator and do what is right.
I hope you learned from this lesson. pic.twitter.com/mmR5FGMQFf— Enes Kanter (@Enes_Kanter) December 3, 2018
Wow! Scared to put my name up there lol ?
U scared little rats
Turkish #DictatorErdogan affects ?? pic.twitter.com/WQrrdPBLUE— Enes Kanter (@Enes_Kanter) December 3, 2018
The average stats so far in the 2018-19 season of the four players are the following:
Furkan Korkmaz: 4.9 points, 1.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists – 11.9 minutes
Ersan Ilyasova: 7.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.2 assists – 20.9 minutes
Cedi Osman: 11.4 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists – 31.9 minutes
Enes Kanter: 15 points, 11.6 rebounds, 2.1 assists – 27.5 minutes
UPDATE: NBA Europe created a new image that includes Enes Kanter and the forward of the Knicks accepted their apology.
Apology Accepted. pic.twitter.com/LHOtcLPPGz
— Enes Kanter (@Enes_Kanter) December 3, 2018