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Enes Kanter recently declared himself for the WNBA Draft amid the trans athlete debate, and it has not sat well with two NBA analysts.
Kanter has been out of the NBA for a few years now, with some suggesting that his political comments landed him in hot water with league officials.
But with his recent ‘declaration’ that he would be entering the WNBA Draft, Kanter has drawn the ire of two NBA analysts.
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NBA analysts call out Enes Kanter for using WNBA to chase ‘social clicks’
Speaking on The Dan LeBatard Show, sports analysts Amin Elhassan and Jonathan Zaslow criticised Enes Kanter for his comments on the WNBA trans athlete debate.
They suggested that Kanter’s past criticism of LeBron James earned him the admiration of certain political groups, and his recent comments are being made to curry favour with those groups.
Amin Elhassan: “The Enes Kanter story. Enes Kanter was an okay NBA player, right? There are problems in his home country of Turkey. He spoke out about it, and he got his family in trouble.
“He became this figure, like this guy against this tyranny that’s happening back home, and he’s being persecuted by the authorities back home… Then when the whole Daryl Morey thing happened and everyone is like, ‘LeBron, you’ve got to say something…’
“Enes Kanter was one of the loudest voices saying, ‘Hey LeBron, if you’re all about the p[eople, civil rights and stuff, you should be mad about China, you should do something about it.’ For certain right-wing factions and Fox News was like, ‘Someone said s— about LeBron? Oh, tell me more!’
“So, Enes Kanter was like, ‘Oh this is my people here, you care about what I have to say? I’m a nobody NBA player.’ Now he starts coming back on Fox. When you reward someone for something, what do you think that’s going to make them do? They’re going to ring that bell over and over again…
“These wild conspiracy theories, which again, the Fox audience and the Fox bookers, they don’t care whether it’s accurate or not. They just care that he’s saying the things we like…
“That feeds into him, so now he gets all the way. So, a guy who started speaking about a very real injustice happening in his home country, now these are the shores we have landed on.”
Jonathan Zaslow: “The WNBA is the hot league when it comes to controversy and all the social clicks and all of that.
“So Enes Kanter has decided that, ‘I’ve been out of the league for five years now. I can get my name back into the mix here if I jump into this transphobe issue right now.”
Kanter has had a very long history of calling out LeBron James over various political issues, including the NBA and Nike’s activity in China, his stance on the COVID-19 vaccine, among many other matters.
While his recent comments aimed at the WNBA don’t have anything to do with LeBron, it has earned praise from audiences that don’t align with James’ political stances.
Kanter has faced backlash for his recent comments on the trans athlete debate that has engulfed the WNBA in massive controversy.
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