This Sunday E:60 (9 a.m. ET) tells the full story of Enes Kanter, the Portland Trail Blazer whose native country of Turkey has identified him as a terrorist and issued an international warrant for his arrest.
Reporter Jeremy Schaap and producer Nicole Noren traveled to Turkey to get the government’s side of the story. For the first time Hedo Turkoglu, a former NBA star and current advisor to the Turkish President, speaks on camera.
“Entering Turkey as a visiting journalist isn’t a simple endeavor,” said Noren. “In order to obtain a press card, we had to first acquire letters from both the Turkish Embassy in Washington D.C., and the American Embassy in Ankara, Turkey’s capital.”
Noren said luckily the Turkish government was eager to tell its side of the story.
“Once Turkoglu agreed to the interview,” she said, “we were given our press cards and allowed to go to Turkey as working journalists for four days in February.
“The most surprising aspect of this story to me was the drastically different way Enes Kanter is regarded in America versus his home country. He is widely held up as a human rights defender in America, but in Turkey, no one wanted to even say his name,” Noren said. “As you’ll see in Schaap’s interview with Turkoglu, even though he was once Kanter’s teammate on the National team, he was visibly uncomfortable discussing Kanter.”
According to Noren, Turkoglu wasn’t the only person who was uncomfortable speaking publicly about Kanter.
“It was clear to us that many people, including those who don’t support [Turkish President] Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have very complicated opinions about Kanter. And that’s because Kanter’s spiritual mentor, Fethullah Gulen, is a polarizing figure in Turkey,” Noren said. “Kanter is arguably the most well-known Turkish NBA player in the world right now, but there are no billboards of him selling shoes. No advertisements on buses. In fact, it was only on our last morning in town, the day after the Feb. 7. NBA trade deadline, when we finally saw a mention of him. It was a small headline in the Daily Sabah, a newspaper often regarded as pro-government: “FETO TERRORIST ENES KANTER IS SACKED BY THE NEW YORK KNICKS.”
Interesting article on the state of cannabis in the NHL and how other leagues may respond. With expanding legality and research growing on the medicinal side, players associations will push to allow its utilization in future CBA negotiations. https://t.co/5GC9tvjj9b
— Alicia Jessop (@RulingSports) March 7, 2019
This might be the best piece on Giannis Antetokounmpo I've read since he started playing the Bucks.
Most fans see him as "the Greek Freak" but he knows his roots are Nigerian.
Great story by Marc J. Spears of the Undefeated.https://t.co/MdUQrTySNG— Raising Kane (@eugene_kane) March 6, 2019
One scouting guy told Renfrow's agent, "I wouldn't draft him but he'd start for us."
Wright Thompson at the combine is a treat: https://t.co/4R9S65laPJ
— Ben Strauss (@benjstrauss) March 7, 2019
Sandy Rosenbush, the first woman to hold office as APSE president, and co-founder of the Sports Journalism Institute, has been named the Red Smith Award winner for 2019. @sandyrosenbush https://t.co/GEeIyrWjyG
— APSE (@APSE_sportmedia) March 6, 2019
– Molly Mita
