Oklahoma City Thunder center Enes Kanter revealed that he was on the receiving end of a slew of social media death threats during and after the failed coup in his native nation of Turkey.
The NBA player took to his Twitter account on Wednesday to tell fans of the threats with some screen shots of them.
Buyrun Bakalım; pic.twitter.com/sUHBfRpyFB
— Enes Kanter (@Enes_Kanter) July 20, 2016
In Turkish, Kanter then noted, “Death threats continue to fall. Prayer does not stand still.”
The player has a long history of opposition to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and has in the past insisted that Erdoğan and his supporters have suppressed his basketball career.
Kanter was outspoken against Erdoğan’s rule after the bombing in Ankara in March, slamming Erdoğan for limiting his citizens’ access to social media during the unrest, according to ESPN.
The former third overall pick of the Utah Jazz also insisted that he was left off Turkey’s national team for Eurobasket 2015 because of his criticism of Erdoğan’s government. Turkish officials, though, insisted at the time that there was nothing political about the team roster.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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