Enes Kanter impressed by Jaylen Brown’s young leadership

Now that the players association and the NBA are discussing ways for players to wear messages on the back of their uniforms in support of social justice, Enes Kanter considers his own message to be obvious.

“People know what I stand for. I put this on my shoes every day and I go out there and play every night. I stand for freedom through my whole NBA career,” said Kanter, a longtime critic of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and advocate for Turkish human rights. “So I think if I had to get a chance to put something out there on the back of my jersey, it would be ‘freedom.’

“When I say freedom I’m not just talking about the issues in my country, Turkey, or the issues in America. I’m talking about throughout the whole world… The problems are not just happening in America or Turkey, problems are happening all over the world. So that freedom represents the people who are fighting for their rights and are fighting for freedom.”

Not surprisingly, Kanter has spent considerable time discussing human rights with Jaylen Brown, who has tackled similar issues at an even younger age. And when Brown drove 15 hours to Atlanta to lead his own hometown protest following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, Kanter saw his young teammate take another important step.

“I think what Jaylen was doing was pure leadership. I learn a lot from him,” said Kanter. “I think we are all lucky to have him in our society. Because all that stuff I’m going through, I’m always — before the game, after practices or in the training room — we always have this kind of conversation: How can we use our platform to change or just bring light to what really matters?

“I think with his leadership, when he’s done with basketball and his career, he’s not just going to be known as just a basketball player. I think what he’s doing off the court is way bigger than on the court. And I’m very proud of him. I know what it’s like to fight for justice and freedom. So I told him he has all my support, if you need anything, please let me know. I can try to do anything for you. But I think before he’s a good basketball player, he’s a good leader. And I think definitely he’s been one of the biggest voices of the last month with what’s going on.

“We always talk about, like, how can we help each other? Because the thing with what’s going on in America, it’s not black against white, it’s everybody against racism. So we are all in this together. And so I feel like it’s not like I’m giving him advice, but we are always sitting down and having a conversation, seeing what we can do, what we can do more. Because there’s always things that we can push ourselves to learn more, educate ourselves more, listen more and try to do our best to inspire the young generation. I think that’s what all this is about. So it’s not an advice thing. It’s like sitting down and having a conversation.”

High potential

Kanter’s early glimpses of Rob Williams have been predictably high-flying. The young big man, who missed 20 games this season due to hip issues, is rested and fresh.

“He was actually downstairs working out. He looked amazing. He looked amazing to me. I feel like he didn’t even lose anything,” said Kanter. “Because we all just took off for, like, what, three months, and this guy just came back in the gym dunking anything. I’m like, how? Give me the secret. But I think he’s having fun, he’s learning. I think he’s in really good shape. He was actually just downstairs working out after me — by himself, obviously, following the rules. But he looks amazing. I’m excited about him.”

Knowing his role

Kanter started for Portland in last season’s playoffs due to a season-ending injury to Jusuf Nurkic, but doesn’t expect that role now — not considering how well Daniel Theis has fit into the starting lineup.

“I’ve played nine years in the league (and) most of the years I’ve made the playoffs. I remember I was actually playing with Gordon (Hayward) in Utah, I was coming off the bench,” said Kanter. “With Oklahoma City when we made the Western Conference Finals, I was coming off the bench.

“Once you’re in the playoffs you don’t really think about that stuff, you don’t really think about if you’re coming off the bench or are you starting, how many minutes are you playing because if you lose you go home. You have one goal, to just go out there and win because every position matters; one goal to try to win a championship.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3dVlRCD