When Enes Kanter first sat down in front of the press at Celtics Media Day, there was a pause before anyone asked him a question. This happened with a couple players throughout the event. There didn't seem to be a specific reason that linked each instance. Though, in Kanter's case, it may have had something to do with the fact he brought in a tray of cookies for the media.
"They are shy. Thought I was going to be shy, they are shy," he said.
By the end of his seven-minute press conference, he said, "That's it? That was easy." A few days later, at the end of his availability following practice, Kanter again asked, "That's it?" after talking for roughly four and a half minutes.
It was hard to tell if he was expecting a 15-minute long back-and-forth or if he expected a tougher line of questioning. He could just say "That's it?" a lot.
Kanter may have played in Portland last — I admittedly know nothing about how the Blazers are covered — but he was in New York just before, playing for the heavily scrutinized Knicks. In the years prior to New York, Kanter spent few seasons in Oklahoma City, where one of his favorite teammates, Russell Westbrook, didn't always seem to get along with certain members of the media.
Boston is still sometimes regarded as a tough place to play because of the media. Whether or not that's a fair depiction is another story. Either way, perhaps he'd heard that in the course of signing with the Celtics.
That is not the case. Kanter told WEEI.com he hadn't heard a thing about the Boston media.
"Media is media," he continued. "Everybody is human. Everybody has feelings, everybody has heart. In the end, everybody's just trying to do their job, so you got to respect the people. They got to do their job, make their money and they got kids in the house. I always try to make their job easy. So I never, after a bad game or a bad loss — even if I play bad, I still go and try to talk to them and try to explain what was going through my mind because they have to write something. It's important."
Kanter's also had his share of fun with the national media. Specifically, Nick Wright of FS1, who's talked about the same flaw in Kanter's game everyone else likes to harp on: his defense. But even then, Kanter went on "First Things First" and things seemed to go smoothly.
Though, winning over Wright doesn't change his reputation. There are still questions about how he'll perform on the defensive end — aside from his work on the glass.
"Everybody, even the all-stars or whatever, (has) something to work on. My thing is defense, his thing is three-point shots, his thing is this, his thing is ball-handling, whatever," Kanter said, gesturing to patches of teammates working out at the Auerbach Center. "Just go out there and prove the haters wrong. Haters gonna hate."
Perhaps Kanter isn't fazed by whatever line of questioning he receives about basketball because he has other matters he's dealing with that are far more serious — like what happened to him after practice at a Mosque, which he shared on Twitter:
Hello Everyone!#DictatorErdogan @RTErdogan thugs attacked and threatened me today after Friday prayer in Boston at a mosqueTurkish Government don't even let me practice my religion freely in America let alone my freedom of speech is under attack@FBI@FBIBoston@bostonpolice pic.twitter.com/FH2Ixe6QcY
— Enes Kanter (@EnesKanter) October 4, 2019Today's harassment is a product of hate speech done 2 weeks ago.We should never ever let hate speech happen to anyone in America! pic.twitter.com/ozsdoRahFA
— Enes Kanter (@EnesKanter) October 5, 2019Still, he's going to receive more and more questions about his play once the season starts. But everything he's saying indicates he won't look for the drama other Boston athletes have dealt with previously.
