Enes Kanter · Biography

Enes Kanter was born on May 20, 1992, in Zürich, Switzerland, to Turkish parents: his father, Mehmet Kanter, earned his medical degree at the University of Zurich and later taught at Trakya University, and his mother, Gülsüm, was a nurse. The family returned to Turkey, where he developed into a 6 ft 10 in center. He played in the NBA from 2011 to 2022 for the Utah Jazz, Oklahoma City Thunder, New York Knicks, Portland Trail Blazers and Boston Celtics, and on November 29, 2021, he became a U.S. citizen and legally took the name Enes Kanter Freedom.

From Fenerbahçe to Kentucky

Kanter came through the Fenerbahçe youth system between 2006 and 2008, under Serdar Apaydın. He then moved to the United States and spent the 2009-10 season at Stoneridge Preparatory School in Simi Valley, California. On April 14, 2010, he signed a National Letter of Intent with the University of Kentucky, but he never played a game for the Wildcats. The NCAA ruled him permanently ineligible over roughly $33,000 in benefits from Fenerbahçe beyond what its amateurism rules allowed, and on January 7, 2011, it denied the school’s appeal. His route to the professional game ran straight through the draft.

Turkey national team

He made his international debut with Turkey’s youth teams at the 2008 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship in Italy, where the MVP award went to Lithuania’s Jonas Valančiūnas. That same year he was named most talented player at the Albert Schweitzer Tournament. At the 2009 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship in France he was voted MVP as Turkey took the bronze medal. He declined to play at the 2010 FIBA World Championship, where the host nation won silver, and made his senior debut at EuroBasket 2011 as the youngest player on the roster. He was left out of the EuroBasket 2015 squad; Kanter tied the decision to his links with the Gülen movement, while the coach cited apologies owed to teammates.

Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder (2011-2017)

The Utah Jazz took him with the third overall pick of the 2011 NBA draft, without a single college game behind him. He spent three and a half seasons in Salt Lake City before a three-team deal involving the Detroit Pistons sent him to the Oklahoma City Thunder on February 19, 2015. That summer, as a restricted free agent, he signed a four-year, $70 million offer sheet with the Portland Trail Blazers on July 9; Oklahoma City matched it three days later. Playing off the bench, he finished third in Sixth Man of the Year voting for 2015-16, with 182 points and 19 first-place votes, behind Jamal Crawford and Andre Iguodala.

New York, Portland and Boston (2017-2021)

On September 25, 2017, the Thunder sent him to the New York Knicks, along with Doug McDermott and a 2018 second-round pick, in the Carmelo Anthony trade. New York waived him on February 7, 2019, and he signed with Portland six days later. He separated his shoulder in the 118-115 win over Oklahoma City that closed out the first round of the 2019 playoffs, then played through the injury in the second round against Denver, including a 140-137 quadruple-overtime victory. In July 2019 he signed a two-year, $10 million deal with the Boston Celtics, and on September 9 of that year he briefly held the WWE 24/7 Championship after pinning R-Truth at a Raw event. On November 20, 2020, a three-team trade with Memphis returned him to Portland.

Final NBA season (2021-2022)

On August 13, 2021, he rejoined Boston on a one-year veteran’s minimum contract worth about $2.7 million. On February 10, 2022, the Celtics traded him to the Houston Rockets with Dennis Schröder and Bruno Fernando for Daniel Theis, and Houston waived him on February 14. His NBA career ended with 748 regular-season games, 8,349 points (11.2 per game) and 5,822 rebounds (7.8 per game), plus 59 playoff games at 7.6 points and 5.9 rebounds.

Activism (2017-2025)

An outspoken critic of the Turkish government, he was refused entry to Romania on May 20, 2017, after the Turkish embassy cancelled his passport; he was held for hours before flying to London and on to the United States. In June 2022 he held a press conference in Canada with Senator Leo Housakos and MP Garnett Genuis on Uyghur forced labor. In January 2023 Turkey put a ₺500,000 bounty on him. In 2024 he attended the State of the Union as a guest of Speaker Mike Johnson, and on April 16 of that year he testified before Congress on human rights abuses in Turkey. His book In the Name of Freedom was published on October 7, 2025.