Enes Kanter

This blog offers us a bit more freedom in discussing some of the key issues of the day. Of course, today’s key issue: Enes Kanter, the Turkish center who was the centerpiece of this year’s recruiting class.

If you don’t know yet, here’s a quick rundown: the New York Times’ Pete Thamel–who also wrote an article about Eric Bledsoe over the summer that ignited a controversy–talked to the general manager of the Turkish team Enes Kanter played for. The general manager said the team paid Kanter about $100,000, which included a monthly salary during Kanter’s last year. If you want to read the full article, go here. Full Kernel coverage can be found here.

Keep in mind that nothing is official yet. The NCAA is still reviewing Kanter’s case, and even if the Times article is true, it doesn’t seem as though the NCAA would have learned any new information from it. By no means is this a guarantee that Enes Kanter will not be donning the No. 0 jersey for UK this year (which I was looking forward to immensely, as I’m quite impartial to a zero hero).

With that as our backdrop, let’s run through some of this stuff.

• For starters, Thamel was not in Istanbul, Turkey just to write this article. He was covering the FIBA World Championships.
• The biggest question surrounding the team’s payments is the salary. A new rule was recently put in place to help foreign players gain NCAA eligibility without having to sit out games as punishment — SI’s Luke Winn had a very thorough post on this subject back in March, and it actually focused on Kanter — that also said teams could pay “necessary” expenses, such as housing and food. If the salary allegations are true — the general manager did not provide documentation to the Times, but said he did give the NCAA records of salary payments — then the chances of Kanter playing for UK this year are basically zero.
• Kanter obviously wants to play for UK. He could be making rather large sums of money over in Europe, even if he wanted to eventually land in the NBA. Instead, he chose to play for UK, and perhaps more importantly, for John Calipari. How much this influences the NCAA Eligibility Center will be interesting to see.
• Kanter is really the one player UK can’t afford to lose. If Kanter can’t play, the Cats are left without a sure post-player replacement for DeMarcus Cousins. Josh Harrellson, who averaged less than two points and two rebounds in four minutes per game last year, is the only other center on the roster. If he is asked to assume back-to-the-basket duties, UK would be exposed down low. Terrence Jones and Eloy Vargas are power forwards, and neither seems to provide a big body down low, although either could end up being asked to play big minutes. Kanter was expected to be an instant force down low, becoming a top SEC player for another team short on experience but long on talent. Without him, the makeup of the Cats’ roster drastically changes. Although we saw what UK can be without Kanter when they took to the Canadian gyms, I’m not sure that sweeping a three-game exhibition series correlates to March success.
• Speaking of Cousins, his Twitter feed has been fairly devoted to supporting his supposed successor. He gave a quick four-hashtag battle cry of “#FreeEnes #FreeEnes #FreeEnes #FreeEnes” in response to the situation.
• On a personal level, I was extremely excited to see someone step up and don the No. 0 jersey. Kanter is all set up to become a mini-Tony Delk (who, if you remember, rocked the double-zero in his days).
• It will be interesting to see if this gets added to the list of bullets in the gun for John Calipari haters. After some previous eligibility scandals — Marcus Camby, Derrick Rose, and the two vacated Final Fours that came with them — this is an issue that continues to come up all the time (the Anthony Davis story, the Eric Bledsoe story). Considering that Kanter hasn’t played any games for UK, and the issue is with his relationship with the Turkish team and not with Calipari, it shouldn’t be an issue. But that doesn’t mean people looking for more examples to decry Calipari may not turn to this story.

Of course, all this is still in the speculative stages. The Times didn’t physically see the proof that the team says it has, and considering the team stands to benefit financially in the form of a transfer fee if Kanter doesn’t play college ball, the door is still open that Kanter could be ruled eligibly. We should find out a decision soon. Before the Times article came out, Calipari told the Sporting News at a book signing he expected a decision within two weeks. If the article changed the timetable at all remains to be seen. But something should be happening soon enough.