OKC Thunder in the news: Enes Kanter citizen of nowhere

The OKC Thunder finally converted Deonte Burton to a standard contract, and ESPN profiled Enes Kanter, highlighting the fact he does not have a country.

The OKC Thunder have found themselves in the news, a lot as of late. They recently inked guard Deonte Burton to a full-time contract, after Burton had spent the majority of the season on a two-way deal.

Secondly, former OKC Thunder center Enes Kanter was the center of a stellar ESPN 60 profile. The 32-minute segment detailed Kanter’s fight with his homeland of Turkey.

With that, let’s jump into the news:

Deonte the great is converted:

After much speculation, the Thunder did the inevitable and converted rookie guard Deonte Burton’s two-way contract into a standard NBA deal. T.I. scribe Lawrence George broke down Burton’s journey to the big leagues in a recent column.

"There is much debate whether the NBA Summer League reveals potential stars or not as many of the SL MVP’s have failed to take the next step in the NBA. However, for Burton, this was a terrific chance to showcase his skills."

The above paragraph from George’s piece highlights an excellent point. Playing great in the Summer or G-League does not guarantee success in the NBA. However, playing well certainly will not hurt a players stock in the least, perhaps a good showing can help build confidence.

Another interesting tidbit from George’s article is he mentioned the fact the Minnesota Timberwolves signed Burton as an undrafted free agent in 2017. Had Minnesota not waived Deonte, the deadline for him to sign a two-way deal with the Thunder would have been near expiration. Since he was cut in Minneapolis after camp, but before the start of the season, he did not log time as an NBA player, therefore his two-way clock did not begin ticking.

One final note of Burton, ESPN reporter Royce Young revealed Oklahoma City used part of their mid-level exception on Burton. The Thunder have a history of rewarding their players for sticking with the G-League process.

Such as, Andre Roberson, who eventually earned a 3-year 30-million-dollar extension, and Josh Huestis, who earned a three-year contract, worth nearly four-million-dollars. Young also revealed other contract details from Burton’s deal, which can be viewed below.

OKC used a portion of its tax mid-level to sign Deonte Burton to an NBA contract. Two additional years past this season worth almost $3.1m ($1.4m next season, $1.6m in 2020/21), with $1m guaranteed if not waived by 8/1/19 and $1.17m guaranteed for 20/21 if not waived by 8/1/20.
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) March 12, 2019

Citizenship-less Kanter

ESPN’s E 60 profile on former OKC Thunder center Enes Kanter, was eye-opening. If you have followed the ongoing saga between Kanter and the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan closely, chance’s are you are already familiar with most of the details discussed in the 32-minute TV spot and written work on ESPN. Nonetheless, a few things stood out.

Such as, Kanter and Fethullah Gulen were together at Gulen’s home in Pennsylvania during an attempted military coup in 2016. Also intriguing from the E 60 profile, their interview with Hedo Turkoglu was the first time a Turkish government official has spoken to the US media regarding Kanter, according to ESPN.

Turkoglu, a former NBA player is now a chief adviser to President Erdogan and the head of the Turkish Basketball Federation.

Enemy Of The State

Huge thanks to @espn and @60

Part 1: pic.twitter.com/87pHVq3JJP
— Enes FREEDOM (@EnesFreedom) March 12, 2019