Quotes from Enes Kanter

What am I doing, just playing basketball? It was eating at me. Because basketball, you play, you retire, you're done. I wanted to do something more.

The players, when we get in the locker room, we talk about what's going on. And the players always see how the management or how ownership treat other players, treat other players around.

I have a voice, and I'm trying to use it to be the voice for all the innocent people who don't have one.

I'm an NBA player with no shoe deal. No endorsement deal. And I play in New York!

I like pressure, the boos didn't mean nothing to me.

After I see in OKC, I see this is how NBA teams are. You know how you're like in a dream and you have a superpower and just don't want to open your eyes and end the dream? Oklahoma City's been like that to me.

I've been to playoffs before. That should be everybody's goal is the playoffs.

But I am a basketball player going out there to compete, I am going to try to win no matter what. That is just in my blood.

Before I go to those teams, I say, 'Hey, I'm a Muslim and I have to pray five times a day.' And they respect it so much that they give me a prayer room. So before the game, after the game, before practice, before I fly out, I can go to that room whenever I want and pray.

After my second year in the NBA, my prep years, my college, I hadn't really found myself.

Over the years, I've become accustomed to the quiet of that morning meal, a time when I devote myself completely to my faith.

People often ask me why I continue to speak out if it's hurting my family. But that's exactly why I speak out. The people Erdogan is targeting are my family, my friends, my neighbors, my classmates. I need to speak out, or my country will suffer in silence.

I put out on Twitter that the only thing I terrorize is the rim. People know me, my teammates know me, everybody knows me.

Some of my teammates and coaches don't understand what I'm doing by speaking out, but they support me, for which I am grateful. They have become part of my surrogate family here in the United States.

I'm 26 years old, I'm not some 43-year-old who's just gonna watch TV all day. Of course I want to go out there, hang out with teammates, hang out with people I love, go to the beach, go hang out!

I'm a successful professional athlete, and whatever I'm going through in my private life would never impact my performance on court.

I have a prominent platform and I want to use it to promote respect for human rights, democracy, and personal freedom. For me, this is bigger than basketball.

I'm definitely happy that I'm part of the Oklahoma City team, a winner team, so I think it's going to go really well in the future.

I'm not a criminal or a radical. I'm not 'dangerous.' I'm a human being with opinions and beliefs that I have a right to express.

I was a really good student, first, second grade, third grade, and then fourth grade a little bit. And then I don't know what happened. I became a very terrible student. I wish I took it more serious.

Our team security said, even if you go to a supermarket, have someone with you. So everywhere I go - grocery shopping, practice, go to games, go to plays - I always have someone with me because you never know, a lone wolf, one of the crazy Erdogan supporters will do something.

I have the travel documents. I have a green card. I can go anywhere.

I receive many death threats. I used to love walking around New York City alone, but I can't do that anymore.

I think it's so cool to just prove haters wrong. All you have to do is go out there and just fight.