The Knicks will be woefully thin in the frontcourt Thursday night against the Toronto Raptors. Not only are Kristaps Porzingis and Willy Hernangomez gone, but starting center Enes Kanter will also miss the game with mouth problems.
Enes Kanter will not play tomorrow vs. Toronto after having the cut in his mouth re-stitched. Tim Hardaway Jr. is available to play.
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) February 7, 2018
Kanter cut his mouth in practice a few days ago, and the stitches keep coming out, which sounds painful as hell.
In other Kanter news, he’s about to go on trial in Turkey.
Kanter is often facing charges in his native land, but this was has a particularly NBA bent: He’s going on trial (in absentia, of course) for insulting former NBA player Hedo Turkoglu. Per Eurohoops:
An indictment was filed on the grounds that Kanter has “insulted Turkoglu more than once on different dates”, per the report by [Turkish newspaper] Sabah.
The Istanbul Cyber Crimes Investigation Bureau prepared the indictment which is based on “humiliating and hurtful messages” made by Kanter against Turkoglu on his social media.
The indictment mentions that even though Kanter won’t appear before the judge, he will be tried in absentia because he “has to be punished for the charges of insult”. The case will be heard before the Assize Court.
This goes way beyond Kanter’s famous beef with LeBron James. But Kanter is still carrying out his battle with Turkoglu on Twitter.
I’m not sure what any of this means. Can anybody who speaks Turkish translate Kanter’s response?
Ah, the Kanter saga. It’s wild stuff.