PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland Trail Blazers center Enes Kanter was the featured guest Tuesday night on "The Daily Show" with Trevor Noah.
The interview opened with Noah asking Kanter about his time in New York with the Knicks and his decision to sign with Portland, or as Noah referred to it, "the home of the hipsters."
"I'm very excited. The Portland Trail Blazers are about to make the playoffs. They're the four seed in the West. And they just beat the Golden State Warriors, so I'm very excited about that," Kanter said.
Noah also asked about learning to speak English by watching "SpongeBob" and "Jersey Shore."
"I start watching Pauly D and Snooki and I think, 'This is so weird.' First two months, I didn't understand a word they were saying," Kanter said. "Then after that I started understanding. Then the next thing you know, I was in a tanning bed, getting tan."
Noah also asked the 26-year-old Turkish center about his vocal criticism of Turkey's president, Recept Tayyip Erdogan.
"I have a platform. I'm trying to use this platform to help all the innocent people who don't have a voice. People know my story, but there are thousands and thousands of people out there whose stories are way worse than mine," Kanter said.
Turkish police have issued a warrant for Kanter's arrest and the country is also seeking his extradition from the United States. Turkey has accused Kanter of belonging to a terrorist group because of his support of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric that the Turkish government believes planned an attempted coup to overthrow Erdogan in 2016.
Kanter, who said he regularly gets death threats, talked to Time magazine about being branded a terrorist by his home country.
"They put my name on Interpol on the red notice. So if I step outside of America, my life will be in danger. But I feel safe in America," he said.
Kanter didn't join his former team, the New York Knicks, when they traveled to London to play a game against the Washington Wizards on Jan. 17. Kanter said he feared he would be assassinated overseas.
LISTEN: 3-on-3 Blazers podcast: Portland clobbers fussy Warriors; Enes Kanter picks Blazers over Lakers
Listen to the most recent edition of the 3-on-3 Blazers podcast:
- on Apple podcasts
- on Podbean
- on SoundCloud
- on Stitcher
- on Google Play
Jared Cowley writes about the Trail Blazers and other topics for KGW.com. He's also the co-host of the 3-on-3 Blazers podcast (listen here). You can reach him on Twitter @jaredcowley.