The Portland Trail Blazers apparently only gave Enes Kanter minutes to decide his NBA future, and it didn’t end well for the team.
In a text shared by Marc J. Spears on Twitter, Kanter claimed Portland gave him “6 min to make a decision.” After feeling “pressure” from the Trail Blazer and the teams “pushing,” the talented center decided to sign with the Boston Celtics. (RELATED: Kevin Durant Will Sign With The Brooklyn Nets For $164 Million, Kyrie Irving Will Get $141 Million)
New Celtics center Enes Kanter via text to @TheUndefeated on why he didn’t return to Portland. pic.twitter.com/kznF6CUmbU
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpearsESPN) July 1, 2019
If Kanter is telling telling the truth, then this is a bizarre move from the team. Why would they only give a guy minutes to decide if he wanted to re-sign?
Anybody would need time to make a decision, especially when you have to communicate with people back in Turkey. Not only does he have to communicate with people back in Turkey, but he’s pretty much an enemy of the state back there, which only complicates things.
Giving a dude six minutes to make a decision makes literally no sense.
Ultimately, Kanter opted to sign with the Celtics for about $10 million. You shouldn’t be surprised if you try to pressure a guy into a contract and he decides to get the hell out of dodge.
I don’t blame a team for wanting to get the ball rolling as options are limited, but six minutes is a wildly short amount of time.
Was there a dinner the team executives needed to get to? Kanter is a very solid post player. I think you could at least break him off an hour or two.
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When you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes. That’s exactly how I’d describe letting Kanter walk out of the building. Not smart at all.