NBA

Morning sports update: Enes Kanter said he had just 6 minutes to decide on a Trail Blazers contract

"I felt pressured. And I didn't feel comfortable."

Enes Kanter
Enes Kanter before Game 7 of the Blazers-Nuggets series in 2019. AP Photo/John Leyba

By Hayden Bird

3 minutes to read

The Celtics signed free agent Enes Kanter to a two-year, $10 million deal. Kanter is a 6-foot-11-inch, 250-pound center, and will have a player option in the second year of his deal.

The Red Sox return to action tonight after getting swept by the Yankees in a disastrous London Series. Boston is in Toronto for a 7:07 p.m. first pitch.

And at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, the U.S. women’s national team faces England in the World Cup semifinals.

Did Enes Kanter only get six minutes to decide his future? The Celtics made a free agent move on Monday by agreeing to terms with center Enes Kanter. An interesting subplot in Kanter’s decision-making was that he says he felt pressured to choose too quickly when it came to either staying with his most recent team (the Portland Trail Blazers) or leaving for somewhere else.

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At the heart of the matter is a text message Kanter reportedly sent to NBA reporter Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. According to Spears, Kanter claimed he only had six minutes to decide if he would say with Portland:

Kanter subsequently decided to sign with the Celtics. Yet Trail Blazers superstar Damian Lillard publicly disagreed with his now-former teammate on Twitter:

Lillard’s comment about losing out on two other players “because you’re waiting on one” pertains to Portland’s trade to acquire center Hassan Whiteside from the Heat.

Trivia: Enes Kanter committed to play NCAA basketball before being drafted in the NBA, but was barred from participating because he received more than $33,000 in “impermissible benefits” while playing for Fenerbahce in Turkey. What NCAA school was Kanter committed to?

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(Answer at the bottom).

Hint: The school would lose that year (2011) to UConn in the Final Four.

More from Boston.com:

Noel Acciari explained how he agonized over leaving the Bruins in free agency

: “[The] Boston organization was nothing but great to me and my family and I want to thank them for everything they’ve done for me,” said Acciari. “It was tough parting with those guys. We were a family up here. But for me and my family we felt the next opportunity presented itself and to be part of a great organization and be able to build a winning team down there made us excited and we wanted to be a part of it.”

Kendrick Perkins is an NBA insider now:

Isaiah Thomas has reportedly agreed to a deal with the Wizards:

Sliding on the last patch of snow: In May, Rick Kuehl and his friends took advantage of eight inches of new snow at Killington ski area in Vermont. He told Boston.com at the time that, “It’s pretty much a given that we’re going to be up at Killington sliding on the last patch of snow.”

To provide an update, Kuehl and his friends did indeed slide on the very last patch of snow at the mountain:

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On this day: In 1966, Billie Jean King won the first of her 12 Grand Slam titles with a win at Wimbledon. King, as the Associated Press account noted, defeated three-time Brazilian champion Maria Bueno “by solving the problem of how to handle Miss Bueno’s high kicking second service. From then on she dropped only four more point to rattle off the last three games for the match.”

In 2000, France’s David Trezeguet smashed in a satisfyingly struck volley to hand his country the UEFA Euro 2000 title in golden-goal extra time against Italy.

https://youtu.be/addDeBTVbGw

And in 2008, a settlement was reached that allowed the Seattle SuperSonics to officially move to Oklahoma City. Sonics chairman Clay Bennett agreed to pay up to $75 million to immediately terminate the team’s lease at Seattle’s KeyArena.

Daily highlight: Pablo Cuevas with the behind-the-back gem:

Trivia answer: Kentucky