I watched most of the NBA draft last night. Caught the drafting of all the UK crew, Enes Kanter, Brandon Knight, “Jorts” & Deandre Liggins.
I had my computer capturing the event, just for the heck of it. If you didn’t see it, when they announced the drafting of Enes Kanter, Commissioner David Stern said “of Turkey AND the University of Kentucky”!
Of course most people know that Enes had been forced to sit out a year and couldn’t play college ball because he had received too much expense money while playing in Europe. European players can remain amateurs while playing for professional teams, as long as they don’t make TOO much money off the process. Enes had turned down millions in REAL pro contracts in order to play at UK for a year or two, but the NCAA in their infinite wisdom chose to ignore that and kill his dream. (The “too much money” probably wouldn’t have bought a decent car.)
Enes came to UK as a student-athlete, was told he couldn’t play, went through the appeals process, was turned down again, and became a student coach. And during this, he became a fan favorite. And if there was any doubt BEFORE last night, he cemented his position as one of the all time favorite players at UK. (And he never played a minute…)
What’d he do? Simply dedicate his first professional season to the fans who had supported him the last year.
It hit me after the draft was over that some of the fans might like to see this again. And again. And again. At 11:30 last night, I edited the video, uploaded it to YouTube and 16 hours later it has been viewed nearly 4,000 times. Even from Turkey!
Good luck Enes! You will ALWAYS be a Wildcat, and I hope some time in the future the folks at UK will be able to bring you AND your family back to Rupp to allow the fans to appreciate you even more!
