New York Knicks: Enes Kanter takes on Twitter…on Twitter

The New York Knicks’ verifiable spark plug, Enes Kanter, isn’t afraid to speak up on social media. When Twitter took his blue check mark, the battle was on.

When the New York Knicks traded for Enes Kanter, they had no idea what exactly they were getting. Yet, Kanter proved himself as a leader to be followed on the basketball court and a person to be followed on Twitter.

Whether it be speaking out against a repressive regime in his home country of Turkey or showing his love for New York, Kanter is a well-rounded young man. For any Knicks fan on Twitter, he became a must-follow almost as soon as the Carmelo Anthony trade was completed.

So, when the blue check mark disappeared from his account on Sunday night, Twitter itself felt the wrath of Kanter. The blue check mark on Twitter is generally given to famous users to verify the account is authentic and not fake. It not only helps other users know which accounts to trust, it gives outspoken players a platform to speak their mind.

Kanter discovered the unverification sometime Sunday night and sent out a tweet to his half-million followers. The initial tweet received over 1,500 retweets and more than 6,000 likes. The Kanter army made their voice heard and on Monday morning, Twitter verified him with the famed blue check mark once again.

What does it mean?

Maybe the whole unverification fiasco was a simple mistake that Twitter fixed within just a few hours. Or maybe it wasn’t.

Earlier this month a Twitter employee on their last day shut down the personal account of President Donald Trump. The account was only down for 11 minutes, according to Maggie Astor of the New York Times. But it does prove there is reason to question if Enes Kanter was given a similar treatment.

Khadrice Rollins of Sports Illustrated wrote a comprehensive look at what happened to Kanter, including a breakdown of why Twitter unverifies accounts. Yet, none of those reasons apply to Kanter.

Generally, Kanter tweets about his love of the Knicks, New York and even quotes from the Dalai Lama. But he also tweets about his distaste for President Erdogan from his home country of Turkey. Consequently, he has been personally attacked by the government of Turkey in very public ways.

Whatever the reason for the momentary unverification of Kanter’s Twitter account, it’s good to have him verified once again. In this age of social media within the NBA, it is very important to have men like Enes Kanter representing the New York Knicks.

A fiery personality combined with a heart of gold and instant offense makes Kanter indispensible to the Knicks. He believes in his teammates and it is clear they believe in him.

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From protecting Frank Ntilikina to dominating the glass, Kanter is the heart of this team. Twitter unverified him for a moment, but he never fails as the verifiable heartbeat of the New York Knicks.