Player who wanted Brooklyn now disses team

So much sturm and drung the last few days about Enes Kanter dissing the Nets with this tweet outside the Nets locker room...

Kanter, who plays for a team in Manhattan, was in Brooklyn for the WWE. He reportedly dates WWE Diva Dana Brooke or announcer Charly Caruso —depending on who you read.

Spencer Dinwiddie – who was tagged, along with Jared Dudley in the post — tweeted back with a GIF...

Last week, Dinwiddie had a similar tete-a-tete with Metta World Peace who predicted the Knicks would make it to the Eastern Conference final where they would face the Lakers. Dinwiddie noted, correctly, “they’re not even the best team in New York.”

But is all this the real story? We think not. A check of the NetsDaily archive, which we have committed to memory, reveals that Kanter, a Turkish national, wanted to play for Brooklyn, home to many of his countrymen. Back in 2011, when the Nets were getting ready to move across the river, Kanter and his agent practically begged Billy King to draft him (even though the Nets had traded their lottery pick to Utah for Deron Williams.)

Here’s how we wrote it just before the Draft...

Enes Kanter, the 6’11” Turkish center, is likely to be picked near the top of the draft and the Nets’ pick is at the opposite end of the draft, down at #27, the Lakers’ pick. Yet, the draft’s top big man decided to meet with the Nets in Chicago last week. It’s about Mikhail Prokhorov’s globalization effort ...and the move to Brooklyn.

Asked why Kanter would want to meet with a team so low in the draft, his agent, Max Ergul, told Sports Illustrated, “New owners [Russian Mikhail Prokhorov] have European ties, and they’re moving to Brooklyn -- which has the No. 1 Turkish population -- so I wanted them to get to know Enes a little bit.”

“Know”, as in be tempted to move up in the draft?

Kanter met with very few teams that spring before being drafted third overall by the Jazz, ironically with the Nets pick. Sports Illustrated speculated that Kanter wanted Brooklyn to move up.

The Turkish Delight has now played seven years in the NBA and although a solid offensive presence, he plays no defense. He does think of himself as wordsmith. Last January, after Dudley called him a “fake tough guy” following an altercation with Devin Booker, Kanter shot back by suggesting Dudley had a “retirement body” and should go “get on the treadmill.”

As Brian Lewis wrote Saturday, “For a Knicks-Nets rivalry that’s been painfully bland, it at least could add some desperately-needed juice.”

Neither team is likely to make the playoffs with the Nets given a slightly better chance with Kristaps Porzingis likely out most, if not all, of the season.

It won’t be long before the words with turn to action. The Knicks will face the Nets in Brooklyn’s home opener on October 19 (and twice in preseason, on October 3 and October 12.)

We can hardly wait.

• Knicks take Twitter feud with Nets to their doorstep - Brian Lewis - New York Post
• Knicks and Nets are in the same predicament, but for a change, that may not be a bad thing - Moke Hamilton - The Athletic New York