Bummer. In a pretty major short-term setback to Enes Kanter’s career, the NCAA has ruled that the big Turk is ineligible to play at the college level. ESPN.com reports that “the school will appeal the decision,” which found that “Kanter received benefits above his actual and necessary expenses while playing for a club basketball team in Turkey.”
Meanwhile, the DeMarcus Cousins-triggered “Free Enes” tweet campaign is blossoming both in the virtual world and in real life; the Twitter account “FreeEnes” has over 18,000 followers just three days after its creation. (As of this writing.)
This morning (CET time), Cousins tweeted rhetorically, “Do any other sports in college have players ruled ineligible besides basketball and football?”
ESPN also reported that “Fans took up a ‘Free Enes’ movement that included T-shirts and signs posted everywhere from Fenway Park to the U.S. Capitol.”Jay Bilas’ “Insider” column over at the Worldwide Leader’s website is based on the premise that the ruling “deprives Enes Kanter a chance at a college education,” though BiE believes his willingness to jump around thrice last year for his “senior year” of high school indicates the NCAA decision is rather a stall on his rocketing upward trend in the American basketball universe.