This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

For the better part of four years, Enes Kanter delighted Jazz fans with his fun-loving personality and sweet touch around the basket. And for the better part of four years, Kanter frustrated those same fans with his spotty effort and disappointing defense.
Kanter, meanwhile, had been frustrated himself with the franchise and its plan for him. He asked publicly for a trade last year and then ripped the club once he'd been moved to greener pastures.



Turns out, maybe he just needed a little more TLC.
Kanter, who finished third in Sixth Man of the Year voting earlier this month, is flourishing with the Thunder. The Oklahoman's Anthony Slater explored some of the reasons why that is, how the Thunder has embraced the Turkish big man and gotten the most out of him.
What it seems to come down to is the franchise embracing his Muslim faith and his megastar teammates embracing him as a friend.

The report highlights the accommodations the team made for his daily prayer and his nutrition during his faith's holy month of Ramadan:

Clay Bennett has an office at the facility, but it's not often used. So they called Bennett and asked if Kanter could utilize the space for prayer.
Bennett's answer: yep, no problem.
Kanter used it then and still uses it today. And when timing dictates, he has a prayer room available at the arena, near the locker room — an auxiliary room cleared out by the Thunder before his first home game.
"From Day 1," Kanter said, "they've respected it."

Kanter also has been impressed with stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. In one example cited in the story, Kanter raves about two of the league's best taking time to meet with Turkish fans after an exhibition game against the Turkish club Fenerbache:

After it, Durant and Westbrook came out to visit them. Then both the stars did an on-court interview with Kanter on a Turkish station. In it, both detailed past trips to Istanbul and Durant called Kanter "my brother" and said "he's gonna do big things for us this year." Kanter posted it to social media for his fans.
"They're just really proud that a Turkish player comes to the NBA and have friends like Kevin and Russell," Kanter said. "They're just, like, really proud."

Check out the full story here.

— Aaron Falk