Kanter talks about fitness issues

[jonathanlambert33]

Rookie centre Enes Kanter sat down for an interview recently and talked about his lengthy spell out of the basketball court.

Kanter, who was drafted as the 3rd overall pick by Utah Jazz, has played almost no competitive basketball for around 2 years.

The Turkish prodigy came to the United States last summer after some sizzling performances in his home country and in the FIBA under-19 World Cup. Although his talent was not in doubt at even that young age, Kanter was barred from playing in college basketball tournaments by the NCAA, who deemed him a professional rather than an amateur.

The player looked forward to finally getting on an NBA court when he was drafted by the Jazz, but the NBA lockout, which began on July 1st, has seen to it that Enes gets no competitive basketball action in the United States.

“I haven't played any game in almost two years or something. I'm just working on my conditioning this week with Tim Grover right now. He told me altitude in Utah will be problem for me. I'm just trying to get in game shape because if the lockout is over I'm going to start right up.” He told the Salt Lake Tribune.

The player went to Lithuania this summer in order to take part in the EuroBasket tournament. He represented Turkey and helped them get to the latter stages of the European Championship, earning rave reviews in the process.

However the tournament still didn’t give him as much match practice as he would have liked and the player has revealed he came back with a minor injury concern regarding his knee.

“After European Championship, I didn't play, I haven't played 45 days. And after that I just started to play games right after, and that's why I did a little bit overuse. I didn't stretch. It's not a big deal. … Just soreness, yeah.”

http://blogs.bettor.com/Utah-Jazz-rookie-Enes-Kanter-talks-about-his-fitness-issues-NBA-Update-a109580

No competitive basketball for two years? Damn, he may get off to a slow start once the lockout is over.

 

[DJT]

He is supposed to be in the Charity game in Salt Lake City...but dang how the heck are you a professional basketball player, and haven't played some type of game in 2 years...