By Matt Dolloff, 985TheSportsHub.com
It appears that Turkish video editors need to brush up on their Final Cut skills.
Celtics center Enes Kanter, who grew up in Turkey, has long been critical of his home country’s dictatorship under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. So whenever he’s on the court during a C’s game being aired in Turkey, the media tries to censor him from fans’ view – and does a hilariously poor job at it.
Kanter exposed the way he’s being censored in a new tweet on Monday, which you can see above.
“Very Sad! This is how Turkish basketball Websites in Turkey censor me now during @celtics games,” Kanter tweeted. “I feel bad for @NBA fans in Turkey. They can’t watch basketball properly because of dictatorship.”
November 20, 2019; Los Angeles, CA: Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter moves the ball against Los Angeles Clippers forward Montrezl Harrell during the first half at Staples Center. (Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY)
Maybe just make the whole screen go black? The Turkish media’s attempts at hiding Kanter are so laughably bad it defies explanation. Imagine they “censored” nudity or graphic violence like this in America.
The Turkish media had a lot of censoring to do with Kanter in the Celtics’ 140-105 win over the Pelicans on Saturday. Kanter had a season-high 22 points and 19 rebounds coming off the bench. His seven offensive rebounds were also a season-high and potentially a huge factor for the Celtics in the playoffs.
There’s no other way to describe this other than a pathetic attempt at censorship and incredibly, severely poor execution at being petty. Anyone with even rudimentary knowledge of Final Cut or Adobe Premiere could have done an exponentially better job.
Matt Dolloff is a digital producer for 985TheSportsHub.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, or any subsidiaries. Have a news tip, question, or comment for Matt? Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff or email him at matthew.dolloff@bbgi.com.