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Posted by catmandoo (Member # 1284) on 09-07-2010, 09:08 PM:

If this is true Kanter is toast..

The best recruit in Kentucky’s top-ranked recruiting class, the Turkish center Enes Kanter, received more than $100,000 in cash and benefits over three years from the professional team he played for here, according to the team’s general manager.

In an interview in his office here this week, the general manager of Fenerbahce Ulker, Nedim Karakas, said the club had given banking and housing records to the N.C.A.A. that show Kanter received benefits that could jeopardize his amateur status for college basketball.

“I am sorry for telling this for Enes, but we cannot lie if someone asks the whole story, we cannot hide,” Karakas said.

Karakas said that Fenerbahce provided housing to Kanter and his family for more than three years, provided them with food and pocket money and paid Kanter a salary of more than $6,500 a month during his final season.

Link

Posted by catmandoo (Member # 1284) on 09-07-2010, 09:16 PM:

Hear is KSR's take on the Kanter situation.

1. Kanter was Given Money of Some Sort: The question then for the NCAA’s purposes will be how much and what for. Under current NCAA rules, Enes Kanter could have been given money for living expenses, room and board, meals and some day to day life expenses. Over the course of 18 months, he was clearly paid some amount of money, but how much will be the key issue. If it could be deemed a cost of life fee, then Enes might still get eligible. If it is a salary that manifests a desire to be a professional, he wont be deemed eligible. It is that simple.

2. Are the Turkish Club’s Claims Verifiable?: This would seem to be a simple question of documentation and verification. The GM tells Pete Thamel that he was paid, Kanter and his family have said that he was not. Since Thamel did not see the actual documentation (another similarity to the Bledsoe case), we just have to determine whether the GM’s word is reliable. One would assume that a basketball General Manager wouldnt lie to the world’s most known newspaper but then again one would assume that a team with a vested interest in a result might spin information in a way that most benefits them. Bottom line, we can all guess, but we dont really know. The NCAA will be the only entity to see the documentation and they will decide.

3. Whatever Money was Paid, Was it Too Much?: This is actually a much tougher issue to dissect than most in the media are acknowledging. The rules in this area are all new and the NCAA has set no precedent for which schools can follow. Will it be the case that the NCAA will set a certain cost that it deems too much and if that has been exceeded, then the player isnt allowed to play? Or will the NCAA set that cost and then determine that if it is exceeded, Kanter must pay it back? It isnt clear how much money is too much money in this case. A full scholarship and living expenses to Harvard is likely worth more money than a full scholarship and living expenses to UT Martin. Does playing for a top club in an expensive city (Istanbul), with your family, etc lead to you be allowing to get more money than if you played in a small town in the middle of Estonia? No one at this point really knows and the NCAA will be setting the precedent for all schools to follow going forward.

4. Was there a Desire to be a Professional?: I have talked to a number of folks around this case and they all tell me that the key issue for the NCAA will be whether the player had a desire to be a pro. That will be determined in part by money taken, but also by secondary issues. For Kanter, some of those work in his favor. His father is a doctor and a professor and the family was not in need of money. Thus, the idea that he would jeopardize his potential future as an Amateur for a piddling amount of money would seem unlikely. Plus, Kanter left the team while he was 16 and he didnt seek to sign other deals with clubs…which one might assume likely if he wanted to be a professional. These secondary facts, in addition to the money, could play a role in the decision, especially if the total amount paid is somewhat murky.

Link

Posted by catmandoo (Member # 1284) on 09-07-2010, 09:37 PM:

Probably if true the best we could hope for is we get Kanter back after a lengthy suspention (possibly January) and the Kanters would have to pay back the proven amount of money he received from the Turkish team he played for.

Posted by Bluemist (Member # 3190) on 09-07-2010, 11:56 PM:

The key is Pete Thamel is not a reliable source at all.

Posted by Cat Fan In The Mill (Member # 2756) on 09-08-2010, 06:43 AM:

I'm not liking Enes's chances of suiting up for the Cats this season. While the reliability of the writer can be questioned, there seems to be a lot of evidence in support of the fact that Enes and his family were paid by the Turkish team.

I hope that I am totally wrong on this one and that we will see Enes being introduced at Big Blue Madness but I am not holding my breath at this point and time.

Posted by PaulCat (Member # 513) on 09-08-2010, 07:15 AM:

This just isn't looking good for us. It's gonna hurt if he's not eligible.

Posted by catlogic15 (Member # 1227) on 09-08-2010, 08:10 AM:

Vargas ain't chopped liver.

Posted by catmandoo (Member # 1284) on 09-08-2010, 08:35 AM:

This new Turkish revalation on payments for Kanters basketball services makes you wonder why they hadn't told this to the NCAA a long time ago. This case is going to be deceided by the bank records on the payments,if they were actually made to the Kanters and if they were made what were the amounts.

Posted by lumafia (Member # 3118) on 09-08-2010, 10:14 AM:

It seems odd that the NCAA would take so long to make a ruling on something that, based on the Turkish GM's account, would be so obvious. Based on the information provided in the story, Kanter couldn't possibly retain amature status. Either the information coming from the story is not accurate (possible), or the NCAA just wants to make UK wait as sort of a quasi-punishment (also possible).

Quick story. I was a very good baseball player and was being recruited by several NCAA D-1 programs. At half-time of a girl's high school basketball game, my name was drawn from a hat to shoot a half-court shot. The prize for hitting the shot was a gift certificate to Red Lobster. As luck would have it, I hit the shot. As I walked to the scorer's table to collect my prize, there was a long delay. I stood there for 10 minutes while the vice principal and my baseball coach (who played and coached at a major D-1 program) had a lengthy discussion. As it turns out, I was not "eligible" to claim the prize due to the possibility that accepting "payment" for my performance of an "athletic event" could jeapordize my amatuer status. Ha. Gotta love those NCAA rules.

Posted by Atlanta Cat Fan (Member # 1746) on 09-08-2010, 10:27 AM:

Yikes - Not good stuff. This looks like something messy so that even if he is ultimately cleared, it is going to significantly impact his eligibility either way.

Posted by lumafia (Member # 3118) on 09-08-2010, 10:45 AM:

"I don't believe that Enes will be a very good student at school in the States," Karakas told the newspaper. "He won't be a hard worker. I know. I know his fundamentals for school. We know the education that he had before and what he did here in Turkey.

Really? This guy is a total douche. He clearly has an agenda.

Posted by catmandoo (Member # 1284) on 09-08-2010, 12:57 PM:

lumafia, another example at what extremes Karakas and the Turkey officials will go to keep Kanter from playing basketball in the USA..