Enes Kanter Admits He 'Never Liked Playing Basketball' with Utah Jazz

Fourth-year center Enes Kanter has looked like a different player since landing with the Oklahoma City Thunder at the trade deadline.

Apparently, he feels like a different one, too.

Speaking with reporters in advance of Saturday's matchup with his former team, the Utah Jazz, Kanter simultaneously praised his new employer and bashed his old one.

"I love it," Kanter said of the change, per ESPN.com's Royce Young. "It's a team I've never experienced before and I actually like playing basketball there. I'm just so comfortable and everything is in the right place. I'm just really happy to be there."

Tell us how you really feel, Enes.

He did—and so did a less-than-impressed EnergySolutions Arena crowd during pregame introductions.

As Utah radio announcer David Locke noted, Kanter's reception was just as frigid from his former teammates:

The move has been a brilliant one for him from a basketball standpoint. With Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka sidelined by injury, Kanter has been a focal point of an offense that has desperately tried finding something more than Russell Westbrook's one-man show.

Kanter's numbers have spiked nearly across the board from the ones he was putting up in Salt Lake City.

Team	GP	MPG	PPG	RPG	FG%	PER
Utah Jazz	49	27.1	13.8	7.8	49.1	17.6
OKC Thunder	48	29.8	17.6	10.8	56.7	24.9

As ESPN Stats & Info pointed out, Kanter has had moments in OKC the entire league hadn't seen at any point this season:

But according to the big man, this goes deeper than basketball.

He said he's found a comfort in OKC he didn't have in Utah, an appreciation for his profession that didn't exist before the deal, via Young:

"

I think the difference is, I like playing basketball there. I think that's the most important thing. I never liked playing basketball before in my NBA career and this is the first time I felt like playing basketball there, for my team, for the fans, for my teammates for my coaches, for everybody. So, that's the first time.

"

Kanter compared his new situation to a dream. While he explicitly said his time in Utah wasn't a nightmare, his comments still leave the impression that it was something less than a dream.

"It wasn't just basketball stuff. It was professionalism of the team," Kanter said, via Young. "After I see in OKC, I see this is how NBA teams are. You know how you're like in a dream and you have a superpower and just don't want to open your eyes and end the dream? Oklahoma City's been like that to me."

Kanter, who requested a trade out of Utah in February, was taken by the Jazz with the third overall pick in 2011. They were his only NBA home for his first three-plus seasons.

Bill Kostroun/Associated Press

A long three-plus seasons for him.

"It wasn't just a one-game or two-game frustration," he said, via Young. "It was a three-and-a-half-year frustration."

That's pretty brutal.

But, really, it highlights something the basketball world has known for a while. The trade was badly needed for both parties.

Kanter got a chance to enter the playoff race on a team that welcomes his interior offense. Utah found more minutes for soaring sophomore Rudy Gobert and has been razor-sharp on the defensive end since.

In other words, it's hard to imagine either side having any regrets. Although, any open wounds left during their tenure together could clearly require more time to heal.