Enes Kanter Reveals He's Received Death Threats After Failed Turkish Coup

Oklahoma City Thunder center Enes Kanter revealed on July 20 on Twitter that he's faced death threats in the wake of a failed military coup in his native Turkey.

According to ESPN.com, Kanter provided screenshots of multiple threats and wrote the following in Turkish: "Death threats continue to fall. Prayer does not stand still."

The coup attempted to overthrow Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to Gul Tuysuz and Eliott C. McLaughlin of CNN, it resulted in 290 deaths and over 1,400 injuries.

The 24-year-old big man has long been an opponent of the Turkish government and has spoken out against how President Erdogan has handled situations in the past, per ESPN.com.

On Monday, Kanter's father, Mehmet, disowned his son in a letter published by Turkish media outlets because of his political beliefs, per Daren Butler of Reuters, saying, "With a feeling of shame, I apologize to our president and the Turkish people for having such a son."

Kanter responded to his father's stance, per Butler:

"

Today I lost those who for 24 years I called ... my family ... My own father wanted me to change my surname. The mother who gave birth to me rejected me.

May God take every second of my life and give it to my brave Teacher... From now on my mother, father and siblings are (the)... devoted members of Hizmet. 

"

After getting left off Turkey's EuroBasket roster in 2015, Kanter insisted it was because of his political opinions, per the Hurriyet Daily News: "The reasons presented do not reflect the truth; the reason I was not included in the squad is the values I believe in and my political stance."

However, national team head coach Ergin Ataman denied that politics played into the decision to exclude him from the roster.

The former third overall pick of the Utah Jazz is set to enter his sixth NBA season, and he is coming off a strong 2015-16 campaign in which he averaged 12.7 points and 8.1 rebounds per contest.

With Serge Ibaka on the Orlando Magic and Kevin Durant on the Golden State Warriors, Kanter figures to see more touches with the Thunder in 2016-17.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.