Adam Silver Taking Enes Kanter Extradition Threat 'Very Seriously'

NBA commissioner Adam Silver is paying close attention to the situation involving New York Knicks center Enes Kanter and his native country of Turkey.

Per Marc Berman of the New York Post, Silver said Thursday he's taking Turkey's reported threat of extraditing Kanter "very seriously."

Turkish state news agency Anadolu (h/t CNN.com's Jill Martin) reported Wednesday that Turkey filed an extradition request and requested an Interpol red notice against Kanter on suspicion of being part of a terror organization. 

Kanter responded to the report on Twitter:

The Knicks are currently in London for a game against the Washington Wizards, but Kanter didn't make the trip out of fear he could be harmed. 

"Sadly, I'm not going because of that freaking lunatic, the Turkish president," Kanter told reporters last week. "There's a chance that I can get killed out there. So that's why I talked to the [Knicks'] front office. I'm not going."

Kanter has been outspoken in criticizing Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's authoritarian regime since he took power in 2014. 

"I'm not a criminal or a radical," Kanter wrote in a piece for Time last September. "I'm not 'dangerous.' I'm a human being with opinions and beliefs that I have a right to express. Erdogan does not respect that right in me or anyone else, and is willing to crush anyone who criticizes him."

Originally born in Switzerland to Turkish parents, Kanter moved to the United States prior to attending high school. The 26-year-old has spent the past two seasons playing with the Knicks after previously playing for the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder.