Steven Adams' Oklahoma City Thunder teammate Enes Kanter has been detained at an airport in Europe in what the centre is saying is because of his political views.
Kanter, who will reportedly travel to New Zealand in August with Adams to assist him in running a basketball camp, posted a video to social media Sunday morning (NZT) saying he had been detained at a Romanian airport.
According to authorities, Kanter had his passport cancelled by his home country Turkey.
The 25-year-old has been previously outspoken about his political opposition to Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leading to his father publicly condemning him.
"The reason behind it is, of course, my political views," Kanter said in the video, in which he claimed to have been in custody for hours.
"You guys know him by, you know, he has attacked the people in Washington.
"He is a bad, bad man; he is a dictator and he is the Hitler of our century."
Following the incident, a spokesperson for the Romanian border police said that Kanter's passport had been cancelled by his home country and he wasn't allowed to enter the country, but he was only held in customs and released to fly to London within a few hours.
"Today at around 1 p.m. local time an individual arrived from Frankfurt," they said.
"My colleagues established that his travel documents weren't valid, that they had been cancelled by his home country, so he wasn't allowed to enter the country.
"At around 5 p.m., he left the airport on a flight to London. While he was at the airport he wasn't detained or locked up, he was allowed to wander around, but he couldn't enter the country."
Kanter confirmed via Twitter that he'd made it to safety and would be back in the USA by Monday, suggesting he had "lots of things to say with lots of crazy stories".
If he was deported back to Turkey, it's likely he would face imprisonment on his arrival.
It wouldn't be the first time his political views have given him problems after he received death threats following his criticism of the government back in July.
Newshub.
