Kanter, who was born in Switzerland and immigrated to the United States as a teenager, is an outspoken critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and acolyte of exiled Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen. His opposition to Erdogan, and support of Gulen, has gotten Kanter labeled a terrorist by the Turkish government—he was recently unable to join the Knicks for a game in London, for fear that he could be arrested or killed.