Oklahoma City Thunder star Enes Kanter in Nairobi

Turkish National Basketball Association (NBA) player Enes Kanter has promised to bring his Oklahoma City Thunder team for a clinic on the game in Kenya.

Kanter, who is in the country to promote the Enes Kanter Light Foundation, said that he was pleased with the warm reception that he had been accorded, and promised to do more to help Kenyan children lead better lives.

“This is my first visit here and all of you have been very good to me. I have watched a couple of teams play and I have seen some very talented players here. I look forward to my next visit here and I promise I won’t come alone. I will bring my whole team so that they can also get a chance to see what I have seen here,” he said.

The 24-year-old Thunder star said this at the end of a motivational speech made at the auditorium of the Nairobi Light Academy.

Standing six feet 11 inches, Kanter told the star-struck basketball team members to keep working hard for the realisation of his dreams.

“This looks like a very posh school, but I wasn’t privileged to have such a sophisticated upbringing. I am from a very humble background and nobody believed that I could even play professional basketball, let alone feature in the NBA,” he said.

But there was always going to be the question of what it felt like to lose in the NBA Western Conference Finals play-offs on the last day, especially after going up 3-1 in the best-of-seven series.

“We stood a great, great chance of making history, but we relaxed when it mattered most. After we were up 3-1, we thought we would have life easy and we slowed down.”

“That was really sad because we had worked very hard all season. I am sure that if we could have beaten Golden State Warriors, we would definitely have beaten Cleveland (Cavaliers) and I am yet to shake off the disappointment,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Kanter had visited a school in Kibera and in his words, he was “deeply disturbed” by what he saw in the slums.

“It is quite disturbing really, but we tried to make them feel better. We played with the kids, gave them some sweets and they were very happy. This is part of the reason I have set up a charity foundation. I would like to alleviate the levels of suffering for children as well as improve healthcare all over the world,” he said.