Tamer Turkman’s father is a doctor and did his residency at the University of Kentucky in the mid-1950’s.

“The one thing I do know about Kentucky basketball is that my dad told us how nice the people were and I grew up hearing all those stories about the people and the basketball,” said Turkman, who now lives in Baltimore.

Turkman, a Turkish-American, is founder and president of International Student Services. He started his business in 1993 to help young Turks trying to get an education in the United States. “It’s usually not athletes we help,” Turkman said. “Enes Kanter is a great athlete, but he’s also a Turkish student.”

His website, StudyInAmerica.com, has had interviews with Kanter, a Kentucky signee, and Kentucky coach John Calipari and Turkman recently wrote a story for Turkey’s Hürriyet Daily News on Kanter’s arrival in Lexington last month.

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“In talking to Enes, he feels so good about the people. He says they are all wonderful,” Turkman said. “Aside from basketball, he says the people makes it great to be at Kentucky. He is very happy. Basketball is everything there, I guess, and we are going to follow his career closely.

“Coach (John) Calipari has a great track record of sending people to the NBA early. But I have a feeling Enes may stay a little longer at Kentucky. Education is very important to him and his family. There is always a conflict between education and money, but his family is well off. He’s a lot like Joakim Noah was at Florida. He doesn’t have to rush out of college to get the money.”

Turkman, who played basketball at Loyola in Maryland, says his site “got lucky” when it obtained the interview with Calipari on Kanter. He had hired a freelancer to interview Kanter in Chicago and Calipari happened to be there, too.

“It was double good luck for us,” Turkman said. “I am a basketball fan myself. I know how much interest there is in Enes. I have followed different players in this country. We have some Turkish players here, but I feel Enes is going to be something special.”

That’s why Turkman came to Lexington to see Kanter, who is expected to be an immediate starter at UK at center,and write about him for the Turkish paper.

“He is a big deal in Turkey, and he’s only going to get bigger,” Turkman said. “I have not followed his entire career. We first contacted him after he had that great game in Portland (in the Nike Hoop Summit).

“We have talked to some Turkish experts who think he will be the best player ever to come out of Turkey. Apparently, he is still growing. He could be 7-foot or more. He’s just 18 and he has not stopped growing. I don’t think he even started playing until he was 12, so you know he is going to keep getting better, especially with the coaching he will get at Kentucky.”

Turkman says Kanter has “good interpersonal skills” and will adjust to the limelight at Kentucky.

“He is a little shy, but he’s already made a lot of friends at Kentucky,” Turkman said. “He is a very good guy and has a great heart. They have a good recruiting class with him, and I think he will just be fantastic at Kentucky.

“He is very committed and hard working. He goes hard every day. He will find a basketball court and shoots 2,000 to 3,000 shots a day. He’s always in the gym. That is his life. He is really dedicated. And when he is practicing, he is always working on his outside game, too. He has a great outside game that makes him special.”

Turkman says Kanter could be like another Turkish player, Mehmet Okur of the Utah Jazz.

“He has a great outside game. It could be the same with Enes,” Turkman said. “Enes has it all. He plays hard on defense, too.

“All of Turkey can’t wait to see him play. I am a fan and feel the same way. We are going to be back in Lexington following Enes because everybody in Turkey wants to know everything about what he’s going to do.” by Larry Vaught