OKC Thunder Rumors For Rudy Gay Heat Up With Enes Kanter’s Twitter Post, Spurs & Warriors Interested?
With NBA welcoming the start of free agency on Saturday, plenty of NBA rumors and reports hit the internet, including speculation of Rudy Gay joining the Oklahoma City Thunder. With the Sacramento Kings star becoming a free agent for this NBA offseason, the Thunder became highly interested in acquiring his services. However, just a day before the team landed Paul George in a shocking trade that took the league and sports fans by surprise, on Saturday, the Thunder reportedly welcomed Rudy Gay for a meeting to discuss joining the team, and big man Enes Kanter decided to do some “reporting” of his own on the situation.
According to Alyssa Tsuji of USA Today’s For The Win, Kanter posted a photo on his Twitter Saturday which showed Russell Westbrook’s locker. One spot next to that was a locker with a “Rudy Gay” nameplate placed on it. To send the internet rumor mill into a frenzy, Kanter also posted the caption “League sources tell Enes Kanter” with a surprise face emoji. Basically, Kanter was playing reporter and pretending to break an exclusive headline to everyone online, but there were no actual reports out there confirming that Gay had officially joined the Oklahoma City roster.
Erik Horne, a Thunder beat writer for The Oklahoman and News OK Sports, indicated that Gay was in fact in Oklahoma City for a visit with the team, but he added he was told that the “locker is a prop for his visit.” It’s a strategy plenty of teams use when courting prospective free agents. Some teams will have a huge banner with a free agent shown in their jersey to help them visualize being part of the team. The Miami Heat did just that for the visit they had with Gordon Hayward, as the Jazz star was photoshopped into a Heat jersey on a banner hanging outside American Airlines Arena.
League sources tell Enes Kanter: ? pic.twitter.com/PJFyboVP42
— Enes FREEDOM (@EnesFreedom) July 2, 2017
As mentioned, Oklahoma City was said to be strongly interested in Gay this offseason, and that was reported before the Thunder made the surprise trade to get Paul George from the Pacers. Will they add a third star in the form of Gay, who is another small forward? It’s always possible the Thunder could slide one of the two players such as Gay to the shooting guard spot with Westbrook running the point and George at his true position. That would certainly give Oklahoma City a dynamic attack with the three stars capable of driving, scoring, and dishing.
While the Thunder have been in headlines involving Gay, don’t count out a few other prospective suitors. The Golden State Warriors may be looking to add a player of Gay’s caliber should Andre Iguodala fail to sign with the team. In addition, it’s being said by San Antonio Express-News‘s Jabari Young that the Spurs are considering Gay. Young notes that the team is “doing their due diligence” on the free agent as he rehabs his Achilles injury in Austin, Texas.
That said, one has to simply laugh at Enes Kanter’s mocking of the constant rumors that hit the internet based on every social media post. Then again, he may end up breaking a major story for OKC fans and the NBA.
[Featured Image by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images]
