Enes Kanter Goes Vegan

In partnership with PETA, Portland Trail Blazers’ big man Enes Kanter has gone vegan, following a period of self-reflection in the Orlando bubble regarding his dietary choices, reports Jamie Hudson of NBC Sports Northwest. The publicity around his decision is part of PETA’s “Turn Over A New Leaf” campaign.

PETA

Kanter’s decision comes after reading about factory farming in the bubble.

“I had a lot of downtime and I started to learn about factory farming and the more I read, and the more I watched, and learned, and educated myself, my heart was just shattering.”

Kanter says it has no effect on his athleticism.

“We always thought eating more meat is going to make us stronger, going to make us faster, leaner — and everything I learned was wrong.”

“As an athlete, if I can do this, you can do this, too,” Kanter promises.

Teammate Damian Lillard went vegan in 2017 in order to lose weight. He abandoned that decision after losing too much weight.