NBA star Enes Kanter says he's still about 2 years away from becoming a U.S. citizen ... but when it DOES happen, he tells TMZ Sports he might have a new name too!!!
Of course, the 27-year-old Celtics hooper has been labeled a terrorist in his home country of Turkey after publicly criticizing president Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... calling him "the Hitler of our generation."
Considering Kanter can get locked up in prison if he ever goes back home, he's kick-started the process of becoming a U.