(John Ransom, Headline USA) Former Boston Celtics star Enes Kanter Freedom, a Swiss-born Turkish national who so loved the USA that he changed his name when he became a US citizen, said he is being blackballed from the NBA because of his anti-Chinese communist comments denouncing the Beijing regime for its human-rights violations.
As Enes Kanter Freedom’s NBA career coming to the end after speaking out against China’s genocidal regime, would Nike give him a multi-year contract worth millions just like Colin Kaepernick? pic.twitter.com/AqlZu0HDi0
— Asian American Conservative (@FactcheckingCon) February 17, 2022
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize why I got little playing time and was released,” Freedom told the New York Times. “But it does take people with a conscience to speak out and say it’s not right.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has denied Freedom’s allegations to the New York Times, saying that while they spoke about the issue of Freedom’s activism, he thinks players have the right to say whatever they want.
“We spoke directly about his activities this season, and I made it absolutely clear to him that it was completely within his right to speak out on issues that he was passionate about,” Silver said, according to the Daily Mail.
But Freedom said the players union had put pressure on him to stop wearing custom-made sneakers that had anti-CCP messages on them, which would be a very strange way for a union to act toward a player.
For the NBA, dividends are likely speak louder than democracy. Silver previously bemoaned the loss of the hundreds of millions of dollars that resulted from a dispute between the league and China after Houston Rockets manager Daryl Morey tweeted an implied criticism of China, according to CNBC.
“I think that the magnitude of the loss will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” Silver said after China threatened to welsh on a deal to televise NBA games there.
Freedom’s and Morey’s decision to speak out about communist atrocities in China stands in contrast to LeBron James, who chastised people who criticized China.
James—considered to be the league’s marquee player, despite his outspoken support for anti-police activism and the pro-Marxist Black Lives Matters—echoed the company line following the fracas.
“I don’t want to get into a … feud with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand and he spoke,” James said, according to the Hill.
Freedom has pushed back on James for caring more about sneaker sales than he does about human rights, while moralizing about blacks being mistreated in America.
“Money over Morals for the ‘’King,’” Freedom tweeted, referencing James’s nickname, according to the Daily Mail. “Sad & disgusting how these athletes pretend they care about social justice.”
It’s not difficult to see why Freedom thinks he’s being blackballed by a group of people who think the Betsy Ross flag is a Confederate Symbol.
