Enes Freedom (formerly Enes Kanter) has become somewhat of a controversial figure, since deciding to stand up for human rights. The former NBA player has been highly critical of China and believes that it was these criticisms that derailed his playing career and forced him to retire sooner than he would’ve liked.
Freedom even testified to Congress that the NBA supported him when he was critical of Turkey, where he is from, but that support from the league vanished when it came to China, presumably due to partnerships the NBA has with the country.
Freedom recently appeared on “The Lou Holtz Show” where he reiterated the point.
“I started to talk about some of the problems that are happening in China, and just because of that NBA pretty much blackballed me from basketball.”
“That’s because they sell a lot of shoes in China,” responded Lou Holtz.
“Exactly,” Kanter snapped back.
“At some point, you used your platform to speak out for human rights,” Holtz said to Freedom.
“People want to keep talking about me losing my NBA career because of the things that I talked about, but that was nothing compared to me losing my family,” Freedom said. “If you want to stand up for the right things, unfortunately, my career and my family had to be somewhat of a sacrifice.”
It’s clear that Freedom has no intentions of backing down from using his massive platform until the issues going on in China are resolved.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.