Earlier this week, former basketball star Enes Kanter Freedom appeared before Congress to testify about his claim that he’s been “blacklisted” from the NBA over his pointed criticism of China’s persecution of the Uyghurs and the league’s relationship with the Chinese government.
Freedom once again called out other NBA players for their silence on China’s human-rights violations even though they’ve spoken out about social-justice issues in the United States, suggesting that they are scared to hurt their bottom line.
Throughout Tuesday’s hearing before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which was intended to address “cases of complicity across various industries” regarding Chinese human rights abuses, Freedom recounted the story he’s told countless times before. That is, the league, players’ union and his former team all conspired to silence him when he wore shoes in support of Tibet and the Uyghur people, eventually resulting in the premature end to his playing career.
While the former New York Knicks center is not only outspoken now against China’s treatment of its Muslim minority population but also the alleged cowardice of athletes protecting their shoe endorsements, it was just a few years ago when Freedom openly lamented that he didn’t have a Nike contract and that he hoped to secure a “Chinese shoe deal.”
Before he ever roundly condemned players for doing business with Nike—though he doesn’t seem to have any issue with Elon Musk’s coziness to the CCP—Freedom sought a deal with the shoe giant but claimed pressure from the Turkish regime, thanks to his anti-government activism, scuttled any such partnership.
In his testimony this week, Freedom painted a picture of pro-athletes across all major sports privately lauding his bravery for blasting China but personally telling him they’re unwilling to do the same thing because of money.
“They all said the same thing: ‘Enes, what you are doing is so amazing, so courageous, so inspiring. we love you; we support you, but we cannot do it out loud,’” Freedom said on Tuesday. “I asked them why? And they said: ‘we have shoe deals, endorsement deals, jersey sales, and we want to get another contract with the league that we play with.’”
He continued: “I asked them one simple question: ‘Put yourself in their shoes. if your mother, your sister, or your daughter was in those concentration camps getting tortured and raped every day, would you still pick the money and business?’ They usually turned around and left the room.”
During his final season with the Boston Celtics, Freedom wore custom-made shoes that not only said “Free Tibet” and “Free Uyghurs,” but also called out Nike and the NBA stars he accused of choosing “money over morals,” specifically LeBron James. In fact, his rise as a right-wing media celebrity seemed to begin when he wore shoes directly ridiculing James, who had become a conservative bogeyman owing to his racial-justice advocacy.
Freedom, meanwhile, later drew criticism when he slammed Taiwanese-American player Jeremy Lin for deciding to play for a Beijing team, asking him, “Haven’t you had enough of that Dirty Chinese Communist Party money feeding you to stay silent” while saying it was “disgusting of you to turn your back against your country & your people.”
Back in 2018, however, Freedom was singing a far different tune when it came to Nike and shoe endorsements.
Prior to his final season with the Knicks, Freedom—who was prevented from playing for some high-school basketball teams because he had a Nike deal at the time—said he was switching agents because of the lack of money he was making off-court.
At the time, the Turkish-born Freedom was loudly and publicly critical of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, calling him the “Hitler of our century” following a failed military coup. Eventually, the Turkish government issued an arrest warrant for Freedom, resulting in international travel issues that at one point saw him temporarily stranded in Europe. During this time, Freedom heaped praise on the NBA, its commissioner, and the players’ union for their support.
According to Freedom, Nike was unwilling to sign him to an endorsement deal because they had a substantial amount of business with Turkey. Therefore, he was signing with agent Mark Bartelstein, who he “hoped” would help pull in business from other companies overseas.
“That’s why I’m signing with him. Maybe he’ll get me something,” he said in March 2018. “I make almost no money off the court because of the Turkish stuff. Most American companies are scared to give me any contract because of what's going on with Turkey. Maybe with a new agent, I’ll get some Chinese, Philippines shoe deal.”
Later in the year, Freedom reportedly continued to wear Nikes on the court despite not having a contract with the company. He further lamented that Nike wasn’t paying him—once again tying it to his beef with Erdoğan and Turkey.
“I talked to Nike and they said ‘we want to give Enes a contract. We’re watching him. But if we give him a contract they will shut down every store in Turkey, so we cannot give him a contract.’ I’m an NBA player with no shoe deal. No endorsement deal. And I play in New York!” Freedom exclaimed to Vice in 2018.
Since then, Freedom said it was a chance encounter at a basketball camp in New York during the summer of 2021 that opened his eyes to the horrific situation the Uyghurs face.
“I remember taking a pic with this kid and their parent called me out in front of everyone and said, ‘How can you call yourself a human-rights activist when your Muslim brothers and sisters are getting tortured every day in concentration camps in China?’ I was still smiling for the camera after I took a picture with his kid. I turned around and said, ‘I promise I’m going to get back to you,’” Freedom declared during Tuesday’s hearing.
Freedom claims that his anti-China activism on behalf of the Uyghurs resulted in him being banned from the NBA, with some likening his situation to Colin Kaepernick. According to Freedom, the pressure to silence him began immediately after he donned a pair of sneakers emblazoned with “Free Tibet,” which were made by Chinese dissident artist Badiucao.
“We are in a huddle in front of our bench when two gentlemen from the Celtics came up to me and said, ‘You need to take your shoes off immediately.’ I asked him why and they said, ‘Your shoes have been getting so much attention internationally and we are getting many calls so please take them off,’” he claimed on Tuesday, adding: “So, I opened my eyes and told them ‘No, I’m not taking my shoes off.’ They kept telling me to take them off, and I said, “Even if I get fined, I’m not taking them off.” They said, ‘We are not talking about a fine, we are talking about getting banned.’”
He went on to allege that the NBA Players Association further told him to “never wear those shoes again” because of league pressure, threatening to change the rules so that no players could put any messages on their shoes. After he wore another pair of shoes that said “Free Uyghurs,” he claimed the union called him a “liar” and said they’d “never trust” him again.
In the end, according to Freedom, his insistence on wearing shoes criticizing the Chinese government, Nike, and others he felt were complicit in the CCP’s abhorrent treatment of the Uyghurs led to his deadline trade to the Houston Rockets, which he called “China’s team” because Yao Ming played there. He was immediately released by the Rockets, in what many saw as a basic basketball roster move due to Freedom’s limited skill-set and subpar defense.
Freedom’s version of this story has changed since late 2021, making it tough to corroborate. For months, he initially claimed two league officials ordered him to take off his shoes that first night, only to have since changed it to Celtics employees. Additionally, he hasn’t ever disclosed the names of these supposed antagonists.
Celtics President Brad Stevens, meanwhile, has long denied that the team had any issues with Freedom’s footwear, saying all the team did was initially check to see if his “Free Tibet” shoes violated the league’s dress code.
“Double-checked, fine, and he wore those the rest of the game and he wore whatever he wanted the rest of the year,” Stevens told the Boston Herald last year. “It’s interesting, because I feel really good that we truly sat here and supported him and his right to express himself and his freedom of speech, and I even told him the next day that you know I’ve always done that.”
Now that Freedom’s pro-basketball career appears to be over, he seems to be eyeing a new job in Washington. In recent months, Freedom—a one-time Hillary Clinton supporter and Trump critic—has openly weighed a congressional run as a Republican, claiming he’s talked to several GOP leaders about where to launch a campaign.
“I am having conversations with people. Obviously, it's a process. But, of course, I am just trying to find the right place where it's warm obviously” he told Fox News in May. “But I really like Florida. I actually had a really good conversation with the Governor DeSantis a few days ago and he was like, ‘Why don't you move here, let's go.’”
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