Comrades: Enes Kanter Freedom has sacrificed more and stood taller for freedom than any professional sportsball athlete.
His new book In the Name of Freedom: A Political Dissident’s Fight for Human Rights in the NBA and Around the World has elevated his stature even further. The 33-year-old grew up in Turkey, moved to America when he was 17, and added Freedom to his name when he became an American citizen in 2021. During his final season in the NBA, he showed immense courage by wearing subversive sneakers that criticized the CCP. Adam Silver, LeBron James, Joe Tsai, and Nike bent the knee to Xi Jinping and the CCP for money. They abandoned Freedom and made sure he would never play professional basketball again.
Freedom had many awakenings in his life. As a boy, he witnessed his brainwashed Turkish friends burn American flags. His mother taught him an important life lesson: never hate anyone before meeting them. When he came to America to play for the University of Kentucky, he learned what a tolerant and friendly country we are - the opposite of his home country’s indoctrination. Although the NCAA barred him from competing in college, he was drafted third in the 2011 draft by the Utah Jazz. He appreciated how fans and players of all faiths embraced him as a Muslim.
In 2015, the Jazz traded Freedom to the Oklahoma City Thunder. He began speaking out against Turkey’s President Erdogan while making deep playoff runs alongside a strong team featuring Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and the based Kiwi Steven Adams. In 2016, Erdogan blamed the exiled Turkish spiritual leader Fethullah Gülen for a failed coup that the former may have orchestrated to consolidate power. In the aftermath, he cracked down on alleged Gulenists including Freedom and his family. Tens of thousands were imprisoned. His regime issued an arrest warrant for Freedom, put a $500,000 bounty on his head, and attempted to kidnap him. Freedom’s family was forced to denounce him under duress and torture, then cut off all communications with him. He has not seen them in over a decade.
In 2020, Freedom saw through the tyranny and hypocrisy of the American left. Every team was forced to live a bubble for months under draconian COVID restrictions to play out the season. The players shilled for masks and jabs. During the George Floyd and BLM riots, the NBA encouraged them to kneel for the national anthem and wear social justice slogans. Trapped inside the bubble, Freedom began educating himself on global human rights issues and wondered why no one was protesting the CCP.
The NBA was making hundreds of millions of dollars from the China market. In 2019, Houston Rockets General Manger Daryl Morey was fired for tweeting in support of the Hong Kong protests. Freedom turned down a larger contract from the Portland Trailblazers to join the Boston Celtics because the storied franchise had much more media exposure. He started wearing sneakers with messages about the CCP’s repression of the Uighurs, Tibetans, and slave laborers. In response, China stopped broadcasting Celtics games. The NBA commanded the media to avoid filming his shoes or interviewing him. He gave up years of productive playing time and tens of millions of dollars.
For every fearless Freedom, there are hundreds of cowardly court eunuchs. We must name and shame them. Boycott the NBA. As always, stop giving money to people who hate you.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver pressured every owner to blackball Freedom and force him into retirement. LeBron James remained silent about Freedom, even though he was vocal about BLM. He has toured China with Nike 15 times. Colin Kaepernick, the activist who kneeled his way out of the NFL, stopped taking Freedom’s calls. Yao Ming blocked Freedom on social media and cancelled his invitation to visit China. Celtics Coach Ime Udoka benched Freedom. Nike did not care for Freedom. The sneaker wars continue as many NBA players signed lucrative contracts with Chinese shoe company Li-Ning, including Dewayne Wade. Someone should ask him what the CCP policy is about his trans child.
NBA owners have over $10 billion worth of investments in China. Joe Tsai, the owner of the Brooklyn Nets, made his fortune as Chairman of Alibaba. The NBA just signed a cloud deal with Alibaba. Last weekend, the Nets and Suns played the first NBA game in China since 2019. Ironically, Tsai was born in Taiwan to a family that fled the CCP and now lives in Hong Kong. He does not hold American citizenship despite benefiting from our most elite institutions for decades: Yale, Lawrenceville Prep, and Sullivan & Cromwell. He donated $30 million to Yale to establish a China center and $50 million to BIPOC social justice causes. For the patriots in control reading this - how much longer will we tolerate staggering conflicts of interest by subversion agents like him?
Freedom opens and closes his book with a powerful message:
Freedom is not free. It comes at a cost. My story is the price of freedom - a price that is worth paying. It is a story born from the pain of being disowned by my home country, shut out from contact with my family for ten years, and banished from playing the game I love in the NBA and elsewhere. It is the story of being detained and almost kidnapped in a foreign country, being labeled an “international criminal”, and having an Interpol arrest warrant issued for me. It is the story of imprisoned and tortured family members, countless death threats, and living with a $500,000 bounty on my head. It is a story of sacrificing all that was most dear to me…
But it is also a story of discovering the most precious things of all. For all I have lost, I have gained even more…
After all I’ve been through and sacrificed, I live with a lot of pain. My career and my family have been taken away. I receive death threats… Yet in the middle of all this, I refuse to let go of joy. When. I see the faces of the kids I help, or the victims of repression who are grateful for my work, I feed on their energy. I am reminded that all I’ve sacrificed is worth it. I could be a volcano inside… but my enemies will never see me sweat. Thy rejoice when they see you struggling, and I will never give them that privilege. Joy is my secret motivation to keep fighting…
The road ahead will continue to be long and hard, but it is one I have never regretted taking in the name of freedom. To all my allies in this battle: Let’s keep fighting together.
Freedom plans to run for office in 2028 when he is eligible. MSM continues to ignore his book and advocacy. I stand with him, but not as tall…
For more on the CCP’s crimes:
How To Commemorate the Tiananmen Square Massacre of June 4, 1989
Comrades: Know your history. Today marks the 36th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. In modern America, we are living through a simultaneous slow-motion Tiananmen Square and Cultural Revolution.
The Tiananmen Square Museum has moved from NYC to East LA:
How To Visit the Tiananmen Square Massacre Museum in NYC - EXCLUSIVE PHOTO EXHIBIT
Comrades: Never forget Tiananmen Square.
What a hero and inspiration! Thank you for featuring this great man.
Bought the book. Thanks for highlighting Yuri. Fuck the NBA