Basketball Skills Got Him to the N.B.A., but Activism Made His Name

“My activism actually started when I was 9 years old,” Enes Kanter Freedom told a rapt audience of pro-democracy activists that included Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion known for his opposition to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

Freedom was at the Olive Tree Cafe in Greenwich Village on Feb. 23, dressed in a sport coat over a dark T-shirt that read, “Freedom For ALL.”

“My mom told me — I remember when I was a kid — ‘Believe in something and always stand up tall for it. Even if it means sacrificing everything you have.’”

Freedom used to be known as Enes Kanter, a serviceable N.B.A. center who has publicly defied President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, where Freedom was raised. But in recent months, the player has made headlines mostly by calling out China’s human rights abuses and ripping the N.B.A. for doing business with the country. In November, he changed his name, choosing Freedom as his surname, and his activism now overshadows his identity as a player.

It has also made him a political weapon that right-wing politicians and pundits have used to bludgeon the N.B.A. and its biggest star, Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, a frequent conservative target whom Freedom has singled out for criticism.

But Freedom’s allies aren’t just on the right. Many left-leaning pro-democracy activists, like those at the Greenwich Village event, have also embraced him. Because he brings attention to their cause, they have looked past his appearances with right-wing television hosts like Laura Ingraham, who welcomed Freedom on her show but once told James to “shut up and dribble.”

At the moment, Freedom is not in the N.B.A. No team has signed him since he was traded and cut last month, and to hear him tell it, his activism is the reason. He has invited comparisons to Colin Kaepernick, the former N.F.L. quarterback who in 2016 began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and who has accused the N.F.L. of colluding to keep him out of the league.

For decades, the N.B.A.’s plans for global expansion have included China, where there are more fans of the league than there are in the United States. Before the coronavirus pandemic, top N.B.A. stars routinely traveled there to promote shoe brands. China accounted for a steady stream of television and sponsorship revenue for the N.B.A. until the league’s relationship with the Chinese government frayed in 2019.

Freedom declined to be interviewed by phone or in person, but agreed to answer questions over text message.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize why I got little playing time and was released,” he said. “But it does take people with a conscience to speak out and say it’s not right.”

The perception — whether true or not — that Freedom is being punished for his political beliefs has become pervasive among his allies.

Jeffrey Ngo, a Hong Kong pro-democracy activist in Washington, said Freedom’s criticism of China “must have at least played a role” in his not playing.

“All of a sudden there’s all this attention and people telling him to stop talking about it or there would be consequences,” Ngo said. “And then those consequences came.”

Adam Silver, the commissioner of the N.B.A., said in an interview that the league’s position on China had not changed. He also denied that the league had blackballed Freedom, saying that comparisons to Kaepernick were “completely unfounded and unfair.”

“We spoke directly about his activities this season,” Silver said, “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.”

Freedom said Silver characterized their conversation wrongly, but — in what has become a trend for him — he wouldn’t offer specifics.

‘Always Full of Joy’

Early in his career, Freedom gave little indication that he would become an outspoken human rights advocate.

Raphael Chillious, then a Nike executive, first met Freedom at a basketball camp in Greece when Freedom was about 16. Freedom, who was born in Zurich, was one of the best rebounders on the floor — and shy, Chillious recalled.

“I don’t think he was confident in his English at that point,” Chillious said. “So he wouldn’t initiate conversations.”

Freedom played for a professional team in Turkey before going to the University of Kentucky in 2010. But because he had been paid by the Turkish team, the N.C.A.A. ruled him ineligible.

“He was heartbroken,” Orlando Antigua, an assistant coach with the program, said through a university spokesperson. “It was very difficult. It was difficult for all of us.”

Freedom instead served as a student assistant, improving his English by watching the Nickelodeon cartoon “SpongeBob SquarePants.”

The Utah Jazz selected him with the third overall pick in the 2011 draft even though he never played a college game. Brandon Knight, a college teammate, described Freedom as “super goofy” and “always full of joy.” After his rookie year, Freedom, no longer shy, posted a message on Twitter asking “for a blonde” to join him for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

“Once he got used to being here and around his teammates, he’s a really loyal guy,” said Tyrone Corbin, who coached Freedom on the Jazz.

‘Shut Up and Stop Talking’

Freedom’s foray into public political activism began in 2016 with his denunciations of Erdogan, who detained thousands of people in Turkey after a failed military coup. Erdogan blamed the coup attempt on Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic preacher and former ally. Freedom is Gulen’s supporter and friend, and he has referred to Erdogan as the “Hitler of our century.”

Turkey canceled Freedom’s passport and issued a warrant for his arrest. Freedom’s father, Mehmet Kanter, wrote a letter disowning him and was later arrested, and acquitted, on terrorism charges in Turkey. Freedom has not been back to Turkey since 2015.

A chance encounter at a basketball camp in New York last summer turned the player’s attention to China.

“I took a picture with this kid, and her parents called me out in front of everybody and said, ‘How can you call yourself a human-rights activist when your Muslim brothers and sisters are getting tortured and raped every day in concentration camps in China?’” Freedom told the crowd at the Olive Tree, referring to allegations commonly made by Uyghur rights activists of abuses by China in Xinjiang, a region in northwest China. The State Department, under the Trump administration, labeled it genocide, and the Biden administration has maintained that position.

Freedom, who is Muslim but knew little about the Uyghurs, threw himself into the cause. Tahir Imin, a Uyghur activist in Washington who met Freedom at a Capitol Hill rally, said that Freedom “boosted the morale of Uyghur activism.”

That was just over a week after Freedom opened the N.B.A. season with the Boston Celtics, in October. Ahead of their first game, Freedom posted a video on Twitter with a caption referring to China’s leader, Xi Jinping, as a “brutal dictator.” During the game, he wore shoes designed by the Chinese dissident artist Badiucao that said “Free Tibet,” referring to the region Chinese troops invaded and seized in 1951.

The N.B.A.’s response, Freedom said, was to try to silence him. In several media appearances after that game, he said two league officials demanded that he take off the shoes, and he refused. At the Olive Tree, he changed the story, saying the officials were with the Celtics.

He also said the N.B.A. players’ union separately tried to get him to stop wearing the shoes.

“Instead of advocating on my behalf, I have encountered the union telling me I need to shut up and stop talking about the human rights violations in China,” Freedom said to The New York Times.

Freedom’s story is difficult to corroborate because he would not disclose the names of his antagonists. The union would not comment on the specifics, but said in a statement that it supported Freedom and other players’ speaking out on important issues.

Brad Stevens, the president of basketball operations for the Celtics, said team staff members merely asked whether the shoes were a violation of the league dress code.

“Even the next day, I just walked up to him and said, ‘Hey, you always have our support to freely express yourself and say what you want,’” Stevens said. Freedom confirmed this exchange.

Even if Freedom’s criticisms were not an issue for the Celtics, they have hit a sore spot in China. Tencent, which streams N.B.A. games in China, pulled Celtics games, evoking memories of 2019, when China stopped broadcasting N.B.A. games on its state television network after a Houston Rockets executive shared a Twitter image supportive of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. The Chinese government was outraged, and the N.B.A. drew bipartisan criticism in the United States for what some saw as a weak response.

The N.B.A. said the 2019 episode cost the league hundreds of millions of dollars. Silver, the commissioner, said that he wants the N.B.A. to normalize relations with China, despite the criticism. “Virtually every major U.S. company” does business there, he said.

“So then the question becomes,” Silver added, “why is the N.B.A. being singled out as the one company that should now boycott China?”

The league did, however, recently pull business out of Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. The difference between China and Russia, Silver said, was that the U.S. government instituted an economic boycott of Russia.

“It’s very difficult for the league to practice foreign policy,” Silver said.

‘Money Over Morals’

Shoes Freedom has worn with protest slogans during games.Credit…Getty Images and Associated Press

Freedom has criticized some iconic players, including Michael Jordan, who owns the Charlotte Hornets, and James, the Lakers star, for their business with Nike, which has deep ties to China. During a game against Charlotte on Oct. 25, Freedom wore white Nike Air Jordans that said “Hypocrite Nike” and “Made With Slave Labor.” The Washington Post reported in 2020 that some Nike shoes were being made with Uyghur labor. (In a statement at the time, Nike said that it was “concerned” about reports of forced labor, but that the company did not find any Uyghur labor or that of other ethnic minorities from the region in its supply chain.)

Freedom has accused James of choosing “money over morals” by associating with Nike, and he wore custom shoes that mocked James — much to the delight of prominent Republicans who have attacked James, who is Black, for his social justice advocacy. A spokesman for James declined to comment, and a representative for Jordan did not respond to an inquiry.

As Freedom’s new identity and activism have raised his profile, he has drawn a backlash for his choice of targets and allies.

In December, the former N.B.A. player Jeremy Lin announced that he would play for the Beijing Ducks for the 2021-22 season, drawing a stinging reply from Freedom.

“Haven’t you had enough of that Dirty Chinese Communist Party money feeding you to stay silent?” Freedom wrote on Twitter. “How disgusting of you to turn your back against your country & your people.”

Lin, who is Taiwanese-American, was born in Torrance, Calif., and the suggestion that Lin’s country was not the United States was met with disapproval on social media.

In late November, Freedom appeared on Fox News with Tucker Carlson, the conservative host who has frequently denigrated immigrants and social justice activists. Freedom had just become an American citizen, and Carlson asked him whether people who grew up in America were as likely to “appreciate the freedoms” offered by the United States. Freedom’s response — that American critics “should just keep their mouth shut and stop criticizing the greatest nation in the world” — seemed to please Carlson, but clashed with Freedom’s portrayal of himself as a champion of free expression.

Uriel Epshtein, an executive director at the Renew Democracy Initiative, which hosted Freedom at the Olive Tree, said the criticisms of Freedom’s appearance on Carlson are “relevant,” but “they pale in comparison to the simple fact that Enes has taken unbelievable personal, professional and security risks to do what he thinks is right.”

The Carlson appearance, combined with Freedom’s attacks on James and Jordan, who is also Black, brought a sharp response from, among others, the journalist Jemele Hill.

“Taking shots at prominent Black athletes who have done significant social-justice work will not help Freedom advance freedom,” Hill wrote in a column for The Atlantic. “All he’s doing is empowering right-wingers who delight in silencing social-justice advocates.”

Freedom has also been criticized for agreeing to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, which this year hosted several conspiracy theorists and election results deniers. He later backed out, saying he needed to focus on basketball.

‘I Don’t Want to Retire’

In February, the Celtics traded Freedom to Houston, which immediately waived him. Stevens, the Celtics executive, said the trade “was a basketball-driven decision, one thousand percent.”

The Rockets declined to comment.

Sen. Rick Scott, Republican of Florida, said Freedom’s release was a “disgusting example” of the N.B.A.’s “cowardly appeasement toward Communist China.” Freedom reposted the Twitter messages of other elected Republicans who expressed similar sentiments. Others on the right have explicitly likened Freedom to Kaepernick.

The comparison is, at best, inexact. Some in the N.F.L.’s largely white fan base have described the protest of Kaepernick, who is biracial, as unpatriotic — even though he began kneeling during the national anthem at the suggestion of a former Green Beret. Freedom’s criticisms of the Chinese government, though pointed and perhaps irritating to the league, are largely popular in the United States.

The athletes are different, too. Kaepernick was four seasons removed from a trip to the Super Bowl as a starting quarterback. Freedom, a journeyman center, is a strong rebounder with a soft touch around the rim. But his plodding, physical style of play has fallen out of favor in the N.B.A., which is now weighted toward shooters who are fast and can play multiple positions. Freedom is none of those things, and he struggles defensively. The Celtics signed him to a minimum contract to be a situational backup center before he began his China activism. He averaged 11.7 minutes in 35 contests — roughly in line with what a player in that role would receive — and scored 3.7 points a game.

Freedom was not the least skilled player in the league when he was cut, but his role on N.B.A. teams began to shrink well before his China activism. He has not been a full-time starter since 2018. And many other players who have talents more suited than his to the current style of play also are not in the league.

At the Olive Tree, a man in the audience asked Freedom what he wanted to do next.

“I don’t want to retire at the age of 29,” Freedom said.

“Sometimes,” he added, “sacrifice is a very important word, so there are bigger things.”

Mike Wilson contributed reporting.