Enes Kanter is not one to hold his tongue for anyone, especially when it comes to human rights issues.
He has openly and fearlessly criticized Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, calling him a dictator despite the threats to his life. In response, the Turkish government revoked Kanter’s passport in 2017 while he was traveling, leaving him trapped in Romania. He was eventually able to get to London and then back to the United States.
Since that time, Kanter hasn’t refused to travel internationally out of fear for his life.
Yet that hasn’t deterred him from speaking out against human rights violations and dictatorships.
On Wednesday he did it again, this time taking aim at China’s leader, Xi Jinping, calling him a “brutal dictator” on social media.
Kanter throttled the Chinese government and their president for their attempts to eradicate Tibetan identity and culture.
“I say, ‘Shame on the Chinese government,’” said Kanter, who was wearing a Dalai Lama t-shirt. “The Chinese dictatorship is erasing Tibetan identity and culture.”
The shirt was an added dig at the Chinese government as they consider him a criminal separatist.
He followed that video with another showing a pair of sneakers emblazoned with a design reading “Free Tibet.”
“More than 150 Tibetan people have burned themselves alive!! — hoping that such an act would raise more awareness about Tibet,” tweeted Kanter. “I stand with my Tibetan brothers and sisters, and I support their calls for Freedom.”
The backlash in China against Kanter and the NBA was swift.
The plug was pulled on the Celtics broadcast on streaming platform Tencent in China. The Tencent Sports website also indicated that future Celtics games would not be live streamed in the country.
Joining the protest was a Celtics fan page on Chinese social platform Weibo, who said they would stop posting about the team in response to Kanter’s criticism.
“Resolutely resist any behavior that damages national harmony and the dignity of the motherland!” they wrote to their over 600,000 followers.
The Celtics aren’t the only team in hot water with China.
Philadelphia 76ers’ games are also off the air in the country due to the team hiring Daryl Morey as their president of basketball operations.
Morey is the former Houston Rockets’ executive whose tweet “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong” in 2019 ignited a firestorm for the NBA and their relationship with China.
The tweet was deleted but the damage was done.
The league had to react quickly and scramble to extinguish the flames burning the bridge between the NBA and China.
The criticism of Xi Jinping isn’t a PR stunt for Enes Kanter. His stances are genuine, sincere, heartfelt and real.
That sincerity has resulted in the Turkish government demanding to have him arrested and sent back to Turkey, a demand the U.S. has refused to acknowledge.
But now his words have impacted the team and the league, which means that he’s impacted their finances as well.
In their first full post-Covid season, the league projected to make $10 billion in revenue. While this situation might have a small impact on their overall revenue projection, it could leave a blemish whose impact extends beyond this season.
In Kanter’s defense, he’s not the only one to speak out against China and its efforts to silence critics and exterminate people and cultures.
Since 2017, over 1 million Uighur Muslims have been interred in concentration camps in Zinjiang, a northwestern region of China. The government originally denied the camp’s existence but once satellite images confirmed them, the Chinese government deemed them “re-education centers for Uighurs.
Media outlets have reported on beatings, arrests, tortures and sterilizations of Uighurs in the region, to which the Chinese government responded that they were targeting terrorists and others who posed a threat.
Real freedom and basic human rights continue to be under attack in America and across the globe, and Enes Kanter is one of the few professional athletes who remain unabashedly outspoken about these issues.
And he has suffered for it.
But he continues to push forward and pursue a fight that many can’t or won’t face.
Kanter hopes the regime in Turkey will be purged, for only then will he be able to return home and be with his family once again.
“I have a hope. And you have to live with that hope,” Kanter said in September of 2019. “And you and you can never lose hope. I know that one day I’m going to be able to go back to my country, see my family again, eat my mom’s food, my favorite.”
Until the rights are wronged, Enes Kanter will continue to sacrifice his safety, risk financial security and face scrutiny and punishment to speak out against countries like China.
Now let’s see which athletes will join him.
