Enes Kanter Freedom, the basketball player most known for speaking out against the NBA’s close ties to China, says he isn’t currently on an NBA roster due to his activism.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver disagrees.
In a recent interview with the New York Times, Silver said the league’s teams have not blackballed Freedom.
“We spoke directly about his activities this season,” Silver said about Freedom. “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.”
Some fans have compared Freedom’s current situation in the NBA to that of quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s in the NFL. Kaepernick hasn’t taken an NFL snap since the 2016 season after he had sparked league-wide controversy by kneeling during the national anthem.
Silver says that comparison is “completely unfounded and unfair.”
Freedom, who changed his last name from Kanter upon becoming a U.S. citizen in November, was waived by the Houston Rockets in February after he was traded by the Boston Celtics. Mostly a bench player in his NBA career, the 11-year veteran center was barely in Boston’s rotation this season, averaging 3.7 points and 11.7 minutes per game.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize why I got little playing time and was released,” Freedom said in a text to the New York Times. “But it does take people with a conscience to speak out and say it’s not right.”
• Jacob Calvin Meyer can be reached at jmeyer@washingtontimes.com.
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