Enes Kanter Freedom’s Political Awakening

Enes Kanter Freedom, a center for the Boston Celtics, has played in the N.B.A. for a decade, but his off-court actions have garnered him the most attention. Born in Switzerland and raised in Turkey, Freedom is an outspoken opponent of Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and a supporter of the Turkish scholar Fethullah Gülen, who Erdoğan claims was behind the failed 2016 coup against him. In 2017, Freedom’s Turkish passport was revoked; he continued his criticism of Erdoğan, referring to him as the “Hitler of our century.” The following year, his father, an academic in Turkey, was convicted of terrorism and imprisoned; he was released last year.

Recently, Freedom has been speaking out about the genocide in western China, where members of the Uyghur Muslim minority have been placed in concentration camps. He has also attacked other N.B.A. stars for remaining silent on the issue, recently tweeting about LeBron James, “Money over Morals for the ‘King.’ Sad & disgusting how these athletes pretend they care about social justice. They really do ‘shut up & dribble’ when Big Boss says so.” Freedom’s comments have won him loud applause at Celtics games, and a warm welcome on Fox News—whose host Laura Ingraham once said that athletes like James should “shut up and dribble.” Last month, he suggested that his limited playing time this year was related to his comments on China, tweeting, “Keep limiting me on the court, I will expose you off the court.” The Celtics coach, Ime Udoka, replied that it had more to do with Freedom’s long-standing defensive struggles.

Last weekend, I spoke by phone with Freedom, who changed his last name in November, after becoming a U.S. citizen. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed how he became involved in the Uyghur cause, his teammates’ reactions to his outspokenness, and his embrace by Tucker Carlson and Mike Pompeo.

How would you describe your political awakening?

I would say it all started back in 2013. There was a corruption scandal happening in Turkey, and President Erdoğan and his family were involved. That was the first time I said something. I saw the power of even one tweet. And after that, I started to pay attention to what’s going on more and more—what’s happening in the Middle East, the relationship between America and Turkey, even American politics, Turkish politics, Turkish history. Obviously, because of my social-media platform, whatever I said became a conversation. And so that’s why I wanted to use this platform to bring awareness to all the injustice that is happening in Turkey.

What got you interested in the issue of the Uyghurs and concentration camps in China?

It’s a crazy story, because, this summer I was doing a basketball camp. All the kids were lined up and I was taking pictures with them one by one. I took a picture with this kid, and his 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?” I was shocked. I turned around and was, like, “I promise you, I’m going to get back to you.” I started to study more and more. I started with the Uyghurs and then I saw what Tibet was going through, and what Hong Kong and Taiwan and Mongolians are going through. It broke my heart. And I’m, like, “It doesn’t matter what it costs. I have to bring awareness of what’s going on.”

What has that consisted of for you?

First of all, I was ashamed of myself because during the past ten years I was only focussed on Turkey, and there are so many human-rights violations and injustices happening, not just in Turkey but all over the world. And I really wanted to get deep. I didn’t want to just watch YouTube clips or read some news and make my decision. I actually sat down with some of the concentration-camp survivors and had conversations with them. They are the ones who told me what they’ve been through. They told me about how they were getting tortured and raped. And it’s just because they’re expressing their religion and expressing their freedom of speech.

What has been the response to China’s human-rights abuses within Turkey?

I have not heard anything from the Turkish side. They are remaining silent. [The Turkish government spoke out against China’s treatment of Uyghurs in 2019, but has largely remained silent.] And that’s the one thing that just breaks my heart because there are so many Muslim countries out there, Muslim leaders out there, and because they care too much about their business and the economy they are going with China. They remain silent, but I promise myself, I have to stand up for innocent people. I’m going to make all the Muslim leaders look like leadership interns because it was disgusting to me to see how they are staying silent.

You have been urging N.B.A. players to focus on this issue because the N.B.A.—and not just the N.B.A. but shoe companies such as Nike—have business in China. What has been the response from your fellow-players? What have you heard and what have they said to you personally?

I remember that the first time I talked about these issues, I sat down with almost all of my teammates and had conversations with them because their support was so important to me. And the response that I got from them gave me so much hope and motivation to fight. I remember them saying, “Listen, what you’re doing is right. Stay strong, and obviously not many people are going to like what you’re saying, but whatever happens, we got your back. Just keep speaking the truth.” I pretty much got the same response from all my teammates. And not just my current teammates—even my ex-teammates. Actually, not many people know this, but many of them are texting me privately and giving me talking points. So, players want to talk about this, obviously. Because of the N.B.A., because of the endorsement deals and Nike, they are scared to say something, but I know in their heart they want to say something.

And that support has continued after you criticized LeBron?

Actually, one of his current teammates told me to keep speaking the truth, keep calling out these people, because these companies are using these players and they’re making billions of dollars out of them. And these players are not educated enough. They’re putting their signature on this paper and signing huge deals with these companies, but, unfortunately, it’s pretty much like modern-day slavery.

You have said before that you are happy to “educate” LeBron, but is the problem that players who are not speaking out about this are not educated enough, or is it that they know perfectly well what’s going on but they have business interests and just don’t want to speak out?

You know, in my heart, I hope they’re not educated enough. That’s what I want to think about them, because, if you know what’s going on; if you know what all the innocent people are going through in concentration camps; if you know that, whenever you buy these shoes or you buy your T-shirt or you are advertising for companies, there is so much blood, sweat, and oppression on those items, and you still are part of the problem, then you are a hypocrite and it is disgusting. So, in my heart, I’m hoping that they’re not educated enough about the situation.

You’ve not had a chance to talk to LeBron personally?

I have not. I wish I had because obviously I respect LeBron, obviously he’s one of the best players in the world, and obviously his audience is the biggest audience that anyone can have in the N.B.A.. So, if he stands up for what’s right, and if other players join him, it’s going to become even harder for these companies to stand up for the wrong thing.

You recently stated that people “should just keep their mouth shut and stop criticizing the greatest nation in the world and they should focus on, you know, their freedoms and their human rights and their democracy.” This was about American athletes criticizing the United States. I thought a lot of the power of the comments you previously made was about human rights being universal, and the need for people to criticize human-rights violations everywhere they are occurring. America does not have the human-rights violations of Xinjiang, but there are bad things that go on here. Why isn’t it important for people to criticize them?

Let me just make this clear for those out there who mangle my words. What I meant is that, despite its many imperfections, America is still one of the greatest countries in the world. And many of my fellow-Americans don’t understand how bad it can get in other places, because of a lack of perspective. I think if you are lucky enough to be born in this country, which people are trying to join by, unfortunately, risking it all at the border, it’s easy to miss the forest for the trees. I think it is easy to get obsessed with America’s flaws, and even easier to forget its many achievements and the hope it provides to people everywhere.

So, when I said “shut up,” what I meant is: get some perspective. I obviously don’t mean to not criticize the U.S. Obviously, the U.S. has racism and many other problems, but I’m saying, at least it’s not Turkey. It’s not Syria, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Belarus. So I feel like people should feel lucky and blessed to be in this situation. That’s what I meant by “shut up.”

I think that it’s easy to acknowledge that America does not violate its citizens’ human rights the way North Korea or China does, but also that many people here grew up in tough circumstances and want to focus on their communities, which have been treated poorly. I don’t have a problem with them wanting to focus on the problems in their own communities, as long as they do not pretend that problems overseas are not going on, which seems like your critique.

Yeah. It’s definitely understandable. But like I said, when I said “shut up,” I did not mean that America has no problems. America obviously has problems and you see that on the news every day, but at least it is not one of those countries that I just listed.

I know you said this on Tucker Carlson’s show, and I think one of the reasons it was controversial is that Tucker Carlson had you on the show because he wants his audience to hear someone criticize Black athletes. I’m not saying that means you should not criticize LeBron over China. You should if he keeps up his silence. But that’s the context.

I remember after that show I was having a conversation with my teammates. I was, like, listen, my thing was never criticizing Black athletes. This is not about color. I don’t care if you’re Black, white, purple, green, whatever. Remember when all the Black Lives Matter protests were happening a year ago? I was out there with my city. So yes, there are obviously big problems happening in America, and one of them is racism. It was definitely not my intention to just criticize any Black athlete.

Did your teammates say something to you after your appearance on that show in particular?

Well, I started having a conversation with them and they just wanted to know what I was thinking, and I was, like, listen, this is not about race. This is not about color. This is not about anything like that. And they know that I’m so far from being racist or anything.

I understand that for a cause like the genocide in China, you take whatever allies you can. At the same time, I know you’re being congratulated by and retweeting people like Mike Pompeo, who was part of an Administration that tried to ban people from America because they are Muslim. How do you see that tension?

I feel like people can change. I showed America one more time how important immigrants are to this country. And I did have a conversation with Mr. Pompeo and I did have many conversations with so many people from the [Trump] Administration. I told them this country opened its arms and gave all these immigrants a welcome, and these immigrants will make this country so much better. And also it is important for other countries to see that America is accepting so many immigrants.

You were saying that America’s the greatest country in the world, and that we have all these freedoms. But people like Tucker Carlson spend their time saying that America is a hellhole, awash in immigrants. Carlson talks about “the Great Replacement,” which is basically the idea that immigrants are going to replace “real” Americans, and America will not be a white country anymore. I’m glad that you talked to people in the Trump Administration about the importance of immigration, but I think they have a different agenda.

Well, they can have their own agenda. You can always look at it both ways. When I show up on their show, I talk about how important immigrants are for this country, or how important it was to become an American citizen, and how freedom and democracy are important, and how human-rights violations are happening all over the world. At the same time, you can stretch to the other side and say what you said, so that’s understandable.

You recently tweeted, about the former N.B.A. player Jeremy Lin, who has gone to play in China, “Haven’t you had enough of that Dirty Chinese Communist Party money feeding you to stay silent? How disgusting of you to turn your back against your country & your people.” What country were you talking about?

Taiwan. He was born in America but—

So America would be his country.

Yeah, America is his country.

O. K., but you were saying he shouldn’t turn his back on Taiwan, even though he was not born there?

He is Taiwanese American.

And what were you trying to say?

He plays basketball in China. It is just a shame how China is trying to pressure Taiwan, and how can a Taiwanese American make money in China?

Do you still feel that the Celtics aren’t playing you as much as you wanted to be played because of China, as you previously implied?

I sat down and had a conversation with the coach, and he told me that that is not the case. And I want to believe him, obviously. He’s my coach. He’s part of my family. So I guess I’m just going to leave it at that.