When it comes to social justice in the United States, a lot of NBA players have stepped up in support of stopping the racial and financial inequalities in our country. Boston Celtics big man Enes Kanter Freedom (Kanter) is one of them and so is Lakers superstar LeBron James.
What the players have not done a lot of, except for Kanter, is speak up for other countries that are suffering from similar civil rights issues. This became increasingly more clear when, in 2019, then-Rockets GM Daryl Morey Tweeted in support of Taiwan's independence from China. That did not sit well with the Chinese Government, because they decided to pull NBA games from their county indefinitely due to the comments.
Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James quickly came to the defense of China, saying that the league needs them to do business. With millions of Chinese NBA fans watching the games daily and most of the shoes that the players wearing and selling are made in China, he is probably right.
The problem is, if Lebron wants to be active in the social justice movement, he should prioritize the human right of millions of Chinese slave workers over the sales of his sneakers.
Western propaganda doesn't move me.
Show me the slave markets.
Why does Nike pay some Chinese workers but enslave others?https://t.co/7lOfVEA4PR
— Corey_d_Lion (@Csmooth2012) January 2, 2022
LeBron's comment ruffled a lot of feathers around the league, including with Kanter, who has been extremely vocal about his former home country Turkey's “President,” Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Kanter is still wanted in his home country due to his criticism and has since become an American citizen.
Another flagrant abuse of the Interpol Red Notice system. Turkey seeks to arrest NBA player Enes Kanter for making disparaging remarks about Turkish President Erdogan. Interpol should firmly and publicly rebuke this politically motivated abuse ASAP https://t.co/VkVdm4p4K1
— Bill Browder (@Billbrowder) January 16, 2019
Kanter sees what LeBron did as bending the knee to a bully and has voiced his opinion on that over and over for the past couple of years. On Thursday, he told this story about how one of LeBron's teammates once came up to him at the free-throw line and had this to say:
“Dude, keep doing what you’re doing. What you’re doing is right. Don’t give up. I have so much things that I want to say, but I cannot because these teams got us. If you want another contract, if you want more endorsement deals, if you want other companies to work with you, you have to keep your mouth shut. You cannot criticize the league, the companies, Nike, or whoever.”
That kind of censorship is the reason there is an uprising in Turkey and anti-government sentiment in China and Kanter is fighting to eradicate it from the world. By changing his last name to Kanter Freedom, he is showing people that he is ALWAYS going to fight for them while LeBron will only fight for them if it doesn't affect his bottom line.
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