The Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James have been criticized greatly since the Lakers selected Bronny James, LeBron's eldest son, in the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft. And one of the foremost LeBron critics, former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom, has weighed in on the topic.
Kanter Freedom, who played 11 seasons in the NBA between 2011 and 2022, has criticized LeBron on numerous occasions and even had on-court altercations with the NBA legend when they played against each other. So it comes as no surprise that he would not be in support of Bronny joining his father on the Lakers.
“He might be a good dude, but he’s not good enough to play in the NBA,” Kanter Freedom told OutKick. “The reason he got drafted is because of LeBron, the reason JJ Redick is the coach is because of LeBron.”
While that opinion is not too outlandish considering how popular of a stance it has become, Kanter went a step further in his characterization of LeBron.
“No other player wants to go play with LeBron. You had so many other free agents. . . . No one wanted to go play with him, because they know that it’s all about LeBron,” Kanter Freedom said. “They’re gonna get zero clout. . . . When the Lakers’ season fails, LeBron tries to find a player to blame, and he blamed the whole season on Russell Westbrook, so he is not a good teammate. Obviously, he runs the media, and he tries to control this narrative, but when you actually know and have a conversation inside of the NBA and its players, nobody wants to play with him. . . .
“When I see a dictator, I know it – LeBron is literally like the dictator of the NBA. He controls the media, he controls his narrative, if you go against his agenda, you get traded, everybody knows it.”
History between LeBron James and Enes Kanter Freedom
Enes Kanter Freedom (then just Enes Kanter) was drafted with the third overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, eight years after LeBron James entered into the league. The two players played on different teams and seemingly had no issue with one another until November 2017 when LeBron's Cleveland Cavaliers played Kanter Freedom's New York Knicks. Before the game, LeBron said that the Knicks should have drafted Dennis Smith Jr. instead of Frank Ntilikina, which Kanter Freedom took issue with.
LeBron responded to Kanter Freedom saying the comment showed his “disrespect” by saying, “For Enes Kanter, who always got something to say. He says … I don't know what's wrong with him.”
During the game, after an alley-oop by LeBron, the veteran Cavaliers player stood in the way of Ntilikina, which led Kanter Freedom to run over and get in LeBron's face. The players were separated, but after the game, Kanter Freedom defended Ntilikina and took a shot at LeBron by referencing his ‘King' nickname.
“He's a rookie,” Kanter Freedom said of Ntilikina. “You call yourself ‘King' or whatever. But you can't just mess with a rookie like that. If you're going to mess with [someone], go mess with the grown men. … I don't care who you are. What do you call yourself, ‘King,' ‘Queen,' ‘Princess,' whatever you are. We're going to fight. Nobody out there is going to punk us.”
LeBron said that he wasn't going to mention Kanter Freedom by name but said, “Well, I'm the King, my wife is the Queen and my daughter's the Princess, so we've got all three covered.”
In October 2021, Kanter Freedom said he was “disappointed” that LeBron was not more vocal in promoting the COVID-19 vaccine. A little over three weeks later, Kanter Freedom tweeted the following (attached with images of sneakers with ‘modern day slavery,' ‘hypocrite,' ‘slave labor,' and ‘no more excuses' written on them:
“To the owner of @Nike, Phil Knight
How about I book plane tickets for us
and let's fly to China together.
We can try to visit these SLAVE labor
camps and you can see it with your
own eyes.
@KingJames
@Jumpman23
you guys are welcome to come too.
#EndUyghurForcedLabor”
After he was waived by the Houston Rockets in February 2022, he claimed that the NBA blackballed him for his political opinions and activism. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver denied this, saying that he “made it absolutely clear to [Kanter Freedom] that it was completely within his right to speak out on issues that he was passionate about.”
Over the last several years, Kanter Freedom has continued to criticize LeBron and the NBA, in large part due to their business relationships with China.
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