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Teenage basketball star Enes Kanter was shocked when his teammate criticized President Barack Obama on Facebook.
“Dude, what are you doing?” he exclaimed. He feared his teammate would be jailed.
Kanter is from Turkey, where, as he explained to me, people who criticize the president do go to jail.
His teammates laughed at him. “They were explaining to me about freedom of speech, freedom of religion, expression, freedom of protest.”
That inspired him.
When Turkey’s president shut down news outlets, Kanter decided, “I’m going to say something about it.”
He tweeted, wrote op-eds, gave interviews.
Turkey’s authoritarian rulers retaliated. They jailed his father. “They wanted to set an example, this is what happens if you talk against the Turkish government.”
The NBA supported his protest. “[NBA commissioner] Adam Silver texted me twice and said, ‘Whatever you need, we are here for you. Keep doing what you’re doing.’”
But then he criticized China. Slightly. He wrote, “Free Tibet” on his basketball shoes.
“There’s no rule against it,” he says. Other players put “Black Lives Matter” and “I Can’t Breathe” on their shoes. Criticizing America is encouraged by the NBA.
But “Free Tibet” on a shoe was too much. Celtics officials told him to take them off.
