The NBA is completely in bed with Communist China.
The league depends on the vast Chinese market for viewership and apparel revenue.
But an NBA star who called out LeBron James did one thing that infuriated China.
NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom, who added the surname when he recently became naturalized as an American citizen, is speaking out against the Chinese Communist Party’s infiltration into the league.
The Turkish-born Freedom has been a steady critic of LeBron James and other players who have turned a blind eye to the forced labor of the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang Province.
Now Freedom is listing players who have ties to corporations in China that engage in slave labor.
These are all @NBA players who are sponsored by Chinese companies that produce their products with slave labor.
Unfortunately many sports media outlets & journalists are controlled by #NBA
Have some courage & ask these athletes about their ignorance.
👇https://t.co/yGeXG7cUs8 pic.twitter.com/q4g38Vta02
— Enes Kanter FREEDOM (@EnesFreedom) January 28, 2022
Freedom has been fearless in tackling the issue, and has shown a willingness to call out his own peers.
He even said that NBA league officials have tried to shut him up because he’s bad for business.
Freedom plays for the Boston Celtics, but his minutes were mysteriously cut this year, and Celtics games were banned from being broadcast in China because he chose to wear protest shoes shining a light on the persecution of the Uyghurs.
Heartless Dictator of China,
XI JINPING and the Communist Party of China.I am calling you out in front of the whole world.
Close down the SLAVE labor camps and free the UYGHUR people!Stop the GENOCIDE, now!#FreeUyghurs pic.twitter.com/eEoiw5Uz2K
— Enes Kanter FREEDOM (@EnesFreedom) October 22, 2021
While the NBA and other major American corporations bend the knee to China, Kanter is going the other way and standing on principle.
However, players are not standing with him.
They saw what happened when former Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey expressed support for pro-freedom protesters in Hong Kong and nearly got run out of the league.
China controls much of the NBA’s financial interests.