Enes Kanter never has been one to shy away from voicing his opinions on social matters, and he’ll continue to use his platform once the NBA resumes July 30.
The Boston Celtics center has been critical against Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and also has participated in Black Lives Matter protests. Now, with the NBA’s rule change allowing players to swap their last name on the back of their jersey for a word or phrase on social justice, Kanter knows exactly what word he’s going to use.
“I think now the whole NBA and the whole world know what I’m representing,” Kanter recently said on CNN, as transcribed by WEEI’s Rob Bradford.
“If you look at what is going on in the world right now lots of people out there need their freedom and they are fighting for it. That word means so much to me. That’s why I think I’m going to put ‘freedom’ behind my jersey. My message to the whole world and all the people out there: Keep fighting for freedom. Keep fighting for justice. Stand for what you believe and never back down. Don’t let any dictatorship silence you because your human rights and freedom and justice is the most important thing in life.”
It’s no surprise Kanter chose “freedom,” considering he donned a shirt during the Celtics’ Christmas Day game in Toronto against the Raptors — his first outside the United States since 2018 — with a “Freedom For All” T-Shirt, and also wrote “Freedom” on his sneakers prior to Boston’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers in October.
