What the Hell Happened to Enes Freedom?
*Note- most of this was written before Enes Freedom was traded from the Boston Celtics to the Houston Rockets and subsequently waived on February 10, 2022. Judging by his twitter timeline since that happened, I’d say most of the assessment here has been proven correct.
Enes Freedom (heretofore “EF” or “Mr. Freedom” or “Enes”) used to be a role model. Sure, a certain segment of the left may disagree, but he put his safety on the line and took a principled stand against Recep Erdogan in such a way that even I, a Philadelphia 76ers fan, could root for him, a Boston Celtic. This is no small feat. This Vox piece details some of the daily issues that EF had to deal with because of his public fight with the Turkish despot.* Now, unfortunately, he appears to be mostly a grifter.
*I should note here that we’re not talking about mere statements, rather that EF is a known ally of the Gulenist movement, having graduated from a Gulen-related school in Turkey, the Gulen movement long having been suspected by the Erdogan regime as being behind the failed 2016 Turkish coup (another discussion for another time.) However, he is a professional basketball player across the world, not necessarily an active dissident or, as he’s been called in Turkey, a terrorist.*
There’s no doubt that there’s a kernel of truth in a lot of what EF states on the public stage. There should be room for activism within the NBA and other pro-sports leagues regarding China’s and Turkey’s human right abuses. The NBA acted particularly cowardly in its blow-up with the PRC following Daryl Morey’s infamous tweet. Criticizing China’s humans rights abuses does not make someone Sinophobic and it also does not mean that a person is de facto endorsing American actions across the world. Or as our parents and grandparents used to tell us, two wrongs don’t make a right.
EF’s appearances on Fox News should by default not be that big of a deal. There’s no rule that pro athletes need to be politically progressive. Sure, Tucker Carlson is a particularly noxious figure, but if EF was on his show discussing any number of political issues, I don’t see why anyone should care. Maybe it would be a little awkward in the locker room when he has to deal with Jaylen Brown, but everyone has to deal with coworkers that they think are crazy, right?
This current iteration of EF is different, though. In early December 2021, Enes criticized Jeremy Lin on Twitter, tweeting the below:
It’s not clear what “Dirty Chinese Communist Party money” he is referring too here, other than Mr. Lin’s playing in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA.) CBA teams are owned by corporations, some of which are state-owned. The team that Mr. Lin plays on (the Beijing Ducks) is one of those (owned by the Shougang Group- a state-owned steel company.) Perhaps he meant to implicate all of the players on the Ducks (and in the CBA writ large,) but that’s not what he said. There were no admonishments to Stephon Marbury (Ducks 2011–2017, and perhaps their biggest star ever). There was also no admonishment for Lee Hsue-Lin, a Taiwanese basketball star who brought the Ducks its first ever CBA title and won CBA finals MVP in the 2011–2012 season. He did curiously seem to take issue with Jeremy Lin, however, an American raised in Palo Alto who happened to be of Taiwanese descent and who was briefly the focus of the cultural zeitgeist when Linsanity became all the rage in the early 2010s.
As I said earlier, obviously Mr. Freedom should be able to go on whatever talk show he wants and not be beholden to any sort of prohibition on what he should say, simply because of his stature as a professional athlete. But apparently he doesn’t extend that same courtesy to others: “I feel like they should just keep their mouth shut and stop criticizing the greatest nation in the world and they should focus on their freedoms and their human rights and democracy,” he said on a November 29th, 2021 episode of Mr. Carlson’s show. Mr. Freedom later said in an interview with the Guardian that he was contrasting American freedoms with laws in other countries, and that he understood the value of free speech in a pluralistic society, but remember, those weren’t the words he said when he was on the biggest show in cable news history.
Finally, you may have noticed that EF has been in a one-man war against one of the biggest superstars in basketball history, Lebron James of the LA Lakers. This is not to say that criticism aimed at Mr. James over issues related to China is unwarranted. Through his endorsement deals with Nike and various television/film projects, “King James” has done a fair amount of business with the country. Most egregiously, when Daryl Morey (then of the Houston Rockets, now of my aforementioned Sixers) infamously (and innocuously I might add) tweeted in support of Hong Kong protests in fall 2019, Lebron responded shamefully that Morey was “misinformed” and “not educated” on the subject. Perhaps if he was more informed, he would not have seen China’s treatment of HK in the same light, apparently. Lebron further explained that Morey’s tweet would cost the NBA and somehow players directly millions of dollars, pointing out his true motivation for criticizing the statement.
This was in 2019. Lebron and EF have long had a back and forth acrimonious relationship, but most of that was focused on Mr. James criticism of Mr. Freedom’s on-court prowess, and Mr. Freedom’s disagreement with that assessment. Beginning in late 2021, EF escalated this beef and focused it explicitly on China. In November, he began wearing the below shoes to games.
It’s no secret that Lebron James has long been a focus of right wing anger. Laura Ingraham, popular Fox News host, famously told him to “shut up and dribble”- which, judging by the above mentioned Tucker appearance, is a directive EF would agree with. In becoming an ardent and vocal supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, Mr. James has also become a target of criticism and rancor from public officials all over the nation, including former President Trump. Whether there is a point to any of those, or whether Mr. James is fully in the right in half of the things that he says on any subject are not really material to the point being made here.
The fact that EF began to ramp up his anti-Lebron rhetoric at the same time he began appearing on Tucker Carlson and criticizing Jeremy Lin for simply being ethnically Chinese are what’s material and illuminate what’s really happening- Enes Freedom is transitioning to the next part of his career- from bench player in the NBA to bench player in any number of right wing media outlets. Occam’s Razor applies here- EF has been moved 5 times in the last 3 years, his playing time has drastically decreased, and at the same time he began making political points that were designed solely to drive engagement as opposed to foster dialogue. He has known the writing was on the wall and has acted accordingly in order to have a career following basketball. Jeremy is a Taiwanese-American everyone knows, China is bad, therefore Jeremy Lin is bad. Extremely shallow analysis designed to drive everyone crazy. America is the land of the free, everyone should shut up- same idea. Right wing dislikes Lebron, again China is bad, rinse wash repeat. In other words, we’re watching a grifter being born right before our eyes. My, how he’s grown.
As mentioned in a note at the top of this, Enes Freedom was traded from the Boston Celtics to the Houston Rockets on February 10, 2022 and subsequently waived, leaving him without a current team. This type of thing happens regularly in order to create roster space, free teams up to sign players that fit rosters better, etc. According to Mr. Freedom’s twitter account, however, he was “fired” for his beliefs and statements, and for standing up to the CCP. Never mind that players that are waived after January 10th in any given season still receive their whole paycheck, and often re-sign with other teams within the same season or during the next. No, Enes was fired because of his political beliefs, he’ll make sure to tell you on tonight’s Laura Ingraham show and next week’s Ben Shapiro podcast.
Enes Freedom has taken a lot of courageous stands in his adulthood. As an athlete halfway across the world, he stood up to a vicious dictator from his home country. He has raised American public knowledge as to what is happening to the Uyghur population of Xinjiang. He has also resorted to ugly racism in his criticism of Jeremy Lin, blanket jingoism in his appearances on various right wing television programs, and cliche culture war nonsense in his vendetta against Lebron James. His basketball career is winding down because he’s been in the NBA for over a decade and he just doesn’t have it anymore. So he’s pivoted. He’s become a right wing provocateur because he knows that’s a reliable second career. And, honestly, given the current national mood and the place he finds his first career at, I can’t say I blame him. Man’s gotta eat, right? Who cares about conscience?
