All-round from Kanter
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“The NBA is a bunch of cowards”
Kanter Freedom.
Photo: dpa/Charles Krupa
The free basketball player Enes Kanter Freedom has sharply criticized the North American professional league NBA. The 30-year-old also made serious allegations against the US sporting goods manufacturer Nike.
The non-club basketball player Enes Kanter Freedom is hard on the North American professional league NBA. “The NBA is a bunch of cowards,” said the 30-year-old to the world on Sunday and struck out with a sweeping punch: “I think NBA boss Adam Silver is a coward. I think the owners of the teams are cowards. I think a lot of the players are cowards.”
The center, whose contract with the Houston Rockets was terminated in February, is considered a troublemaker in the NBA. Ankara-born Kanter, who has held US citizenship since last year, has long denounced the league’s billion-euro deal with China and criticized the oppression and exploitation of the Uyghurs in the country. According to a report by the United Nations, the Muslim minority in the Chinese region of Xinjiang is being subjected to severe reprisals. Allegations of torture and ill-treatment are credible, according to the almost two-month-old UN report. China denies the allegations.
Kanter also hands out against US sporting goods giant Nike. The company is “the largest hypocrite company in the world” that “talks about justice” and “uses slave labor in China at the same time”. Likewise, the athletes sponsored by Nike are “cowards and hypocrites”.
Kanter sees the fact that he publicly criticizes China and the supplier Nike as the reason for his dismissal in the spring. “A teammate came up to me in the dressing room and said: You know that this will be your last year in the NBA, right?” reports the 30-year-old. Nevertheless, he feels the support of many former teammates. Although many “not openly” supported him, other players contacted him privately and motivated him to continue.
Kanter, who, as a critic of Erdogan, is considered an enemy of the state in his home country and, according to his own statement, receives “hundreds of death threats a day”, has plans: “Now I’ll probably sue the NBA first because they expelled me just because I had my opinion said. And then I look at options in Europe.”
