Kanter Rides Boston Bench, NBA Threatens China Critic With Banishment

He’s only played in two NBA games this year, but Boston’s Enes Kanter is the most courageous player in the entire league. Since recently bashing communist China over its enslavement of Uyghur minorities, Kanter’s minutes per game have been slashed and the NBA has harassed him. Are the Chinese dictators Kanter offended calling the shots at the subservient NBA?

Kanter played in 72 games for Portland last year, averaging 24 minutes and 11.2 points per game. That’s a pretty major role. The Boston Celtics only used him for five minutes in each of their eleven games. He’s essentially an after-thought on the end of the bench, despite his $2.7 million salary.

It’s not hard to see what’s going on here. In a series of October tweets and videos, Kanter called Chinese leader XI Jinping a “brutal dictator” and criticized the communists for depriving Muslim minorities and Tibetans of their human rights.:

Tibet’s future should only be determined by 100 percent of the Tibetan population. Tibet is the Tibetan people’s property, and I believe and hope that Tibet will be independent. Xi Jinping the Brutal Chinese dictator, I have a message. This message will continue to be repeated over and over, loud and clear. You should hear me shout: Free Tibet. Free Tibet. Free Tibet.”

Kanter advocates freedom from China for Hong Kong, Taiwan and Taiwan. He created additional awareness for the appalling conditions in China and Tibet by posting several shoe designs with similar messaging.

China quickly blacked out the broadcasts of Celtics games there. This was not protested by the NBA. The NBA’s official website wrote the league “had no immediate comment.”

Now it’s been revealed by Kanter that NBA officials admonished him for criticizing China, the league’s largest market. It is clear that the NBA has lost its social justice voice abruptly when it concerns communists, and their money.

Furthermore, Kanter revealed that China’s NBA puppets threatened to ban him from the league for wearing shoes condemning China and demanding freedom for Tibet.  

No other NBA players are rushing to Kanter’s defense. LeBron James? The crickets are chirping. He’s tight-lipped, protecting his golden China goose. Kanter invited James Jordan, Michael Jordan, and Michael Tolley to visit China and see the Slave Labor Camps. Another: Crickets.

During an interview on CNN, Kanter said the NBA is attempting to “scare him into putting an end to his focus on the league’s multibillion-dollar business partner, China. Kanter says that league officials told him he could be banned for criticizing China and wearing anti-China shoes.” He asked Commissioner Adam Silver what NBA rules he was breaking, and the answer was zilch.

Kanter continues to be a bright light in a league guided by the principles of social justice and situational courage, even as the NBA, James, Commissioner Silver, James and others are criticized for bowing to China.