Kanter Blasts NBA, Claims He Was Asked To Remove ‘Free Tibet’ Sneakers For Fear Of Being ‘Banned’

Last week, Boston Celtics player Enes Kanter ripped the NBA during an interview with journalist Christiane Amanpour.

Amanpour first asked Kanter if the NBA was concerned about his outspokenness regarding Communist China — citing the kerfuffle with Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey and Hong Kong.

Kanter replied that he stands “for justice and freedom” no “matter who it’s for or against,” then offered a comparison between how he was treated for speaking out against Turkey versus China.

“I have been talking about all the human rights violations and injustice [happening] in Turkey for 10 years, and I did not get one phone call. I talk about China one day … I was getting a phone call once every two hours,” the basketball player said.

Kanter then told Amanpour that when he first donned his “Free Tibet” sneakers on the court in Madison Square Garden, “two guys from the NBA” approached him and said that he needed to remove his shoes. When the officials allegedly told him that he wasn’t actually breaking any rules, Kanter kept his sneakers on, and the officials apparently later apologized.

“[I’m] getting ready for my citizenship test, and I’ve been studying really hard, and there’s 27 amendments, and my First Amendment is the greatest amendment, is the freedom of speech,” Kanter reportedly told the officials.

Kanter also claimed that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told him that he and the organization were supportive of the player’s comments against China.

“I don’t know how much that is true because if they were really supporting me, they would have put something out there, they … would put like some kind of statement … because I told Adam this too: our team games, the Boston Celtics games, are banned in China, and this is unacceptable just because I talk about the human rights violence that happened over there,” Kanter said to Amanpour.

Enes Kanter has become an outspoken critic of Communist China and Chinese President Xi Jinping. On Friday, the Celtics players released a video defending the sovereignty of Taiwan, to which the president of Taiwan replied with a thankful message.

AMANPOUR: So, you say you do not mind about the money, about the influence, about anything, but what about the NBA? They must mind … because now, as we know, the Houston Rockets official who talked about Hong Kong a couple of years ago, they pulled all NBA from Chinese state television, and now Tencent, which is

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