John Stossel: NBA Versus Flexibility

Teenage basketball star Enes Kanter was surprised when his colleague slammed President Barack Obama on Facebook.

“Dude, what are you doing?” he exclaimed. He feared his colleague would be imprisoned.

Kanter is from Turkey, where, as Kanter describes in my new video, individuals who slam the president do go to prison.

His colleagues made fun of him. “They were explaining to me about freedom of speech, freedom of religion, expression, freedom of protest.”

That influenced him.

When Turkey’s president closed down news outlets, Kanter chose, “I’m going to say something about it.”

He tweeted, composed op-eds, offered interviews.

Turkey’s authoritarian rulers struck back. They imprisoned his daddy. “They wanted to set an example, this is what happens if you talk against the Turkish government.”

The NBA supported his demonstration. “(NBA commissioner) Adam Silver texted me twice and said, ‘Whatever you need, we are here for you. Keep doing what you’re doing.'”

However then he slammed China. A little. He composed, “Free Tibet” on his basketball shoes.

“There’s no rule against it,” he states. Other gamers put “Black Lives Matter” and “I Can’t Breathe” on their shoes. Slamming America is urged by the NBA.

However “Free Tibet” on a shoe was excessive. Celtics authorities informed him to take them off.

He declined. “I was like, I’m not taking them off because it’s literally freedom of speech.”

Really, it’s not. America’s liberty of speech uses to federal government. The NBA can lawfully censor a staff member who may cost them cash. They did precisely that to Kanter. He didn’t get to play.

It’s clear what the NBA feared. Simply minutes after Kanter tweeted an image of his shoes, China television prohibited protection of Celtics video games. However simply briefly.

The Celtics traded Kanter to the Houston Firecrackers. The Firecrackers waived him. He’s gotten no deals from other groups. “I could’ve played another six years,” he states.

He will not.

Some sports companies safeguard their professional athletes versus China’s overbearing guidelines. When females’s tennis gamer Peng Shuai implicated a Chinese federal government authorities of sexual attack and after that vanished for a couple of days, the Women’s Tennis Association stated they would support her even if they lost cash.

The NBA will not.

They might defend the right of one gamer to speak, to in harmony slam ruthlessness. It’s reported that the NBA gets 10% of its earnings from China. The NBA makes billions. They can’t run the risk of 10%?

The NBA’s video games are very popular in China. Chinese leaders most likely would have resumed television protection. It’s not in their interest to prohibit NBA video games permanently.

“More people watched NBA games in China last year than the American population,” Kanter explains. “I don’t really think that China’s going to ban every NBA game.”

However nobody in the NBA supported him. Nobody in management. No colleague. “Ten years I talk about Turkey. I did not get one phone call. I talk about China one day, me and my manager was getting phone call every hour.”

The hypocrisy harms me one of the most. When it concerns issues occurring in America, (the NBA is) the very first company stating, ‘This is incorrect. This is what ought to take place, blah, blah, blah.'”

But silence for victims of torture.

Kanter has now changed his name to ” Flexibility.” Changed it officially. His real name now is Enes Freedom. ” I did it was due to the fact that I think the liberty is the most crucial thing that you can have– after air and water and food. … What eliminates me is how a Chinese dictatorship can practically manage a 100% made American business and fire an American resident from that business.”

Even though Enes Freedom lost a lot, he’s glad he spoke out.

” If God provides you a present, you can return to individuals by standing with them,” he says. ” That suggests a lot to individuals out there who do not have a voice. If you are not outspoken about a few of the concerns that are occurring, you become part of the issue.”

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