Enes Freedom is still a free agent one month after getting released by the Houston Rockets. The NBA veteran blames his prolonged unemployment on his political activism, rather than slow-footed skillset.
In a New York Times feature story, Freedom implies he's being blackballed from the NBA. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize why I got little playing time and was released," he told Sopan Deb over text message. "But it does take people with a conscience to speak out and say it's not right."
Freedom has been claiming for months the Celtics, who traded him to the Rockets at the NBA trade deadline, didn't support his public stances against the Chinese government. He references an episode in which he wore shoes supporting the region Tibet's independence from China, saying the Celtics took issue with his sneakers. Earlier this month, Brad Stevens pushed back on Freedom's recount of events. The Celtics' president of basketball operations only questioned Freedom's shoes because he was unsure whether they violated the NBA's uniform policy.
Freedom is quoted in the Times piece saying Celtics officials tried to get him to take off the shoes during "several" media appearances after the game in question.
Freedom's criticisms of the Chinese government for its rash of human rights abuses resulted in Celtics games being pulled from Chinese TV. China stopped broadcasting NBA games on its state television network in 2019 when then-Rockets GM Daryl Morey expressed support for the pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver says he told Freedom directly he's welcome to speak out about whichever issues he wants. For years, Freedom has been an outspoken critic of autocratic Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, resulting in his home country revoking his passport and putting out a warrant for his arrest.
"We spoke directly about his activities this season," Silver told the Times, "and I made it absolutely clear to him that it was completely within his right to speak out on issues that he was passionate about."
Freedom disputes Silver's account, but failed to supply specifics, the Times says. He says the NBA players' union expressed displeasure with his footwear, too.
In addition to railing against the NBA's relationship with China, Freedom has taken personal shots at LeBron James, accusing the all-time great of choosing "money over morals" due to his partnership with Nike (Nike has deep ties to China).
In hindsight, maybe Kanter's proclivity to attack his peers is more responsible for his free agency than his strong stance against China. There's also his declining ability. Freedom hasn't been a starter since 2018. He averaged 3.7 points in 11.7 minutes per game with the Celtics this season.
