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Enes Kanter Freedom is ready to obtain the second annual Hardwired for Freedom Award, recognizing the NBA player’s off-the-court advocacy for human rights world wide.
“It’s a large honor to obtain this award, particularly given the standing of Hardwired International within the Human Rights group,” Freedom informed Fox Information Digital.
Freedom’s award comes after years of advocacy for human rights, a private mission that has typically left him at odds with the NBA and star gamers within the league. Freedom grew up in Turkey after being born to Turkish mother and father in Switzerland, transferring to the U.S. when he was a young person. He was drafted third general within the 2011 NBA Draft by the Utah Jazz, however quickly his profession would change into outlined extra by what he did off the courtroom than on it.
Freedom, who was born Enes Kanter however modified his final identify to Enes Kanter Freedom when he gained U.S. citizenship final yr, started talking out in opposition to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2013. In 2016, he took to Twitter to name Erdoğan, who has lengthy confronted accusations of human rights violations from worldwide observers, the “Hitler of our century.” His help for a failed coup try that very same yr resulted in him being disowned by his household, who inspired him to vary his surname.
Boston Celtics’ Enes Kanter smiles earlier than an NBA basketball recreation in opposition to the Toronto Raptors, on Oct. 22, 2021, in Boston.
(AP Picture/Michael Dwyer, File)
The Turkish authorities issued an arrest warrant for Freedom in 2017 due to his membership within the Islamist Hizmet movement, ultimately revoking his citizenship later that yr when he failed to seem in Turkish courts. The transfer left him stateless and in concern of touring abroad, as soon as refusing to take a 2019 journey with the New York Knicks over fears for his security.
A 2019 ESPN story detailed the perils of Freedom’s outspokenness, reporting that the FBI had outfitted the NBA participant with a tool that enables him to alert close by brokers in an emergency due to the credible threats to his life.
However Freedom’s advocacy has not been restricted to Turkey. He has expressed help for the Free Tibet motion on social media, and in 2021 spoke out in opposition to Chinese President Xi Jinping. The transfer was controversial with the NBA, which lately has sidestepped talking out in opposition to China over fears that it might alienate the league from what it sees as an necessary new market.
The Chinese language authorities retaliated by stopping streams of all Boston Celtics video games, the crew for which Freedom performed on the time, however the transfer didn’t trigger Freedom to again down from his outspoken method. He referred to as for a boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympic Video games in China over the nation’s remedy of Uighurs, a motion that resulted in partial success when President Biden introduced a diplomatic boycott of the video games late final yr.
Boston Celtics middle Enes Kanter shows a message on his sneakers in the course of the first half of an NBA basketball recreation in opposition to the Washington Wizards, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021, in Boston.
(AP Picture/Charles Krupa)
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Freedom’s advocacy has put him at odds with the NBA and different outspoken stars. Freedom has lengthy criticized LeBron James, maybe the NBA’s most recognizable star and one among its most outspoken gamers. Final yr, Freedom supplied to sit down down with James to “educate” him on the human rights abuses in China.
“I do not know if he is educated sufficient, however I am right here to coach him and I am right here to assist him, as a result of it is not about cash,” Freedom informed ESPN on the time. “It is about morals, rules and values. It is about what you stand for. There are manner larger issues than cash. If LeBron stopped creating wealth now, his grandkids and grandkids and grandkids can have the most effective life ever.”
Final month, Freedom took goal at James once more for his feedback on jailed WNBA star Brittney Griner, arguing that James took America’s freedoms with no consideration when he argued that Griner could not need to return to the U.S. from Russia.
“It simply makes me actually unhappy and breaks my coronary heart when individuals take their freedom with no consideration. In order that’s why I used to be like, I used to be very confused,” Kanter Freedom informed “America’s Newsroom” host Invoice Hemmer.
LeBron James #of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Enes Kanter of the New York Knicks trade phrases within the first half at Madison Sq. Backyard on November 13, 2017 in New York Metropolis.
(Elsa/Getty Photographs)
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Freedom believes his battles with the NBA and its most recognizable star are the explanation he was minimize by the Houston Rockets earlier this yr and left and not using a crew, a declare that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has denied.
Tina Ramirez, founder & president of Hardwired, a human rights advocacy group based in 2013, mentioned Freedom’s braveness at such excessive private price is the explanation he’s the recipient of this yr’s Hardwired for Freedom Award.
“Enes Freedom has been a tireless advocate for the rights and freedoms of individuals in every single place,” Ramirez informed Fox Information Digital. “That’s the reason he’s the best recipient of our 2022 Hardwired for Freedom Award.”
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Freedom mentioned that he hopes his receiving the award will deliver better consciousness to the plight of oppressed individuals world wide.
“Whereas recognition of arduous work is after all humbling and gratifying, my hope is that this brings extra consideration to the main human rights atrocities world wide and the thousands and thousands of individuals enduring tyranny every day,” he informed Fox Information Digital. “With so many dwelling with oppression throughout the globe, the street forward is lengthy, however I’m optimistic and looking out ahead to working alongside Hardwired International to proceed to oppose tyranny in all its types.”
