By The FirstCeltic Center Enes Kanter is officially becoming a U.S. citizen – and changing his name to match. According to reports from multiple outlets, Kanter’s new name will be ‘Enes Kanter Freedom.’
Kanter briefly wore the name ‘Freedom’ on his jersey during the NBA’s COVID bubble last year.
“Kanter has been outspoken about China, railing against the government over the treatment of Uyghur Muslims and has called for the freedom of Tibet, Hong Kong and Taiwan,” Fox News reports. “He’s also called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to abandon its plans to hold the Olympics in Beijing in February. He told The Story last week that even if much of the professional sports world remains uniformly silent on Chinese human rights abuses and other allegations against the Communist leadership there, ‘someone has to do it.’”
“There’s so many athletes, so many actors, so many singers and rappers out there. They’re scared to say a word because they care too much about their money – the endorsement deals, what the teams they play for say,” Kanter said.
Kanter was born in Switzerland and raised in Turkey. Since his criticism of the Turkish government in 2017, he has been a man without a country.
