Former Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter Freedom has published a memoir that details his persecution by Turkey’s government under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his activism for other oppressed groups.
The book, titled “In the Name of Freedom: A Political Dissident’s Fight for Human Rights in the NBA and Around the World,” was [published](https://www.amazon.com/Name-Freedom-Political-Dissidents-Rights/dp/1668078368) Tuesday by Threshold Editions, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. It is available in hardcover, e-book and audiobook formats through the publisher, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Freedom, who became a US citizen in 2021 and added “Freedom” to his legal name, describes the costs of speaking out about rights abuses in Turkey and China.
Why Turkey targets Freedom
--------------------------
Following a coup attempt in 2016, the Turkish government launched a massive crackdown on non-loyalist citizens, particularly members of the faith-based Gülen movement, under the pretext of an anti-coup fight.
The Turkish government accuses the Gülen movement of masterminding the failed coup, despite the fact that the movement strongly denies any involvement in the abortive putsch.
Although the Turkish government has classified the movement as a terrorist organization, none of its Western allies have accepted Ankara’s portrayal and consider the group a civic initiative focused on educational activities. Until his death in 2024, Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, lived in exile in the United States, which had refused to extradite him to Turkey on the grounds that there was no substantial evidence that he committed a crime.
Turkey alleges that Freedom is a member of the Gülen movement and thus a “member of a terrorist organization.”
Turkish authorities canceled his passport in May 2017, leaving him stranded in Romania during international travel. He was briefly detained before being allowed to continue his trip, an incident the NBA said it raised with the US State Department.
Turkey has since considered requesting his extradition, while government media portray him as an enemy of the state. Freedom says the campaign extended to his family in Turkey, where his father, Mehmet Kanter, was prosecuted before being acquitted in 2020.
Rights groups and UN rapporteurs have long warned that Ankara misuses vague anti-terrorism provisions to silence critics. Freedom’s case mirrors a wider pattern documented during Turkey’s ongoing post-coup crackdown, when thousands of passports were canceled and relatives of opponents living in exile were targeted with prosecution.
Activism and fallout with the NBA
---------------------------------
The memoir also details Freedom’s campaigns against China’s treatment of Uyghurs, Tibetans and Hongkongers. In 2021 Boston Celtics games were removed from major Chinese streaming platforms after he posted “Free Tibet” messages and wore protest shoes.
He has accused global brands of profiting from forced labor in Xinjiang and urged athletes to speak out. The NBA has said players are free to express their views, but analysts point to the league’s financial interests in China as a constraint on criticism.
Freedom has argued that his activism cost him his NBA career. He was traded and waived in February 2022 and has not returned to a roster since. League officials deny a political motive.
Simon & Schuster lists the memoir at 224 pages. The publisher’s author page describes it as his first book, tracing his path from a Turkish youth to an American activist and chronicling how his career and personal life were shaped by political battles.
Freedom’s experience is part of a broader crackdown launched after the failed coup in July 2016 that has ensnared millions. Turkish prosecutors have opened more than 2 million terrorism investigations since 2016, according to official figures. The interior ministry’s “terrorist wanted list” includes high-profile exiles such as former Turkish footballer Hakan Şükür and journalist Can Dündar, both of whom, like Freedom, have been stripped of assets in Turkey and publicly branded as traitors.
UN rapporteurs have repeatedly criticized Turkey’s broad use of the “armed terrorist organization” charge, warning that it erodes the meaning of terrorism and endangers peaceful dissenters abroad.
Freedom has lived in the United States for more than a decade and continues to use his platform to denounce Turkey’s authoritarian turn and China’s repression in Tibet and Xinjiang as well as authoritarianism around the world.