Enes Kanter Freedom has become one of the most polarizing figures in basketball since his NBA career ended. And now, the former Boston Celtics center is opening up about what he says was a chilly reception from his own teammates during his final season in the league.
In a new interview, Kanter Freedom claimed that his Celtics teammates praised him for discussing human rights abuses in China on CNN, but then completely shunned him after he did the same thing on Fox News. He also alleged that an assistant coach whispered to him that he watched the interview, because he didn’t want players to know he watched Fox News.
Kanter Freedom’s Activism
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Kanter Freedom spent the 2021-22 season with the Celtics, where he became an outspoken critic of the Chinese government, wearing sneakers with messages criticizing Chinese leader Xi Jinping and calling out human rights abuses. He officially became a U.S. citizen and changed his last name to Freedom that November.
In February 2022, he was traded to the Houston Rockets and quickly waived. He has not played in the NBA since. Throughout his career, he averaged 11.2 points and 7.8 rebounds per game.
These days, Kanter Freedom is best known for his campaign against the WNBA’s eligibility rules, which most recently led to him [being denied entry to Game 3 of the WNBA Finals](https://thecomeback.com/wnba/enes-kanter-freedom-denied-entry-to-wnba-finals-after-he-refused-to-sit-in-a-suite.html) after he refused to sit in a private suite.
‘Nobody Said A Word To Me’
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Speaking with [OutKick](https://www.foxnews.com/outkick-sports/enes-kanter-freedom-scorched-earth-lebron-james-nba-revelations-wnba-finals-incident), Kanter Freedom recalled the difference in how his teammates reacted to his TV appearances.
“I actually attended a show on CNN. The next day I walk in the locker room, they were saying, ‘Good job last night, we watched your interview, keep doing what you’re doing,'” Kanter Freedom said. “The next morning I walk in the locker room, nobody said a word to me. They were not even looking at me. I was getting these dirty looks. I asked one of my teammates, I’m like, what happened?”
According to Kanter Freedom, his teammates had a problem with the fact that he did an interview with Fox News.
“They said, well, we watched your interview again last night. I’m like, okay. It’s not your interviews, it’s who you did it with,” Kanter Freedom said.
He then claimed that one of the team’s assistant coaches congratulated him on the appearance, but he did not want the rest of the team to know that he watched Fox News.
“I walk on the court, one of my assistant coaches came up to me and whispered — he was whispering in my ear, ‘Hey man, me and my family watched you last night, good job.’ I’m like, ‘Why are you whispering?'” Kanter Freedom said. “He said, ‘Because I don’t want your teammates to know that I watch Fox News.’ I was like, ‘Why?’ They said, ‘Well, because none of them will talk to me the rest of the year.'”
Kanter Freedom said that he tried to explain to his teammates that going on Fox News didn’t mean that he was endorsing a political party, and that he just wanted his message to reach a wider audience. But he claims they weren’t interested in hearing it.
“In NBA circles, we don’t talk about Fox News, we don’t watch Fox News, and if you do, you will realize that you are going to get cancelled and you’re going to get hated on,” Kanter Freedom said.