Adam Silver believes Enes Kanter Freedom is no Colin Kaepernick, questions why is only NBA singled out for doing business with China.
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The National Basketball Association has been under major scrutiny for a long time now. Enes Kanter Freedom has made the league accountable for whatever wrong he believes Nike has done and is doing in China.
Freedom was recently nominated for Nobel Peace Prize, and will also receive the prestigious international UN Watch courage award for his activism against Chinese persecution of Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kongers, and other persecuted people.
But the Turkish-American believes he has faced dire consequences of taking the charge against the NBA, Nike and their biggest ambassador, LeBron James. He believes he’s been blackballed by the league because of his activism.
“I don’t want to retire at the age of 29,” Freedom said. “Sometimes, sacrifice is a very important word, so there are bigger things.” Kanter said recently.
Adam Silver says Enes Kanter Freedom is no Colin Kaepernick, asks why only NBA is singled out
Along with NBA and LeBron James, Freedom has had many conversations and questions for the Commissioner of the NBA since he started it all. Adam Silver recently hinted that he and the NBA have no hand in Freedom not having a club to be a part of, for the first time in 11 years in the league.
As far as any comparisons to Kaepernick, there are several notable differences between the two. pic.twitter.com/mrOMWZXHjK
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) March 24, 2022
“We spoke directly about his activities this season, 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.” Silver said.
He then talked about business between China and the US.
“Virtually every major U.S. company,” does business in China, Silver told The New York Times in a report published on Thursday.
“So then the question becomes, why is the NBA being singled out as the one company that should now boycott China?” Silver asked. “It’s very difficult for the league to practice foreign policy.”
He has a fair point. China is the biggest market for NBA in the world. It’d be a shame if just NBA has to stop from being that while several other companies have China as a top consumer but never even get mentioned in this row.
