Enes Kanter Freedom is a human rights activist, NBA star, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee who lost his NBA career for speaking out against human rights violations in China. Raised in Turkey, Freedom began to call out human rights violations by President Erdogan in his home country. Turkey then canceled his passport, put his name on Interpol list, imprisoned his father, and set a $500,000 bounty on his head.

During a 2017 visit to Indonesia, Freedom was nearly kidnapped by the government with intentions to send him back to Turkey. Later that year, he hardly escaped police officers in the Romanian airport that the Turkish government sent after him. In 9 years, Freedom received 12 arrest warrants and countless death threats.

After debuting his “Anti-CCP” shoes during the season opener, every Celtics game was banned in China and Turkey. In many interviews and with the art on his “Freedom Shoes”, he has spoken out for the rights of Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hongkongers, Taiwanese and others facing Chinese oppression. 7 years after having his Turkish citizenship revoked, Freedom became an American citizen. While becoming a citizen, he changed his last name to Freedom.

LinkedIn