Enes Kanter can never go back home, because if he does, he will no longer be walking on this Earth.
The free agent NBA player is now a wanted man as his name has not only been put on 2023’s most-wanted terrorists’ list, but his former country has actually placed a published bounty on him, according to the NY Post.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government is offering $500K for any information that will lead to the capture of Enes Kanter Freedom.
“That makes it so dangerous,” Freedom, 30, told The Post. “Before the bounty, Turkish intelligence were after the people on the list, but now everyone is after them because they want the money.”
Kanter also revealed that he is looking into suing the NBA who he claims has blackballed him from the league.
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral NBA stories via Google! Follow Us
“I’m waiting for the right time.”
Freedom started to become more known for being outspoken on social topics than his actual play on the court, especially when it caem to calling out his home country. He has called out Erdoğan for being a “dictator,” stepped on a photo of him at a protest, and even dubbed him the “Hitler of our century.”
“Because of my platform, whenever I say something, it goes everywhere and the Turkish government hates that,” Freedom said. “They’re really sick of it, and they said ‘enough is enough’ and are doing whatever they can to shut me up.”
Freedom, who resides in Washington DC, says he is in constant contact with the FBI over this bounty on his head.
“I’m being protected 24/7,” he said, adding that he is more worried for the safety of the lesser-known Turkish dissidents on Erdoğan’s list.
“I’m speaking out because I am not the only one on that list,” Freedom said of the bounty. “There are so many journalists, so many activists, and so many athletes, but they aren’t as well-known as me. They are way easier targets — and they’re alone out there.”
His time in the league essentially ended after he became an outspoken critic of Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party. China would respond by pulling games off the internet for whatever team he was on in response to what he was saying. That made kanter expendable and soon out of a job.
He has also been critical of Nike as well as LeBron James. Freedom says he’s been blackballed by the NBA. After being traded to the Houston Rockets from the Boston Celtics in February, he was quickly dropped. He averaged 11.7 minutes, 3.7 points and 4.6 rebounds last season.
“The NBA is never going to admit it, but I believe I’m being blackballed,” he told The Post. “I’ve had many conversations and everyone is saying the same thing: ‘Your career has ended because of your China comments.’”
“They are a 100% American-made organization, but they are being controlled and run by the biggest dictatorship in the world, China,” he said. “How can China fire an American citizen from an American organization? That is unacceptable.”
