In a show of support for Ukraine, Celtics coaches chose to don pins during Sunday’s game against Brooklyn.
While most of the NBA community applauded the move, inactive NBA big man Enes Freedom (formerly Kanter) seized the opportunity to put his former team on blast.
In a series of Tweets, the social justice advocate called the Celtics “hypocrites” for being outspoken in their support for Ukraine after repeatedly trying to silence him for speaking out about China.
“Hypocrites!” Freedom tweeted, adding that he believed the team (and the NBA) has shown a double-standard in making political statements on behalf of human rights.
“Why is it okay to speak up about human rights violations there but not in other countries?” Freedom asked. “Is there not much profit from Russia?”
“How is it fair when I wore shoes to bring awareness about human rights violations around the world, Celtics begged me to remove them and threatened to ban me,” Freedom wrote. “Celtics now wear Ukrainian flag pins.”
Over the past few years, Freedom has taken an aggressive strategy in his fight against human rights violations. He wore special sneakers and made fiery statements which, according to him, were discouraged and shot down by the NBA.
In a response to Freedom’s recent Tweets, Celtics President Brad Stevens explained his side of the story:
“Here’s exactly what happened,” Stevens told Murphy. “I was actually at home, and when he decided to wear the sneakers, there was some concern – and I didn’t even know until the end of the first quarter — that there was a potential uniform or dress code violation. I don’t know what was said – I can’t imagine that phrasing was said — but the question to me was what to do about Enes’ shoes.”
“I said I think that he’s fine, and let me double check with the NBA to see if there’s any uniform violation,” Stevens continued. “Double-checked, fine, and he wore those the rest of the game and he wore whatever he wanted the rest of the year. It’s interesting, because I feel really good that we truly sat here and supported him and his right to express himself and his freedom of speech, and I even told him the next day that you know I’ve always done that.”
As one of the world’s most progressive and outspoken sports organizations, the NBA has always prided itself on standing up for issues that matter. Whether it’s Black Lives Matter, COVID-19, or the Ukraine invasion, the league has shown they are not afraid to publicize its stance on important issues.
With Freedom and China, however, things appear to be different. Whether you love him or hate him, Enes Freedom has brought a lot of attention to the NBA’s internal politics and their potential cover-up of protests against China.
Even now that he’s out of the league and out of a job, he continues to speak his case with whatever platform he has left.
