Former NBA star Enes Kanter Freedom recently spoke out against the league’s relationship with the Chinese Communist Party.
The NBA has a long-standing relationship with the CCP, and Adam Silver is known to be a close confidante of senior members of the party. NBA owners are also known to have invested around $10 billion in China, with the league having decent relationships with the CCP overall.
The Washington Wizards franchise also posted a video showing Chinese ambassador Qin Gang throwing free throws on the team court. In March 2021, the NBA signed a deal with China Central Television for the broadcast rights of the league.
Freedom went after Adam Silver and claimed that the overall relationship that the league shares should not exist due to human rights violations that the CCP has been accused of repeatedly.
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Enes Kanter has claimed in the past that he can never hope to play professionally in the USA or in Europe because of his courageous and outspoken stance regarding the violation of human rights in China and other places around the world.
Enes Kanter criticizes NBA chief Adam Silver for his relationship with the CCP
There is little doubt that the NBA has a working relationship with the Chinese Communist Party. The CCP has been accused of gross human rights violations against Uighur Muslims and is also known to run thousands of mass internment camps that closely resemble concentration camps.
Speaking to Fox News, Enes Kanter claimed that he was initially under the impression that the Washington Wizards video was, in truth, a joke.
"I have been playing 11 years in NBA and over 800 games," he said. "I have never, ever in my whole career [seen] any ambassador of any government that takes the court before or after the game and takes free shots. I remember when my manager sent me that video, I thought it was a joke, but I just — when I saw that tweet from the Chinese ambassador — I was like, ‘This is just disgusting.’"
Enes Kanter proceeded to attack Adam Silver and claimed that the NBA should be ashamed of its relationship with the CCP.
"When the Muslims are being literally slaughtered in concentration camps in China, you [Adam Silver] are silent, and not only are you silent, but you’re literally working with this genocidal regime. You’re literally working with the most brutal regime in the world hand-in-hand and trying to make money and business over there. Please look me in the eye and say you don’t know nothing about the 3 million people in concentration camps in China [who] are getting tortured and raped every day. Shame on you."
Check out Republican Ted Cruz's criticism of the NBA over its relations with the Chinese dictatorship: