Enes Kanter thinks his vocal criticism of the Chinese dictatorship is costing him playing time.
Kanter is a very solid center in the NBA, but so far this season, his minutes with the Celtics have been very limited. As of Tuesday morning, he’s averaging just six minutes a game, despite averaging more than 24 minutes a game during the 2020-21 season. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
The Turkish-born player recently tweeted a video thanking him for his activism and captioned it, “Keep limiting me on the court, I will expose you off the court.”
Keep limiting me on the court,
I will expose you off the court. pic.twitter.com/pnIvlbrrtL— Enes Kanter (@EnesKanter) November 14, 2021
In response to Kanter’s belief that his anti-China stance has cost him playing time, head coach Ime Udoka explained, “We have a lot of guys that aren’t playing that could be playing and want to play. I’ve talked to those guys about staying prepared and being professional and ready to play. I’ve been through the same situation as a player. But our playing time reasoning is strictly based on basketball,” according to Boston.com.
NBA star Enes Kanter hammered Nike for the company’s silence on the crimes of China.
The Chinese dictatorship is evil, but Nike stays silence so it can keep printing money.
The rest of the media might ignore Kanter, but I won’t. pic.twitter.com/QG9xEuCrhI
— David Hookstead (@dhookstead) October 26, 2021
For further context, Kanter recently claimed in a CNN interview that unnamed NBA officials threatened to ban him for wearing shoes that shined a light on China’s civil rights violations.
The NBA is notorious for bending the knee to the Chinese dictatorship while supporting woke politics here at home.
.@EnesKanter says that he doesn’t care about the cost that he may face from criticizing China. But are the NBA concerned? Kanter told me he has discussed it with commissioner Adam Silver. “I told him… am I breaking any rules?”
“He said, no, you’re not breaking any rules.” pic.twitter.com/v2pDNklsGS
— Christiane Amanpour (@camanpour) November 10, 2021
Obviously, the only people who know the truth are Kanter and the people within the highest circles of the NBA and the Celtics.
On the surface, it’s pretty hard for me to believe that one of the most serviceable bigs in the league goes from playing more than 24 minutes a game last season to six minutes a game this season, and basketball is the only reason why.
Playing six minutes a game is what you’d expect out of a scrub and Kanter is damn sure no scrub.
I speculated as soon as Kanter spoke out that it would likely cost him his career in the NBA. He attacked Nike and China. That’s a big no-no when it comes to the NBA, and it now appears to have certainly cost him.