Instead of toeing the line on the National Basketball Association’s “don’t upset China” policy, Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter is calling out the communist nation for reports that it is murdering members of ethnic and religious groups in the country in order to sell the victims’ organs on the global transplant market.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Kanter called for the Chinese government to “Stop murdering for organs,” adding that the practice was a “crime against humanity.”
Attached to the tweet are some photos of basketball shoes that Kanter had specially painted for him by artist Badiucao. The shoes look as if they are splattered with blood and bear the slogan, “Stop Organ Harvesting in China,” along with a picture of a doctor preparing to place an organ in a box marked “Human Organ.” On the front of the shoe are pictures of organs with price tags attached to them.
Kanter’s stance against China is a long way from that of the sport’s biggest star, LeBron James. In 2019, James defended the communist government after Houston Rockets’ General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted: “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.”
James stood up for his communist masters in Beijing: “I believe [Morey] wasn’t educated on the situation at hand, and he spoke. And so many people could have been harmed, not only financially but physically, emotionally, spiritually,” James said at the time.
Kanter, on the other hand, is a journeyman center who has played for six teams in his 10-year career. In a tweet on Thursday, Kanter took on James directly, saying that it was “money over morals for the ‘King.’” James’ well-known nickname is “King James.”
“Sad & disgusting how these athletes pretend they care about social justice,” Kanter wrote. “They really do ‘shut up & dribble’ when Big Boss [a picture of the Chinese flag] says so.”
Kanter ended the tweet with a dig at both James and shoe and athletic-wear company Nike, which cooperates with the Chinese government: “Did you educate yourself about the slave labor that made your shoes or is that not part of your research?”
Communist China has censored games featuring the Celtics from state-run television as a result of Kanter’s activism.
Kanter believes that he may be losing time on the floor due to his activism against China, and there is some evidence for that. Currently, Kanter has only played in four games for the Celtics this year out of 15 games total. Kanter has played a total of 31 minutes so far this season.
Kanter discussed his lack of playing time in another tweet on November 14.
“Keep limiting me on the court, I will expose you off the court,” Kanter wrote.
First-year Celtics coach Ime Udoka denies that Kanter’s lack of playing time is connected to his activism, saying, “My thing is strictly basketball. We’re switching a lot and doing some things that probably are not as natural for him and that’s limited his time to some extent,” Udoka insisted. “Nothing basketball-related will be based on [Kanter’s social media].”
Maybe so, but last year the 6’10” center played in all 72 games for the Portland Trailblazers, averaging a double-double of 11.2 points and 11 rebounds per game. In one game against the Detroit Pistons last season, Kanter grabbed an astounding 30 rebounds — the best individual performance of the season for that statistic. It’s unlikely his skills have dropped that much during the league’s short off-season.
Sports talk-show host Clay Travis agrees. When asked on Fox and Friends if Kanter was losing playing time for his anti-China stance, Travis said, “I think so.”
“Look, the NBA claims they care about social justice. Really what they care about is social justice when it lines their pocket,” Travis said.
“Because they all love to talk a big game when it doesn’t impact their pocketbook,” Travis explained. “As soon as you start to take money out of the NBA’s coffers they all shut up and dribble.”
Eventually, the Celtics and the entire NBA will find some excuse to rid themselves of the annoyance that the Turkish Kanter has become. They’ll claim it’s due to his performance or to the distraction he has become, but it’s really because he’s challenging their master — Communist China.
When players decided in August of 2020 that they just couldn’t play after the shooting of criminal Jacob Blake in Kenosha, the league bent its knee to social justice, printed “Black Lives Matter” on the court, and allowed the players time to “recover” from an incident so far removed from their own lives as to be laughable. When one of their players protests actual human-rights abuses of China, they’re suddenly quiet and have nothing to say.
